by Alexandra Hartridge

Friday 11 August
In the Tezpur office, I listened to a presentation on the North Bank Landscape (NBL) project, then in the afternoon was taken to see deforested land and illegal settlements near Bhalapong. There's a big problem with tea estates and human-elephant conflict (HEC)– 52% of tea estate land was once elephant habitat and corridors. There was a big drive at Phulbari last year. Rangpara is a poorer area with tea estates and lots of the surrounding villages are affected by HEC.

Saturday 12 August
Visited Upar Kazariga village to meet volunteer elephant squad member Niran Narzary who wants to be a volunteer in order to protect his people and livelihood. Niran takes us to Kachari village five minutes away to see recent HEC. We meet the family who have just lost their four-year-old son to an elephant. Walls of their house destroyed. Elephant possibly after alcohol kept in the house, a traditional brew of rice beer. Elephants love alcohol and can smell it from great distances. WWF-India/NBL have designed posters to encourage villagers not to do certain things if elephants are around.

Sunday 13 August
Head to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation. The vet who runs it, Anjan Talukdar gives us a short presentation on what they do and shows us the resident herd of orphaned elephants that he hopes will return to the wild. Anjan agrees to show us an orphaned calf being fed the next morning.
Wednesday 16 August
Morning: meet Mita and Sushila who take us to see some illegal settlements and alternative livelihoods programme. Then to Maidangshree village to meet a family who speak of living in elephant territory but say they need to live somewhere. Mita is an excellent communicator and wonderful with people. Sushila takes us to see some weaving. Sushila is very popular with the local people as she's from the indigenous Boro tribe.

Thursday 17 August
Meet kunki (trained domestic elephant) owners Dipen, Kalita, Mr Barua and Mr B's kunkis. Mr B is a wealthy businessman who owns four kunkis. His love and knowledge of elephants is clear and his English is excellent and perfect for a TV audience. His kunkis are in excellent condition and good opportunities for the celeb to take part in the day care of the kunki (helping to bath it and feed it etc).

Saturday 19 August
Return to UK. North Banks Landscape team is positive about the film. Everything will be coordinated by WWF-India/NBL and the film crew will have to adhere to the decisions taken on locations and schedules. This to ensure the interest of the project as well as the safety of the crew. Meetings with the communities and elephant drives will be regulated by the NBL team.

Dedication to Pankaj Sarmah - April 23 1975 - October 3, 2006.

WWF-India's AREAS (Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy) project officer Pankaj Sarmah contracted cerebral malaria whilst undertaking field work in the North Bank Landscape, Assam, India. On 2 October, I received a call from WWF-India's Delhi office to inform me that Pankaj Sarmah was critically ill and was on dialysis. He died the following day, he was 31.

Pankaj Sarmah was associated with the North Bank Landscape (NBL) conservation work since June 2001 and was one of the earliest recruits in the programme. A Zoologist, Pankaj had dedicated his work towards mitigating Human-Elephant Conflict in Assam and completed the first studies for WWF-India in the North Bank and Kaziranga landscapes. Most recently he had been instrumental in forming the Manas Conservation Alliance, a coalition of 20 NGOs and individuals committed to conserving Manas. Pankaj represented WWF in several symposia including the elephant symposium in Columbo. He was due to attend another elephant symposium in Denmark to present a paper on elephant conservation in conflict areas. Determined that his paper would still be presented, Pankaj requested that fellow colleague, Hiten Baishya, would replace him - that he has done.

Pankaj has left behind his deep understanding of elephants in the NBL based on actual observation and scientific study. Pankaj's positive attitude and exceptional good nature, sincerity, cheerfulness and courage will be missed by all his friends and colleagues. He will be remembered through the continuation of the important work he initiated and WWF will ensure its success.