Saving the Tiger in a Sacred Landscape

A sanctuary for Himalayan mammals such as Himalayan tahr, serow and goral becomes the highest location for a tiger record in India! Discover this mountain haven with a veteran wildlife biologist who wishes to conserve the sacred landscape for tigers!

- Dr. A.J.T.Johnsingh

PANACEA IN THE MOUNTAINS

The sea-blue tinged mighty Himalayas adorned by the white clouds around loomed ahead. I was in the company of the finest field botanist in the country, Dr GS Rawat (presently the Dean of Wildlife Institute of India) and our destination was the little-known tiger habitat in Askot Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand.

This was a 50 km, five day trek and with an already existing injury to the knee long back in 1995, I had to take support of knee caps and a sturdy stick as the buckling of my knee anywhere along the rugged trail would have caused immense problems to me, the entire program and to the team. So I walked with a silent prayer in my heart. I had protected myself with leech-proof socks but realized that the heavy rains were yet to set in for a massive “leech attack”. The company of the simple and hard-working locals from the mountains on this trek reassured me as I made my way up and down the mountains.

As we trekked up the mountain from Baram (2600 feet) through the dense woods, deep valleys, precipitous slopes and mountain tops, my thoughts drifted to the hymn ‘O Store Gud’ written by the 26-year-old Swedish preacher Carl Boberg in 1885. This hymn was translated in the early 1920s by the English missionary Stuart K Hine as a very popular hymn titled ‘How Great Thou Art’. The lines in a stanza go like this:

“When through the woods and forest glades I wander

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God to

Thee, How great Thou art! How great

Thou art!”