(Photo - 001)

(Photo - 002)  Our Tiger Conservation Centre near the entrance to Kanha ("KAH-nah") National Park, equipped with a free medical clinic, a free school, and a medicinal plant nursery and a multi-media room.

(Photo - 003)  The free medical clinic. Kanha's buffer zone contains some 180 villages, but only three medical clinics, each accessible to only four or five villages. This is the fourth. To save India's endangered wildlife, we need the help of the villagers. But first, we must help them.

(Photo - 004)  While we provide the medicines from our budget, the physicians and nurses and medical students are all volunteers. It is truly an international project.

(Photo - 005)  Over three quarters of the village children have malaria, for example, and other ailments hitherto untreated. People will not look after other things unless and until they themselves are looked after.

(Photo - 006)  The village children who come to our free school on their own accord.

(Photo - 007)  Our free school teaches English, science, geography and wildlife preservation. The teacher is a volunteer from New Delhi.

(Photo - 008)  How many of you want to save the tiger?

(Photo - 009)  To wean the villagers of wood burning, we introduce low tech energy alternatives, such as biogas. Biogas as methane mainly. The raw material is - you guessed it - Cattle manure, of which India is not in short supply. The dropping is put into the feeder tub, and turned into a thick paste by adding water and stir. The paste is drained into the reaction chamber, from which methane gas is released through a pipe. When exhausted, the paste is drained into an exhaust tub, and becomes fertilizer - all organic, no chemicals.

(Photo - 010)  I asked the young gentleman to use a stick to stir the cow-dropping soup with. He argues that two hands are better than one stick. I said, "Not while you're my cook."

(Photo - 011)  A life-size biogas plant that can fuel a small community.

(Photo - 012)  Solar mirror jury-rigged from locally available materials. "Locally available" because we want the villagers to be able to make it for themselves. At right is my trusted Indian colleague Faiyaz Khudsar.

(Photo - 013)  Faiyaz and I testing our portable one-pot demo solar oven, which we pack from village to village giving solar cooking demos. A solar oven is basically an insulated box with a double-pane glass lid and three reflectors. It can attain an internal temperature of well over 300 degrees F, and cook a pot of rice to perfection within a couple of hours.

(Photo - 014)  Seeing is believing.

(Photo - 015)  Villagers checking out the communal solar cooker.

(Photo - 016)  Solar lanterns used in Rajasthan.

(Photo - 017)  A small success story. Because this experimental village has adopted the alternative technologies, its women and girl no longer have to go cutting and collecting fire wood. They are much happier staying home, attending our free school, learning a new craft, and living a more creative way of life.

(Photo - 018)  On almost a daily basis, we brought villager leaders and panchayat multi-village council) members into our conservation centre for a slideshow and solar cooking demo.

(Photo - 019)  Whenever possible, we drive them into the park to see it for themselves.

(Photo - 020)  Volunteers Chris Cook (left, from UK) and Chris Lindstrom (right, from US) partaking in a village elders' park tour.

(Photo - 021)  They live in Tigerland, but have never seen a tiger.

(Photo - 022)  Discussions with eco-tourists inside the Kanha Tiger Reserve.

(Photo - 023)  Accessing park-border villages on foot single file a la Livingston - with volunteers Chris Lindstrom (US), Anne Lawler (Canada) and Kim Poole (Canada).

(Photo - 024)  Starting a well with the villagers of Chichrunpur village ("God Forsaken Place").

(Photo - 025)  An American (Chris) trying to dig his way to New York City, his hometown.

(Photo - 026)  A Canadian (Anne), elevating sacred Indian earth heavenward, unsteadily.

(Photo - 027)  Chris, Anne and Kim playing an eco-game with Chichrunpur children.

(Photo - 028)  Taking a well earned rest. The chief of Chichrunpur would sit only next to me, deeming me the "chief" of a mobile band. My title of "Campaign Director" does not impress him much.

(Photo - 029)  Meeting the legendary and pioneering tiger conservationist Fateh Singh Rathore (left), the Father of Ranthambhore National Park.

(Photo - 030)  Making Champions of the Wild, w. Executive Producer Michael Chechik.

(Photo - 031)  Making Champions of the Wild, w. Executive Producer Michael Chechik.