Oct 13th, 2012
Listened to more stories from villagers today about alleged tiger attacks. One woman claimed that her dog has been attacked three times and is now mentally disturbed. One of my guide's told of tiger attacks which occurred in his village three years ago. He said that seven cows were taken in seven days, causing the villages to sleep with their livestock until they thought the threat had passed. My guide's father saw the tiger on the morning of the seventh day, sleeping next to a calf it had killed that night.

Because I am not able to walk at a normal pace in these mountains, we've decided to break up in to two teams. We will send an advance team into the jungle to look for signs of tiger activity and I will move in the direction the young woman we spoke with yesterday said she encountered the tiger family. Our teams will then meet up at next camp site, talking with villagers along the way.

Lunch, at a villager's home

Wheat Mash for lunch

I'm learning that most of these people are aware that life in the mountains does not come without risk. The monsoon rains can arrive early and destroy their crops. Cattle can be killed by loosing their footing on the steep mountain side or be taken by wild predators. Chickens are regularly taken by wild cats, raptors, and canines. Its the way things are. These people, for the most part, do not believe that humans are entitled to a risk free life. They accept their losses but are open to reducing them in a way that doesn't threaten the existence of the wildlife living among them. I found this attitude to be refreshing. Sharing can be a wonderful thing.

Oct 12th, 2012 - First Investigation

0500 hours. For some reason, people up hear tend to raise with the sun. So, when in Rome...

I crawled out of bed and made my way quickly to the out house. The morning are was cold and slightly breezy. The entire family of this mountain hotel (father, mother, two girls and one boy) made it a point to come to my room to say good morning. Its safe to say, that I am the first black American they have seen pass through their village.

After breakfast we made our way down the mountain and across the Likhukhola river 2,500 meters to the other side. Even though the trek down hill is a lot easier on my lungs, the steepness of the terrain made it hell on my legs. Not wanting to pound my knees to death over the course of this trip, I walked down unidactyl style. Using my toes to break the gravitational pull propelling me forward. Both my toes and quadricep muscles where over worked by the time we reached the valley's bottom. And even though is was late in the season, I managed to pick up both a tick and a leech along the way.

By 1630 hours (4: 30 PM) we had reached our next destination. I received a report that three tiger sightings had been recently made in this area by local people. A young woman was said to have witnessed a tiger in the woods as she was gathering wood with two other women. Another young woman saw a family of tigers, and a village family had their dog mauled in an alleged tiger attack some four or five days earlier. We were able to locate all of the witness and interview them as to their tiger encounters.

The one young woman who said she saw a family of tigers was collecting wood and took it to a place where her family had built a cattle structure. This structure is where they leave this animals overnight when allowing the cattle to forge in the forest during the summer months. She told us that she saw three tiger sleeping around the back side of the structure and became very frighten. She believes it was a family group as one of the tiger's was considerably smaller than the others. But the young woman admitted that she was so frighten, noting the size of the animals was not foremost in her thoughts at that time. The tigers woke up and saw her but did not attack. They instead, moved away further into the forest. She said that this encounter was approximately one month earlier. I showed the young woman a series of photographs of different wild feline. (tigers, leopards, snow leopards, and clouded leopards. She successfully described and identified photographs of tigers as the animals she had encountered.

The village family who had their dog attacked four or five days ago, did not see what attacked their dog. They explained that the attack occurred in the middle of the night and that it was very dark. They had heard their dog barking, then yelping and whining, in a way that had not heard before. When they went out side with the flash light, the dog had been taken off his chain and dragged dog the hill. The owners assumed the dog was being attacked, as they could still heard him crying out. They through stones in the direction of the sounds and made lots of noise. Moments later, the dog crawled back up the hill, bleeding and with large bite marks on its neck, body and head. When we tried to examine the dog, it was clear that he was still traumatized over his ordeal and would not let me get too close. The marks did, however show up clearly.

The third woman we interviewed was also collecting wood with two other women when she saw what she said was a tiger walking just below her as she rounded the top of a hill. She was very frighten and cried out, causing the animal to move off. When shown a series of photographs of various big cats, this woman identify what she saw as a leopard. Leopards occur in Africa and parts of the Asian continent. The leopards in Asia are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN . If the young woman did in fact see a leopard, it is believed to be the subspecies known as the Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca).

This trip is about locating tigers in a part of their historic range, which I believe we will be able to do. Finding leopards will be an added bonus.

Looking down on the Likhukhola river

Bridge over the Likhukhola river

The Likhukhola river

Mountain forest

Oct 11th, 2012 – 1,700 meters
Last night, we went directly to bed after dinner. Today's hike will prove to be challenging in many ways. The first being the presence of John Brooks. A westerner. Someone not used to high latitude climbing. I will, no doubt slow the the others down the higher we claim. But also we are packing in a lot of equipment as we are planning to be camped out for approximately 21 days. We will be able to pick up fresh supplies, like cheese, milk and eggs along the way at local villages we'll be passing, but, flour, cooking oil, propane, etc., has to be taken along with us.

This town of Civalai, is the the last town on the road leading into the mountains. We'll be walking approximately three hours up hill to the next town of Doralai (2,700 meters) and then down to the town of Ratnazoti, which sits at 2,100 meters. Just looking at where we have to travel makes me want to turn back. Lazy? Yeah, a little bit. But my mind and lungs recall walking in these mountains last year and how difficult it was for me. You think I would have learned my lesson instead of asking for more. It amazes me how compelling gravity can be when the amount of oxygen my body is used to taking in, is no longer present. My fear will pass, as will the time it takes to traverse this terrain. I'll just have to focus on each step and not look towards the destination, some 7 plus hours a head of us. When I remind myself that there are people who walk these mountains their entire lives, my prospective on what is challenging changes somewhat.

Leaving the town of Civalai.

Expedition crew taking a break

Girl in mountain town

Town of Doralai - 2,700 meters high

Town of Ratnazoti - 2,100 meters high

"Hotel" owner in village of Coolridara

In KATHMANDU - On the Road Oct. 11th, 2012
I was greeted outside the airport by Tsering Sherpa, one of only two Nepalese on the project that speaks English well enough to communicate and translate. I had met Tsering in 2011 through Adler Adventure Trekking. He was in charge of the company's books. With the time change, my plane arrived well into the evening of Nepal's largest city with more than one million inhabitants it sits at around 1,400 meters. Kathmandu had settled down enough to make driving through the city a pleasant, easy experience to the guest house. The name, Kathmandu is a modern day version of the sanskrit word Kashthamandap, which means “Wood House”. I did not expect the city to be as dirty as it is but urban living is not innate. Trash is everywhere. The water system is seriously polluted, along with the air. Although some Nepalese would love to clean up the city and the government in order to create a more humane living environment, the majority of the people are not in tuned to what life could be like. Organized chaos is the best way to describe the traffic in Kathmandu. It is not as bad as that of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, but it has its challenges during the majority of the day light hours.

I took the next two days to organize my supplies, picking up items that were too bulky to bring along with me from the States, and acclimating myself to the high mountain altitude. We were able to pick up most of our food supplies at the city's supermarket mall, near the foreign embassies. If you want to have a look at the westerners living in Kathmandu, this is the place to be. My guides believed that I would enjoy western food, more than the traditional Nepalese/Sherpa dishes they were planning for themselves, so we picked up supplies of granola, peanut butter, noodles flour, etc. I assured them, that I would be able to eat most anything that would keep me alive and preferred not to eat a bunch of junk food. They smiled and said “OK, no problem” as the prepackaged food kept finding its way into the shopping basket.

I visited a Buddhist elder, Rinpoche Sherab Gyaltsen. I had been introduced to him during my 2011 trip to Nepal and he was happy to hear I was into wildlife conservation and gave to me good wishes. I explained to him why I had returned and of my efforts to actually find a tiger in the wild. I was surprised when the Rinpoche joked and said something to the effect If I were to see a tiger coming, I would hide, and then run the other way.

The following morning, we packed up the jeep and hit the road east the east in the late afternoon. About six of us in all, excluding the driver. I was made to sit comfortably in front seat, while the others piled in the back. I've never in my life wanted to receive preferential treatment, but I came to realize in this case, the Adler company viewed this as my expedition. I was the customer. And on a cultural level, they wanted me to feel special.. I viewed this as a joint venture and just left weird being the man. So, thus began my first conflict. It's not in my nature to be treated as royalty. If the treatment continued over a long period of time, I would no doubt start to treat those catering to my needs as slaves. A urge I would have to fight.

The roads in Nepal are not the best. In fact, in most of the rural areas, paved roads do not exist. Because of the topography of the country, about 90% of the roads wined in and out. Up in to the mountains, and down towards the watershed. The major rivers here are just spectacular, as are the homesteads and villages carved into the mountains. Whitewater breaking over large rocks ans boulders made me want to break out a raft or kayak and give the rapids a try. The artistic make up of the farms and their organic produce made me wonder if western society hadn't grown so large as to not understand the harmonious relationship we should have with the earth. But then the jeep would hit a large hole in the road or slow down to allow a bus to squeeze by us, and I realized that a happy medium between what I was accustomed to and what they currently have in Nepal had to be found.

If you are traveling from the city to a rural village or town, the most common form of transportation for most is the privately owned bus companies. You'll pay the same price whether you have an assigned seat, sit on the floor or stand up for 12 hours, or ride on the roof rack. I found this unacceptable. Most of the Nepalese found it to be normal and the way things are.

Our vehicle broke down, once. Not a comforting feeling, but we soon had it repaired and continued on our way.

We stopped for lunch about six hours into our journey. A small town nestled in the mountains. The air is a bit cooler up here. We had traditional Dahl, rice, and greens. Tasty. Most of the people outside Kathmandu, eat with there hands. No utensils required. An art form in and of itself. One that I had not mastered.

We also had to stop at 3 police check points along the way. One, close to the border with Tibet, the other two more inland and designed to make sure tourists paid all of their fees associated with hiking/trekking. Some of the fees are ridiculous and its almost as if the Nepalese government believes the path forwards prosperity is to tax tourist.

By 9 PM, we had reached a town at the end of the road. Tomorrow, we walk.

People of Kathmandu

Polluted river in Kathmandu

Nepal's countryside

.

Oct 6^th, 2012 - THE FLIGHT TO NEPAL

Before leaving for the airport, I took the time to review all of the initiatives on the California ballot. Elections are on November 6^th. I signed up as absentee voter.

I arrived a the airport in Delhi several hours early. Did not want to deal with any unexpected delays passing through all of the security checks India has in place. The airport is huge and very modern. Surprisingly, though, Indira  Gandhi International Airport is not really people friendly. At least not for persons waiting or their departure gate to open up, allowing you to pass through another security check point, into the departure area. Once in that area, you'll have access to shops, real food, lounges, etc. I was fortunate enough to have found a bench seat while waiting for the ticket counter to open. The wait would now be approximately two hours. I had filtered water and trail mix that I had brought along with me from the States for just such an occasion.

A young Nepalese woman sat down next to me and we began to converse. She's a doctor in Kathmandu and had traveled to India of a conference.  She told me that the conference was more about how to exploit people rather than helping them and she found it to be a bit distasteful. The presenter, although very knowledgeable and successful, was all about making money.   Even to the point of exploiting his workers.  As an example, he told the group that in Kathmandu the doctors had many opportunities to maximize their profits and employee loyalty base by hiring the many unemployed married women that live near and around the hospital and medical area.  He said that these women make excellent employees because not only will they be able to be at work on time, they will take substandard waves because of their lack of education and hire desire for employment.  He also told the group that the doctors should subtract from the worker's daily pay anytime the employees are late returning from lunch but at the same time this presenter said employees wanting to collect overtime for staying late to close out a case or wait for the last patient to leave should be discouraged. This woman's experience at that conference lead us into a two hour discussion about education, exploitation, duty, how much is enough, and quality of life issues.  She told me that Nepal has been without a constitution since the fall of their monarchy in the early '70's. Member's of their Parliament, receiving a healthy salary and great benefits for themselves and their family, are in no hurry to change the status quo.  A majority of the tax revenue collect go to benefit the elite, with very little being used to improve the quality of life for the average person. “I'm one of the lucky one's” she said. With the country's literacy rate in the 40's, with the majority of the people living outside Kathmandu not receiving an education beyond grade ten. (And the grade standard in the rural areas in not on the level of education in Kathmandu).  She again emphasized how very little services were being received for the amount of taxes levied.  How government officials on every level would rather take a bribe than help the system run efficiently.  And how the people except the way things are, complaining among themselves, but at a loss on how to create a more positive environment.   Even with her complaints, this woman was full of hope.  She believes that positive change can come and that it would start with her doing what she could on a small level.

We continued our conversation on the airplane and exchanged numbers.  A doctor, and a mother of two, she has high hopes for the country but realizes the challenges that lay ahead. A shift in attitude must occur, she said and the people must start to realize they can do better.  She added that the influence India has on the country is profound and must be curtailed if true reform is to be made. 

Departure Area of Gandhi International

The only place to obtain real food at this airport is inside the Departure area

October 5th, 2012
Spent a few days in New Delhi, India (not by choice) in order to catch a flight into Kathmandu, Nepal.  The way the flights arrive from the States are into India, it's impossible to fly out that same day.  Additionally, India requires that you obtain a Visa in order to transit through. Only catch is the transit visa is only good for a few days. If you are planning on passing through 20 plus days latter, as I am, you need to obtain a tourist visa.  I am not sure which countries, if any, still have transit lounges but this new system is inefficient at best.

India is turning out to be not one of my favorite countries to visit. I traveled here in the '90's on official business for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and got sick straight away.  Made the mistake of 'wetting' my toothbrush with tap water. I didn't think that little bit would do me in, but I was mistaken.  I had several meetings to attend during my first week their, and then had to conduct a three week training seminar. I recall being driven to my meetings as I was laid out in the back seat, trying to conserve what little energy I had.  In any case, that's not why I am not a fan of India. (The water thing was totally my fault).  Even though India has become a lot more affluent since my visit in the '90's, it is still one big hustle, when it comes to the tourist.  I don't like being cheated as much as I dislike cheating others.  Let's take the taxi driver as an example.  The official airport taxi cue is the safest way to leave the airport, if you do not have a driver waiting. The dispatcher will tell you, even though the driver may not speak English (in the case of English speakers) each cab now has a GPS system which will take the best route to your destination. True, each cab has one, but the driver's never turns them on.  I've experienced this twice while leaving the airport.  Next, in order to return to the airport, a driver will not use the meter but negotiate a price with you. (I know this occurs in other countries as well, but we're talking about India at the moment.) They all have a price they will not drop below for tourist. The Tuk-Tuk drivers are the same.  You will get a lower price with them but a slower, longer drive.  Only difference is, the Tuk-Tuk's can not go into the airport. I knew this but the driver's will assure you their is no problem getting you to the airport and will drop the "We can't go into the airport" on you, once you are well under way.  (Also, these vehicles can not take the new highways of Delhi.)

So, once we were well under way, after a price had been agreed upon, after I was assured he could go to the airport terminal, the driver says he can not take me directly to the terminal but to a free bus stop, just outside the airport, which takes passengers in.  But now he wants me to pay a parking fee for his ride.  I said nothing of course.  I wanted to see what the situation would be at this bus stop, before telling him to go pound sand. The parking area he wanted to enter was not a requirement. He simply wanted to wait and pick up passengers coming from the airport.  He had his hand out and insisted.  I told him to go pound sand, then walked away.  I am betting that most tourist feel they'd better pay, to avoid trouble in a foreign country, otherwise these guys would not continue to do this.  My advise to others would be do not be afraid to say 'no' and walk away.  Stay with the price you agreed upon and don't guilt yourself into to thinking they didn't understand your English.

People who consider themselves poor will never become rich in heart, mind, or spirit as long as they continue to victimize others they way they believe they have been victimized.

The Nepal Tiger Project Blog
I recently spent approximately 21 days in Nepal for the purpose of locating tigers in the wild.  Not in the well known Chitwan Park or some other preserve.  I ventured out within their known historic range in an area where tigers once occurred and have since been considered extinct. 

  

I was told of the presence of tigers in this area  in 2011 by the local Sherpa people, living in the Himalayan mountain areas of Nepal.  (Sherpa: "People of the East" are a race people living in the mountains, and are a minority group within Nepal.)  I became excited at the possibility of documenting the extension of the known range of wild tigers. I passed this information on to all the major tiger conservation organizations, but none seemed to care.  Only one man working  out of the Conservation Biology Program at the University of Minnesota, studying tigers in the Chitwan Preserve showed an interest.

Realizing that no one within the field of tiger conservation would "do something" with this information, I decided to return to Nepal in 2012 in order to "prove" tigers occurred in this central area of Nepal, far away from their currently known range.  This, with the hopes of creating a foundation to protect the tigers, but also to provide compensation to local villagers that may end up loosing livestock as a result of tigers being in the area.  (The original 2011 report was associated with the loss of a cafe.) The loss of one or two cattle could spell economic hardship for a Sherpa family, causing them to think about correcting the problem on their own.  Hunting down the guilty party or placing out bait laced with poison are generally the options taken up.  Although the government of Nepal has set up the compensation policy, for example, if human get killed by wildlife the victim family get Rs. 150,000 (approx. US $ 2000), for livestock loss is 50 - 100% cost of the livestock.   The people of the remote areas have no way of filing a claim without traveling two days into Kathmandu.  Once their, it is very unlikely that their claim would be followed up on.  (This, for one of many reasons. The two most common being, no one believes tigers continue to occur in areas far away from established reserves, and no one believes an uneducated villager could identify a tiger.)  Keeping this in mind, if I were able to confirm the presence of tigers in this area, the project would put into place an economic recovery plan for villagers suffering losses, combined with a formalized advocacy program that would assist villagers suffering losses with filing claims with the government.  Additionally, we would begin an educational program, showing villagers the advantages of having tigers in the area and introduce ways to reduce attacks on livestock.  (I also had many other ideas on how to improve the lives of these people, once the main goal of recording the presence of tigers was taken resolved.)

I solicited the assistance of a local "trekking" company, Adler Adventures Trekking (www.adlertreks.com), purchased five wildlife "camera traps" and set out on my way.

This Blog documents my efforts, the adventure, and my findings.

Nepal countryside

Sherpa girls in the Himalayan mountains

John Brooks and team