This week international leaders and environmental ministers gathered in St. Petersburg, Russia, to discuss dramatic declines in wild tiger populations across Asia. Tigers have been exterminated from most of their range which once stretched from the Mediterranean to Siberia, Korea and Bali. Now your best chance to see a tiger in the wild is in one of the nature reserves or national parks of India or Nepal. Even here the animals are still under threat from illegal hunters seeking their skins, reputed medicinal body parts, or as illegal pets.  According to the NY Times report or the meeeting, saving the tiger, an animal associated with royalty, fierceness and solitary has a special appeal for leaders like Vladmir Putin who is front and center in the political imagery of tiger conservation. Even the much disparaged military junta of Myanmar is behind the effort and has created the largest tiger reserve on earth. We visit this sanctuary on the JOURNEYS Tiger Trails of Northern Burma, a trip I will be leading next January. It is exceptionally rare to actually see a wild tiger in Burma, Siberia, Sumatra, Bhutan or China where diminishing, secretive populations still exist.  Preserving tiger habitat is critical to the thousands of smaller, less-politically or esthetically charismatic species which are equally endangered by expanding human populations and natural habitat destruction.  We hope this international effort, supported even by the World Bank, will result in a reversal of the tiger trend toward extinction.  In the mean time, if you are eager to see or photograph a tiger in the wild while you still can, we suggest our Great India Tiger Safari or our India Great Cats Safari as the closest to a certain opportunity.

Bhutan has long been that idealized Kingdom where life changed little and people liked it that way.  That romanticized notion may be a fading mirage. A recent feature in the Wall Street Journal suggests that some officials would like to see more foreign investment and conventional development.  Two new airports, another airline, more hotels and local branches of foreign universities all seem to be in the plans for this decade and possibly the next two years. Those of us who find the existing simple hotels quite adequate and the absence of extensive roads and air services part of the charm are concerned. Especially, since the inevitable impacts of climate change, glacial melting  and disruptive weather are making it a challenge to maintain Gross National Happiness under the present simplified  infrastructure. Recent floods wiped out extensive wetland habitat utilized by the rare Black-necked Cranes contributing to a continuing population decline of this object of local and tourist veneration.

It may not be fair for residents of over developed nations to make judgments about how other countries should shun modern technologies and conveniences. If nothing else the message you might take from these events is that if you have not seen and experienced the wonders of Bhutan personally, you should visit soon. We can help.

Reports from Nepal this morning indicate about 2000 foreign trekkers  are stranded at Lukla, the airstrip closest to Mt. Everest National Park due to unceasing bad weather.   Normally, in mid-November more than 50 flights per day ferry travelers between Kathmandu and this tarmac strip at 9,000′ elevation. This year unseasonable weather including high winds, clouds and rain have lingered long after the monsoon normally relents in early October.  In the absence of airplane service some helicopters have  been able to arrive and some trekkers who are tired of waiting are walking out  to the vehicle road about 6 days walk away.  The Nepal Army has been approached for assistance in evacuating trekkers.   While Everest is the most popular trekking destination in Nepal, we are recommending to our clients that they consider lesser known trekking routes in the Arun Valley, Gorkha and Annapurna regions where air access is not problematic and  delays have not been reported. No doubt lots of people now in Lukla are wondering if global climate change is the cause of their dismay.  While American politicians may dispute the reality of climate change the farmers and herders of the Himalayas are extremely concerned that  unprecedented weather patterns of the past decade have changed the calculus of their subsistence existence. Rains are unpredictable, streams dry up, reservoirs fail to fill, storms of extreme intensity damage crops and steeply terraced fields.  None of the traveler’s are likely to die of waiting for a flight, but this may be just another example of climate change becoming ever more perceptible and problematic. Click here for more information on JOURNEYS Nepal trips.