THE TELEGRAPH: The Island That Was Almost a Casino by Kate Humble

Stephan Cabibel
Jul 2
3 min read

The BBC filmed Tiger Island here. The Telegraph's Kate Humble came to write about it. Behind both is a quieter story — about a piece of land that was very nearly lost, and the people who keep it wild.

When Tiger Island premiered on BBC One in June, it put a small river island in western Nepal in front of millions of viewers. Around the same time, The Telegraph ran a feature on the same place, written by the naturalist and broadcaster Kate Humble, who spent three nights there. You can read her piece here.

We won't retell her article — it's hers, and worth your time. But we want to tell you the part that doesn't always make the screen: why this island still exists at all.

Photo: Burhan Wilderness Camp

A piece of land that was almost developed

The forest in the film sits in the Khata Wildlife Corridor, on a peninsula cradled between two channels of the Karnali River, near Bardiya National Park. Not long ago, this particular stretch of land was on course to become a casino hotel.

Instead, a Nepali conservationist — Manoj Gautam, formerly of the Jane Goodall Institute Nepal — acquired it, with the deliberate aim of protecting it and showing that tourism could give back rather than take. What stands there now is a small, low-impact camp built on a principle of leaving as little trace as possible: a dozen tents, a treehouse suite, and a share of every stay going directly into protecting the corridor and supporting the local Tharu community.

That decision is the reason there is an island for the BBC to film, and for you to visit.

Why Bardiya, and why now

Bardiya is the largest and least-developed national park in Nepal's lowland Terai — quieter and wilder than the better-known Chitwan. Its tiger numbers have climbed steadily over the past decade, part of one of the genuine conservation success stories of our time: Nepal has come close to doubling its wild tiger population.

The behaviour at the centre of Tiger Island — two mothers, Goma and Jugini, sharing the care of five cubs between them — is, in its own way, a sign of that recovery. You don't see tigers living and raising young this closely unless the forest is healthy enough to support them. The film captures something remarkable; the corridor that made it possible is the real headline.

It is also a place that recognised TIME named the camp one of its World's Greatest Places in 2024 — not for luxury in the usual sense, but for what understated, responsible travel can look like when it's done with care.

Time Article Here: https://time.com/7000434/worlds-greatest-places-2024/

Roxy having breakfast and waiting patiently for tiger crossing during our 5 night stay at the camp

The people who track these tigers

One more thing the film and the article both gesture at, and that we saw up close: the guides.

The BBC's trackers here included Sushila Mahatara, alongside Manju and Ranju Mahatara — local naturalists who know this ground intimately. Sushila grew up around elephants through her father's work as a mahout, and turned years in the forest into the kind of fieldcraft that led the BBC to choose her as a lead tracker. She i now part of a small, important shift: more women entering guiding and conservation in Nepal.

When we travelled here, Sushila walked us along those same riverbanks. That is what we mean when we say we work with the people who actually know the ground.

How we think about a trip like this

We don't sell guaranteed tiger sightings, and we'd be wary of anyone who does. What we do is plan carefully: the right camp, the right season, the right people, and an itinerary built around you from the first conversation to the last detail — so that the only uncertainty left is the wonderful one, whether a tiger shows itself.

If the film moved you, or Kate Humble's piece did, that feeling is a good place to start. Watch it, read it, and then let's talk about what your own version might look like.

See you out there, Roxy & Stephan