Land Of The Tiger , Bbc Episode 5: Mountains Of The Gods

Land of the Tiger is a BBC nature documentary series exploring the natural history of the Indian subcontinent, first transmitted in the UK on BBC Two in 1997. The production team covered the breadth and depth of India, from the Himalayan mountains in the north to the reef-fringed islands of the an Ocean, to capture footage of the country's wild places and charismatic wildlife. The Himalayas, created during the collision of the Indian and Asiatic continental plates, form the northern boundary of the Indian subcontinent. Valmik Thapar begins in the cold, dry desert of Ladakh, the northernmost state of India. A sequence of aerial mountain shots and typical fauna including snow leopard, Himalayan ibex and lammergeier is shown, followed by scenes of Buddhist monasteries and winter festivals. The Buddhist's respect for all nature stems from the ancient animist belief system in which animals were thought of as living embodiments of the spirit world. Wildlife is often plentiful around villages, where chukar, robin accentor and red-billed chough are commonly seen. Temperatures plunge to -30 Celsius in winter. Bharal can survive at great height by digging for roots or even climbing trees. Across the border in Pakistan, markhor are not so hardy, and must descend to lower elevations. In spring, melting snows reveal winter's casualties. Himalayan griffon vultures strip a carcass in 20 minutes, then lammergeiers carry away the bones. Further west in the meadows of Deosai, rarities such as Himalayan brown bears, kiang and black-necked cranes are filmed. Bar-headed geese cross the mountains to breed here, and marmots play fight in the meadows. Thapar then travels to the south side of the mountains where lush forests of oak, birch, spruce and rhododendron thrive on the monsoon rains. Animals in this region include Himalayan tahr, yellow-throated marten and grey langurs, shown feeding on Indian horse chestnut shoots. The golden langur, discovered in the 1950s, only survives in Bhutan. In the far east of India, the animals of the Arunachal Pradesh are very different. Here, species from China and East Asia have colonised the forests. They include spectacular pheasants such as Himalayan monal, Temminck's tragopan and Blyth's tragopan. Mammals include red panda, Malayan giant squirrel and Hoolock gibbon, India's only ape. Valmik Thapar ends the programme at Namo Buddha in Nepal where legend has it Lord Buddha gave his life to a starving tigress and her cubs, and in doing so instilled a protective attitude to all creatures in his followers

Movie Genres: Nature

Movie Released: Unknown Date

Video Length: 48 min

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