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  • The central massif of the Himalayas presides over the landscape of Nepal, a constant presence

  • which also occupies the majority of its territory.

  • The white peaks have always attracted man

  • who considered them first as deities, then later as challenges.

  • But, further down, the secret forests of this part of the world conceal the most ancient

  • of all legends.

  • The human settlers of these valleys have had to find ways to survive on these sheer slopes.

  • Along the slopes they have created a safe place in which to grow their crops, away from

  • the wild beasts of the valley floor.

  • Their terraced fields look directly over the forests below, a superb vantage point from

  • which to survey the jungle of the unicorn.

  • In 398 B.C., the Greek historian Ctesias wrote a book about India and Nepal, and for the

  • first time spoke of a wild beast which, to this day, continues to fascinate mankind.

  • The inhabitants of the forest knew of its presence, and in the shadows of the humid

  • jungle its smell still lingers.

  • The legend lives here; the magical creature with a single horn, spoken of in countless

  • cultures, emerging from the mists of time, the most sought-after mystery.

  • But this animal has long been cursed, and time has not changed that. In the twenty-first

  • century it is still hunted, for the power that grows on its forehead.

  • We are going to enter the enchanted forest, the birthplace of the legend

  • ON THE TRACKS OF THE UNICORN.

  • Along the border between Nepal and India, there runs a strip of rainforests which alternate

  • with the meadows of the lowlands. Open jungle whose floor, rich in pasture, provides food

  • for many species of herbivores.

  • After Africa, these forests possess the greatest variety of animal species in the world.

  • And nonetheless, due to their inaccessibility, they remain virtually unknown.

  • Large deer such as the sambars are the food of the king of the shadows.

  • The presence of the Bengal tiger means the herbivores of the jungle must constantly be

  • on the alert. Danger is ever-present.

  • The pattern of the skin of this great feline forms part of the landscape, as it hunts for

  • the meat it needs to maintain its almost 300 kilos of striped body.

  • But the tiger is not the only giant of these forests. On the intense green ground there

  • is an animal which not even he would dare attack.

  • The gaur.

  • Weighing one thousand kilos, it is the largest wild bovine in the world.

  • A ton of bad temper, standing up to two metres tall.

  • The gaurs are not only have nothing to fear from the

  • tigers, but will even trample them down if one crosses the path of the herd.

  • A less violent way to escape from the tiger is to climb up into the higher levels of the jungle.

  • That is precisely what the langurs do. In India, these animals are sacred, as,

  • in their religion, they are related to the monkey god Hanuman. These primates are exclusively

  • vegetarian, specialised in the consumption of leaves. Such a poor diet that they are

  • forced to be constantly on the move across the roof of the jungle, in search of a decent tree.

  • More nutritious than leaves are these large flowers, on which the humming birds feed.

  • These birds are experts at extracting the sweet nectar contained inside the corollas,

  • along with the tiny insects that seek refuge there.

  • Their constant visits carry the pollen from one flower to another,

  • pollinating them, and so contributing to keeping the forest alive.

  • All these biological marvels were already here two thousand years ago, when the first

  • travellers spoke of this land as a magical place, inhabited by fantastic creatures, above

  • all one in particular, the unicorn.

  • Its horn, which they called analicornis”,

  • was a sure antidote to any poison, which it immediately detected and neutralised. This

  • made it greatly desired by kings and noblemen, always afraid of being poisoned. Some of them

  • offered vast fortunes in exchange for one.

  • Romans and Greeks spread the myth and, thanks

  • to a translation by Luther, it entered the bible itself, where it is quoted seven times.

  • The Roman Aelianus speaks of the cartazon, a term taken from the Sanskrit kartajan, which

  • meansLord of the Jungle”; and Pliny the Elder calls it monoceros, with the head

  • of a deer, the feet of an elephant, and the tail of a pig.

  • But without a doubt, the most important description was that of the Roman Julius Solinus, who

  • defines it as “a monster with a terrible roar, and a horn springing from the centre

  • of its forehead, of marvellous splendour, four feet in length, and which can never be caught alive.”

  • The chronicler was not far from the reality. The myth lives here, and it is the Indian

  • rhinoceros. Its means of defence was, in fact, imported into Europe until the end of the

  • eighteenth century, asunicorn horns”, to be used as remedies for a wide range of

  • illnesses, and this belief still continues in traditional Asian medicine.

  • Its leathery skin was also used for defence by men, in the form of shields for the soldiers.

  • This armour plating protects them from attacks by tigers.

  • The fact that man coveted certain parts of its body brought the Indian rhinoceros to

  • the verge of extinction, and by 1960 barely a hundred remained.

  • The massacre did not cease

  • until 1976, when a division of the Nepalese army was given the task of protecting them

  • from attacks by poachers.

  • These characteristic jungles are crossed by major rivers which, in the rainy season, overflow,

  • forming extensive flood plains.

  • The climate is sub-tropical, with the summer monsoon accounting for 90% of the annual rainfall.

  • When the monsoon arrives, the vegetation literally explodes, covering everything.

  • The flooded plains fill withelephant grasses”,

  • so called because of their size, as they grow up to eight metres high.

  • In reality, it is

  • an ideal ecosystem for plant-eaters, the many different species that feed on grasses, which

  • occupy and colonise it, forming an intricate tapestry.

  • The incredible exuberance of the vegetation is hell for man, but not for the plant-eaters,

  • who gorge themselves on the gigantic feast that covers everything.

  • At this time of year, the rhinoceroses and a number of species of deer, such as the sambars

  • and the chitals, spend many hours here.

  • Just a few hundred years ago, the Indian rhinoceros

  • grazed on all the flood plains of the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, but now it

  • has been reduced to just two national parks: Chitwan in Nepal and Kaziranga in India.

  • This region, called Terai, forms the northern border between India and Nepal, and is occupied

  • by ecosystems characteristic of the salt forests and grasslands flooded by seasonal rises in

  • These are the lands of the Indian rhinoceros,

  • the final refuges of the unicorn.

  • Here in the Kaziranga National Park, the river Brahmaputra floods over every year, fertilising

  • the entire plain with silt so rich that the vegetation is among the most exuberant, the

  • variety of species among the greatest in the world.

  • Three quarters of the Park is then flooded, and when the waters retreat, innumerable swamps

  • and marshes, calledbheels”, remain.

  • This is when this wildlife paradise really comes alive.

  • 70% of the world population of Indian rhinoceroses live here; for them, and for the Asian elephants,

  • water provides a refuge from the heat, and a place in which their enormous body weight

  • is a little easier to bear.

  • In 1985 this Park was declared a World Heritage Site, and to preserve this treasure, the Indian

  • government put into action one of the greatest conservationists initiatives in the world:

  • in Kaziranga there is one guard for every square kilometre.

  • Another of the treasures of these jungles is the only animal capable of taking advantage

  • of the meat of herbivores as large as the great buffalos.

  • It is also hunted by the poachers, but its major concern is finding enough to eat.

  • The presence of the tiger is the cause of one of the greatest problemsthe coexistence

  • of the National Parks and the people who live close by them.

  • In the country as a whole, at least 50 people die every year from tiger attacks; between

  • 3 and 5 in Chitwan alone, almost always due to imprudence on the part of the victims.

  • But the tiger avoids humans whenever it can. It would rather risk its life trying to bring

  • down an enormous buffalo.

  • This one has been badly injured in a fight with one of the great striped felines. Its

  • hindquarters, its back and its face have been clawed and bitten, and it has lost an eye.

  • With humidity of around 90%, the wounds will not easily heal, and internal infections will

  • kill it. Separated from the herd, all it can do is wait for the tiger to return and finish

  • off the job.

  • Now, it is easier to understand the function of the armour-plated skin of the rhinoceros.

  • You can eat in peace if you have that kind of protection from possible attackers.

  • But our unicorns have a taste for the high grasses of the banks of the swamp, and both

  • in Kaziranga and here in Chitwan, these grasses are also a valuable resource for the human

  • populations living around the edge of the park.

  • Since 1973, when it was declared a National Park, due to the fact it was the only place

  • in Nepal where rhinoceroses remained, a number of human settlements have been moved, the

  • people transferred to more fertile places without wild herbivores.

  • However, 310 villages

  • have not been able to be relocated, and they remain in direct contact with the Park.

  • When the season arrives, the local inhabitants cross the river, and enter the reserves, armed

  • with their recently-sharpened sickles.

  • Here they find what they are looking for. The natives have a legal concession to harvest

  • The natives have a legal concession to harvest the high grasses each year.

  • Around 60,000 people gather almost 11,000 tonnes during

  • harvest time, which lasts for 15 days or so.

  • The bushels accumulate, reaching a market value of some 450,000 dollars.

  • After taking off the costs of permits and labour, the net contribution to the local

  • economy is around 250,000 dollars.

  • As well as the income from sales to the paper industry, the grasses are also a basic construction

  • material for these people. They are also used to feed the domestic cattle, which cannot

  • stray far in search of pasture, for fear of being attacked by tigers.

  • The heavy monsoon rains make constant repairs to the roofs necessary.

  • This is also done with dried grass.

  • Wherever in the world there are people living

  • in a subsistence economy, we only need to see what the roofs are made of to know what

  • is the most accessible, cheap local material.

  • Underground water, clean and healthy, is, fortunately, abundant. And from this, and

  • the soil, the women make adobe which, of course, also includes grass among its ingredients.

  • But not all land uses are as uncontroversial as the harvesting of elephant grass.

  • Wheat and cotton fields are slowly replacing stretches of jungle.

  • Here, man is constantly present, carrying out the different tasks in the course of the year.

  • And this creates problems with the local wildlife.

  • These towers, calledmachamsare watchtowers from which to spot wild animals.

  • There is always a lookout on duty,

  • ready to raise the alarm whenever a tiger or a rhinoceros enters

  • the fields, posing a threat to the workerslives.

  • In reality, all the animals are doing is returning to places that were always theirs, but which,

  • little by little, have been stolen from them by man, who knows how to turn to his advantage

  • the greatest enemy of the jungle.

  • But the rainforests of Asia are almost as old as fire itself. They have tremendous powers

  • of regeneration, the ancient strength of vegetation.

  • Certain species are invulnerable to fire. They do not burn, they simply resist.

  • The semul trees are fire-proof, and they are therefore the final refuge in the jungle.

  • ChitwanmeansThe Heart of the Jungle”. And once more in this part of the world legend

  • and reality go hand in hand.

  • The fact that certain species burn and others don’t, favours the growth of the so-called

  • secondary forest”, different from the original jungle, clearer and with more light,

  • in which grass is able to grow on the ground.

  • It is the perfect place for the ungulates, a paradise for deer, who here form herds,

  • unlike their solitary relatives in theprimary forests”.

  • The ancient inhabitants of the primitive jungle search

  • are forced to climb up ever higher in of food.

  • This is also home to a bird which, for three thousand years now,

  • has been an aesthetic symbol for man.

  • This is the land of the peacock, the place in which evolution created such a strange creature.

  • It is the national bird of India, sacred for Hindus and Buddhists

  • alike, the destroyer of snakes and, according to popular belief, capable of them. hypnotising

  • The characteristic territorial cry of the males warns rivals that this territory is occupied.

  • Then, the suitor displays his feathers, one metre sixty centimetres long, in the hope

  • of sufficiently impressing one of these visiting females

  • that she will agree to be the mother of his eggs.

  • The females prefer the males with most peacock

  • eyes, and these continue to grow throughout their lifetime. So, the older the male, the

  • larger his tail, and the more females he is able to attract.

  • Such a flamboyant display in the middle of a jungle full of tigers is a risky business

  • but, in nature, nothing ventured nothing gained. And, what is more, the more superbly decorated

  • the males, the less they participate in rearing the chicks.

  • See you around some time, honey.

  • The langurs, however, like the good primates they are, do have a long, close family life.

  • The baby langurs spend a lot of time playing and learning from the adults the tricks of

  • life up in the treetops.

  • On the ground or up in the highest branches, the little ones jump and wave their arms,

  • developing their binocular vision which gives them extraordinary spatial balance.

  • In their young brains,

  • the neuronal connections are established which some day will save their

  • lives when they have to flee from danger, swinging from branch to branch.

  • But the jungle floor is where the organic material collects,

  • and the micro-organisms and invertebrates that feed on it.

  • Simian societies can be just as complex as ours, but when it comes to organisation,

  • none is as perfect as this onethe termites.

  • The termites do not form the bulk of their diet, but for older langurs, they are like

  • spicy chilli peppers, an amusing snack that breaks the monotony of all that leaf salad.

  • Just stick your finger inand suck.

  • There are so many species of termite in these jungles

  • that no one knows the precise number. Their fortresses

  • are intelligent buildings, with their own air-conditioning. But this doesn’t prevent

  • them from being constantly attacked.

  • These are sloth bears. Their characteristic thick, long lips are designed to literally

  • suck up the termites from their holes.

  • Their sight is poor, their smell worse, and they are renowned for their bad temper.

  • They are among the strangest bears in the world, and local stories speak of them as fierce beasts.

  • The last jungles in Asia still contain so

  • many mysteries, that not a year goes by without it being discovered that an ancient legend

  • really exist, or that a mythical animal has always lived here.

  • But the myths spoken of in ancient travellerstales are now up against a formidable enemy,

  • a human population that is constantly growing.

  • Like this giant boar, man and the great jungle stand looking each other in the face, not

  • knowing what to do, unsure who will take the first step.

  • At any moment, mutual respect may turn into aggression.

  • And what will happen to the unicorn then?

  • India contains 16% of the world’s population on just 2% of the land surface, but the tradition

  • of creating forest and nature reserves dates from the fourth century B.C.

  • For the time being, Chitwan and Kaziranga are a good home for the rhinoceroses,

  • with around 400 in the Nepalese park and 1,200 in the Indian one,

  • as well as other small groups scattered across another six areas.

  • The total population estimated by the World Wildlife Fund in February 2000

  • is just 2,095 animals on the entire planet.

  • Weighing almost 2,000 kilos and measuring 4.2 metres in length, it needs up to 5 square

  • kilometres to cover its territorial and dietary needs.

  • Its constant movements among the grass

  • create an entire network of tracks which other animals take advantage of.

  • It’s hard to believe that such a formidable animal almost disappeared forever, as the

  • result of false, ridiculous, magical and medicinal beliefs, and what is more, beliefs held by

  • people living far away from these animalshomeland.

  • The Indian rhinoceros deposits its faeces, creating over the years large piles which

  • act as olfactory markers or beacons, defining its territory.

  • Gigantic dung heaps that are impossible to ignore even for the least sensitive nose.

  • Rhinos are essentially solitary animals, but when the males reach sexual maturity, at ten

  • years of age, they fight even the females when they meet. During these rare encounters,

  • even the elephants prefer to leave them to it.

  • Scenes like this represent like few others

  • the essence of the wild paradise of this part of the world.

  • Contrary to popular belief, they do not use their famous horn as a weapon, but rather

  • bite at their rival. The loser will move off to try his luck elsewhere.

  • Another of the paradoxes of the ancient unicorn is that its horn is not the part of its body

  • the Nepalese most appreciate.

  • They come to the dung heaps in search of what they swear is an infallible remedy for coughs.

  • When you get home, nothing better than making yourself comfortable, and enjoying one of

  • the most highly-prized products of the land.

  • All you have to do spread out a piece of paper, and sprinkle a little rhino dung on it.

  • With care and patience you achieve just the right texture

  • to mix it with tobacco, according to taste.

  • An exquisite cigarette containing the most select faeces in the region.

  • For them, the enormous piles of dung are a plentiful

  • supply of the ingredients for the finest tobacco.

  • Without doubt an exclusive luxury that only a few can enjoy.

  • The Taste of a Legendwould surely be a fitting advertising slogan.

  • Oblivious of man’s obsession with his faeces, the Indian rhinoceros have changed very little

  • in the last million years. As they are basically unsociable, the typical

  • group of rhinoceroses is this: a female with her child.

  • A vegetarian diet is lacking in a number of nutrients, which the rhinoceroses have to

  • obtain from other sources. In certain places in the jungle, the soil is rich in mineral

  • salts and trace elements, and so the mothers take their children there from when they are

  • very young. They memorise the location, and so the knowledge of these secret places is

  • passed down from one generation of rhinos to the next.

  • They literally eat the soil. The little one will not forget the lesson.

  • No one in the jungle would dare disturb a female rhinoceros with her young.

  • Their ferocity and courage are almost as legendary as their horns.

  • But rhinoceroses like to spend many hours in places also much appreciated by man.

  • For the rhinoceros, as for many other species of animal in this part of the world, water

  • means a cool retreat, and a place to find food.

  • In the river valleys and in all the low regions which are periodically flooded, these swamps

  • are formed, covering immense areas along the banks of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges.

  • Rhinoceroses are perfectly content half-submerged in their very own vegetable soup, from which

  • they eat while placing virtually no stress on their backbone, which most of the time

  • has to carry the enormous weight of the animal.

  • This tendency for very heavy mammals to submerge themselves in water, and so compensate for

  • their weight, was precisely what led some of them to return to the sea many millions

  • of years ago, giving rise to the cetaceans.

  • What cannot be denied is that rhinoceroses

  • swim well and with evident satisfaction.

  • As they constantly move in and out of the water, these giants open up the vegetation,

  • stirring up the mud at the banks.

  • In this way, they keep the water surfaces clear, preventing

  • the plants from covering them entirely.

  • Without rhinoceroses and elephants, there would be

  • much less open, available water, and the number of bird species in the region would be considerably

  • reduced.

  • Beaks. Some very still

  • ...others in constant movement.

  • The soup, which is vegetable for the rhinoceros, becomes fish soup for the majority of the

  • birds, such as this Asian stork.

  • Or this heron...

  • ...which prefers more decisive movements.

  • Long legs and eyes looking down into the pool. Here, each one makes use of what evolution

  • has equipped them with, to catch prey of different sizes.

  • This male Asian jabiru is also a type of stork, and like all others in the family, is not

  • adverse to scavenging when carrion is around, in this case the dead body of a coot. But

  • neither its legs nor its beak are adapted to feeding on meat, and it will have serious

  • problems digesting something so large.

  • Each animal has its own techniques. This is an anhinga, a type of long-necked cormorant,

  • and it has a little problem. It seems to be offering its catch to the sun, but in fact

  • it is warming up after fishing, because its plumage is not completely impermeable.

  • This makes it easier to dive down, and swim beneath the surface, but it gets very wet

  • and, from time to time, it has to dry out.

  • And here we have the result. It was worth the dip, even if its body is now dripping wet.

  • But its triumphal march arouses the lowest instincts of the opportunists. The ahinga

  • tries to reach a safe place in order to eat its catch before anyone feels tempted to snatch

  • it from him.

  • It is hardly elegant as it emerges from the water. And its problems are not over yet:

  • the fish is stuck, and it will have to gobble it down, scales and all.

  • All this movement by the anhingas alerts the most dangerous mouth in these waters.

  • The marsh crocodile can be found throughout much of the Indian subcontinent. Over four

  • metres in length, it shelters in holes, and eats birds.

  • More than reason enough to make a quick exit when you hear one entering the water.

  • This enormous snout belongs to a close relative of the crocodile, and an expert fisher. The

  • gavial can reach up to six and a half metres in length, and is a zoological treasure that

  • lives only in this part of the world.

  • It is said to accompany the dead on their last journey along the sacred rivers of India.

  • The shallow water courses are also the scene of hundreds of small dramas which often go

  • unnoticed. These two toads of the Bufo genus are engaged in amorous activities, but they

  • are being spied on by a very dangerous onlooker.

  • A water snake like this one knows how to choose precisely the right moment. As it approaches,

  • its forked tongue transfers the smells of the river to the olfactory receptors on its head

  • The slippery lovers add their body fluids to the water without suspecting this could

  • be the last thing they ever do.

  • The moment has arrived.

  • Slithering along, the snake approaches, but the female toad, who

  • is on the bottom, has seen it.

  • Such sudden agility surprises the snake, but not the male toad, who gets on with the job,

  • not suspecting his girlfriend is saving his life.

  • Maybe another time.

  • Mounting another animal is also recommendable on more peaceful occasions.

  • Tourists riding on elephants.

  • The National Parks of Chitwan and Kaziranga can be visited

  • by anyone willing to sit atop the king of the jungle, emulating Hannibal himself.

  • Since at least 2,000 B.C,

  • elephants have been tamed and trained by man for construction, transport and war.

  • Now, 4,000 years later, there is still no more comfortable, safe, and cheap means of

  • transport on which to explore the jungles of the unicorn.

  • Up here, the visitors are safe from tigers, and have a superb view of their surroundings.

  • And, thanks to this new eco-tourism, the ancient tradition of the mahouts, the carers and drivers

  • of these pachyderms, is being preserved precisely at the time when traditional uses are in decline.

  • These men and their animals form close, life-long bonds, from the time the elephant is very young.

  • In this way, travelling around on the back of an elephant has become a new source

  • of income for the local population, and this benefits not only the rhinoceros and the tiger,

  • but the elephant itself, along with the ancient tradition of training them.

  • They are not noisy, do not contaminate, and when they stop working, they can be recycled.

  • And, what is more important, the other inhabitants of the jungle are used to their presence,

  • and so they do not frighten or disturb them.

  • Precisely because of these advantages, men in the past used them to hunt down the rhinos.

  • But, as in many parts of the world, the Indians and Nepalese have realised that a live rhinoceros

  • brings much more income than a dead one.

  • A good trophy satisfies just a single hunter,

  • while a live specimen can attract hundreds of amateur photographers.

  • For the short-sighted unicorn, this is simply an elephant with something strange on its

  • back, maybe parasites...but, in any case, totaly inoffensive.

  • Thanks to the elephant we have been able to enter the world of the unicorn, a world whose

  • nightmares have not changed much despite the passing of time.

  • The belief in the supposed

  • medicinal powers of rhinoceros horn still remains in traditional Asian medicine, and

  • so illegal trading can generate enormous profits.

  • In Bangkok, a kilo of Indian rhinoceros horn costs over three million pesetas. And, in

  • a region where poverty is rife, the temptation to poach is enormous.

  • The magic horn which made it a legend almost led to it join the dinosaurs, the dodo and

  • the mammoth in the book of extinct species.

  • But these people are saving them. New generations of visitors who come here not to kill, but

  • simply as a break from routine.

  • Curious travellers willing to pay to catch a glimpse of a legend.

  • A small army that comes in peace, and sleeps, eats, drinks and buys souvenirs here, thereby

  • repaying the local population for their efforts to preserve the nature of their land.

  • 26 years ago, Chitwan received fewer than 1,000 visitors. Today, over 100,000 come every

  • year. 50% of the income generated by the park is used for the development of the human settlements

  • around it, and people are encouraged to actively participate in conservation, training as wardens,

  • guides, maintenance and catering staff.

  • The charges for entering and camping in the park, the price of elephant tours, and lodging

  • and permits, generate increasing income, making the local people more and more convinced that

  • they are fortunate in having a national park on their doorstep.

  • The informed visitor eagerly seeks out the most characteristic, distinguishing cultural

  • traits of each region, appreciating not only nature, but also local customs and folklore.

  • The crackle of a camp fire in the forests of Asia is still something that many are willing to pay for

  • Perhaps it was all true. Perhaps this is the magic of the unicorn.

  • Night is drawing in around the Himalayas.

  • Mist descends over the jungle where the last Indian rhinoceroses live.

  • The adult female and her child, who brings hope for the species, are heading into the

  • thick of the jungle to spend the night.

  • And another warden comes on duty.

  • For some a green hell, for others the mythological forest inhabited by celestial creatures and

  • unicorns; a place which holds an incredible fascination for all.

  • When the sun goes down, the sounds change, the spirits of the night awake to wander in

  • the moonlight.

  • That is how the legend was born, with the translucent wings of the bats, perhaps under

  • the effects of a fever, but it was here, by the Brahmaputra.

  • It was all true. This is the home of an incredible animal, with a single horn emerging from its

  • forehead, which can cure all the evils of the poor peoples with whom it shares this

  • land.

  • A being capable of attracting people from all over the world, simply in the hope of seeing it

  • The legend did not lie,

  • the unicorn exists.

The central massif of the Himalayas presides over the landscape of Nepal, a constant presence

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