by Diane Walkington

Day 1
The film crew and celebrities arrived at the international airport two hours behind schedule with a huge amount of equipment - including a crane! The domestic flight kindly agree to delay the internal flight to Chitwan so that we can take it - the alternative would have put the whole shoot schedule at risk. A good start!

Day 2
The first part of the shoot is for Pauline Collins to see the 3 year old orphaned tigress that is kept in a wooden enclosure in Chitwan National Park - there is no room for her in Kathmandu Zoo and she cannot be reintroduced into the wild. The enclosure is far from perfect, but she is in good health and condition. This situation provides the background to a discussion on human-wildlife conflict (as the tigress' mother was a man-eater) and the challenges of breeding programmes.

In the afternoon we visited a store of animal skins and parts seized from illegal wildlife trade activities. Pauline is filmed talking about the gravity of the illegal wildlife trade activities that take place in Nepal, China and India.

Day 3
Today is a travelling day from Chitwan to Nepalgunj by a privately chartered flight - with the usual excess of equipment. Nepalgunj is the closest airport to Bardia National Park, where most of the filming will take place. Had a great evening drinking far too much whiskey with John Alderton, WWF-Nepal staff and the crew.

Day 4
Today is the much awaited elephant sweep to spot anti-poaching activities. 10 elephants have been engaged, with mahouts, army and park staff. A nine month old elephant and two year old elephant also join the team as part of their training. Quite a spectacular sight to see us all set off on elephant back across the grasslands and into the forest. The WWF staff have set up a 'fake' poachers camp, with camp fire and tiger traps on show, so that Pauline can talk more about the issues. She wasn't aware it was a mock-up until after the filming was complete -added a bit of tension and atmosphere to the footage.

In the late afternoon, we go to set up some camera traps on the trail which a tiger frequents, and Pauline is filmed talking about the use of camera traps in understanding tiger numbers and their behaviour. We saw some excellent pug marks along the riverbank.

Day 5
A number of hours were spent interviewing a gentleman who lost his eye when he surprised a tiger in the grasslands. The community members all joined in with the action. Pauline talked about human-wildlife conflict, and then spoke with the community anti-poaching units. There was a great atmosphere - the community members definitely enjoyed themselves. As a 'thank you' Pauline, John and the crew donated funds for the anti-poaching unit to purchase 4 bicycles. A really good day!

We then visited some community members in the Khata Corridor who were digging a trench to prevent livestock straying into the forests and causing degradation.

Day 6
A long day! Got up at 5:00 to go with tiger trackers on elephant-back to see if we could find pugmarks showing the approximate location of a tiger. This was the day we hoped to film one. Once we'd located which side of the main river the tiger had stayed overnight, the film crew, Pauline and John joined me to wait behind some grass on one side of the river. A herd of eight elephants were then used to see if they could persuade the tiger to move towards us. It almost worked - we heard the Langur monkeys calling and birds flying away as the tiger moved through the forest - but then he cleverly slipped round the back of the elephants and went off in a different direction.

The evening was spent celebrating some successful filming - plus even more importantly - the announcement that Nepal had signed a Peace Accord between the Government and the Maoists.