Survivorman | India | Les Stroud

Well, if anything, it's nice to make all this noise while I walk, a big part of how I need to be when I'm here is to walk with a purpose, to project a level of real confidence, in other words, not to look like a prey that survives in the whole world. world. I have had to face many different challenges, the physical basics are always the same, food, water, shelter, the ability to navigate, travel, psychologically of course I have always had to deal with being alone at times, food, water and shelter are covered, there are other things I have.

Worrying about the Amazon rainforest are a hundred different poisonous bugs in Africa, lions, buffaloes, hippos and of course the black mamba, arctic polar bears, here in India, it's leopards, snakes, believe it or not, the bees, of course, the royal Bengal tiger, but the thing is that I have been warned that the most important thing is to be careful with the small herds of wild elephants, just like the wandering spiritual nomads, they call them sadhu. I am here to survive in North India. I am in the foothills of the Himalayas where the spiritual wanderers known as sadhus spend their days walking or worshiping in the remote parts of this forest, some settle in an ashram, no one knows their names or where they come from and it is no secret that When one goes missing, say, from a tiger attack, no one really knows.

For those with a greater sense of self-preservation, the ashrams provide security with spiked doors and roofs to protect against elephants and tigers. The beauty of the forest here is unquestionable. Although more than a billion people live nearby and many travel through these forests to perform any number of ceremonies of the Hindu religion, I will follow in their footsteps beyond the domain of the elephant, sloth bear, leopard and, of course, the royal tiger. Bengal. I'm here to survive in the literal jungle book of India, good luck and far away. the elephants are gone the crew is gone now I'm alone let's get off the road for a while let's walk along the river bed the

india

n jungle is not a jungle at all it's a temperate forest jungle is actually a Hindi word meaning forest one of the many like pajamas, handkerchief or shampoo that we have usurped and that is believed to be English.

I am in a forest in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. It's a little different than North America. It is heard that there are many trails that cross many places where nomads. sadhu has walked and built, so you have tigers, leopards, elephants and everything else around him, but these are small paths through the forest that usually lead to and from temples like this, this area is listed as the place that has the highest density. tiger population and there should be a lot of elephants here too so we will see what happens because building a shelter on the ground is not an option.

I brought with me a package to offer when I come to these temples, it's traditional and it's respectful, I brought a bag of raisins for that very purpose, believe it or not, I won't eat them and some herb apparently favorite of uh shiva, although I don't follow the religion Hindu, I have no problem honoring the spirituality of a place. Whatever that may entail, including my offering of gratitude to Shiva for my travels in this forest and requesting safety, believe it or not, certain prey animals like deer learn to be closer to humans because they somehow know which by association keeps predators away. away from them of course when I look at it it's more like they are bringing predators closer to me when you know there are tigers and more importantly elephants you really have to be careful it makes the sounds of all the leaves falling constantly.

I'll put you on high alert at some point I'll settle in and relax with the sounds here and I won't be as nervous right now I'm a little nervous what I need to do is start paying attention to all of the tell tale fauna, if I hear a deer barking or a spotted deer making a distress call or monkeys taking off and climbing the trees, these are all warnings that there is a tiger basically because the tiger is not going to make a sound until he is right there, there are many footprints in the sand here, so a lot of them are just wild boars, which is an animal I don't want to see here either.

It's a wild boar, you see a bull with tusks and really big, nasty, nasty creatures. Opening up here the thing is India is called jungle but it is actually jungle and Hindi actually means forest land is more temperate than jungle that's for sure look at this classic savannah area oh yeah the monkeys They jump from tree to tree back there, that's good. Well, I'm home for tonight, ranger house. Okay, this will work. I saw a lot of rat shit. The Saudis would actually use a place like this, unless they deliberately wanted to do without and abstain, they would use a place like this to stay at home. trips not many people just stay on the ground not with especially man-eating tigers, it was a shot, although a mile and a half from here just two weeks ago it was a large man-eating bengal tiger, so tonight this is I'll feel pretty safe being here, this area is the territory of a tigress with cubs and this year alone she's already killed 21 people, eaten the last six kills and I'm right in her front yard.

This is an abandoned ranger house at one o'clock. clean time habitable but now left for the monkeys rats spiders and bats i am putting my fire right in front of the only door in an effort to keep the tigers from coming in behind me without it there is no door or anything to stop a cat's curiosity big, this is the witch's eye, this is when things come out. I have already seen it huge, I think it is called a huge samba deer, it is like a moose, it saw me and left and those are peacocks, many of them saw deer.

There are many different monkeys, so you know, the elephants, the tigers, the leopards, they are all awake and they are also walking and this is the action zone. I'm going to look for firewood and I'm observing everything. I keep thinking that all this, this edge of the forest here is just this, you know, there's a tiger weighing in and I have to start functioning without fear running through me all the time, as long as fear motivates me, I'm done, I'm not. I'm not going to work, I'm going to stick it out and I'm not going to do what I have to do to affect survival, so I'm going to get over that fear.

Hopefully tonight we'll do something really big walking around there, it doesn't look like it. He's walking like a deer, I know I sound paranoid, but man, he's walking like a cat. I can't get the camera to focus on the creature fast enough as it sneaks past a herd of deer and disappears at the edge of the forest closer to To me, it's too big to be a leopard and it didn't move like anything other than a big cat. I wish I could have seen what was walking across the field. It didn't move like a deer, it was lower to the ground. it had a nice smooth movement, it could be my imagination but it could easily have been a cat, it's dark enough to make it seem like, but you squint in the chat, what I'm seeing are the sounds of peacocks and other birds . and the monkeys are enough cacophony to mask the sounds of real dangers elephants and tigers I can't believe how nervous I feel it's not usual for me I'm not in the wild I always feel comfortable too many warnings too many days filled with warnings from people before to get out here I have to understand what I have to do to survive here you hear that that thing over there is a deer when they do that they usually warn that there is a tiger that's what it is that yes That's a warning, but there is a tiger, so I have yet to understand what the terrain is like and what I need to do to affect survival.

The first thing I should do is check my areas. assessment what's in my body what do I have on hand neck knife for beginners I've used the neck knife for a long time this is the nice sturdy Ellie Algonquin knife but I've also done this where I have a few things on my side and then some things from the locals, so they gave me this sickle, it's like a thick machete, I also have this little survival pack here, a rope, there are survival supplies inside the compass, the locals gave me some fine herbs and They made tea with them. and they gave me this pot, what else do I have here on the modern side to start a fire?

I'm going to try this firefighting gel. I never used it before. I know the military uses them. I wanted to try it. I bought this cheap little lighter, it has almost no liquid if any, it looks like it's consuming vapors. The other thing they gave me was this mask, believe it or not, it has a purpose, a very important one, to wear it backwards and walk through the forest. if there's a leopard or a tiger and they think they're going to pounce on you and stalk you, they'll see eyes, nose, mouth in front of them and obviously the thought is that's going to stop them from pouncing, I'm going to have to do it.

Use this thing all week. There are so many sounds in the forest. Great sounds too. You know, I'm so used to being in places with wolves, so it must be elephants here in India. I found for myself a decent amount of safety in an abandoned place. ranger house, but I hear noises in the forest behind that have me nervous. John just climbed the tower to see if I can see down the river. I can't, but I can hear a lot of grunting and snorting. I don't think they're elephants, I think they're wild boars, actually, that's what it looks like.

It's okay, I don't want to push my luck and go there to see it. I don't know what it is, but it will remain a mystery. saying probably pigs and elephants, the good news is when I came back here I found this and these are curry pata hmm right I can eat them that's great right away. I have a green salad, well, I'm not going to go back any further because there's more. Going in now means I don't really have an escape route. This is what I mean by um, I don't have my sea legs here and I generally don't have a lot of my old normal wilderness survival senses.

I got them. trust them, but in reality they are not only serving me here also because there are many things about this place that I really don't know, I mean, the dangers could be exaggerated too much or they can simply be expressed by what are 20 legged king cobras wild boars elephants that you leopards will be trampled to death and of course you have a tiger present I can't relax too much here, well I'm going to go walk along the river bed and see what's making all that noise back there, I think It's probably gone, but I'll keep an eye out to footprints and sounds.

I'm pretty sure it was a couple of elephants that passed by. I hope they're not just resting and I hope there aren't any pigs. I'm torn between making too many sounds. I just walk in quietly I think no matter what I'm going to make a lot of sound because the leaves just walk on cornflakes this is where all the action was now here's a trick the villagers will use if they're going in to gather supplies they'll cough in their walk into the jungle, simple as that lets everyone know they are coming and hopefully everything goes away, yes that would scare me, in North America we arm ourselves with firecrackers, shotguns or rifles, but here in India, they depend from the sound of coughing to protect itself from curious predators.

In fact, I think I'm following a trail, now nervous or not. I need to explore my area to see what is available to survive. Nice house, lucky to have it. I'll tell you and there's some food, uh, it has to be global. I guess it's yellow wood sorrel, actually it is, it's delicious and there's a lot of it, oh that's really good. The yellow wood swirl is delicious while I'm here. I think I see what I see. What I can use is to become a spear, it is likely that during the heat of the day tigers and leopards are sleeping waiting for the cool of the evening to come out to hunt anyway in an area where I am not the deadliest predator.

I prefer to have at least some kind of protection to be honest it's actually largely symbolic this is my defense against a 500 pound tiger this is the area I don't like so you see all this vegetation here I call it tiger shadow because they love to just lay there and cool off from the heat of the day, but you know if you walked past them they would be happy to wake up quickly. Here's the water hole and that cat I saw crossing here last night. A leopard or a tiger was between me and the cabin. It was nice to find his tracks, like in any forest.

A waterhole is a gathering place for wildlife. It's where everyone comes. It's also a great place, although not to find wild edibles. I look like I want to drink this, even though it's pretty muddy. Many sheep and goat herders have walked through this area along with the wandering sadhus and after a thousand years of journeys through the forest, their evidence is everywhere. Eh yes? I know what's right, it's really like that. a fire bearer, that's what it's made of, it's been dried and crushed and the coal has been put in there. You can see that there are other types of nomads that have been here.

I see this is a big torch that I'm not going to carry. that torch on them, whoever it is, they might be planning to come back for it oh, first of all, let's have a drink of water now, I didn't really want to trustin coming here and ingesting water and getting too sick, so in this case, he actually brought a little filter, it's a straw that saves my life and this can be a lifesaver in a situation like this, oh, that's good, this It's one of those times where I just have to shape my head, I took my time, I built a spear and at some point I think I stopped to eat some sorrel I put the spear down it didn't recover again not now I have spear over the many years of survival my body has become accustomed to feasting and famine, so a couple of days without food doesn't bother me physically, but losing or leaving behind my personal items does.

It seems to always be a result of lack of nutrition, while in the wild it can be difficult to concentrate without food in your stomach hmm classic, I don't know what they call it here, but I call it bull rush, that's delicious, everything here should be I considered how it can help me survive, so if I summarize, it was walking through my various evaluation zones, evaluation zone number one, my body, what I have in it, evaluation zone number two, is what is closest and in this. In case you were referring to this ranger tower that I can take advantage of.

It is a ready-made shelter. That's all. It really is a ready-made shelter. It doesn't feed me. He doesn't give me water. Evaluation number zone. three goes much further, which is what I've achieved now, basically starting at the ranger tower, I went up the bush and walked all the way to see what was available to me and there wasn't much. really, as a summary, I have sorrel leg and cattail curry and drinking water that will only sustain me for so long. I am in the jungles of India, in the heart of an extremely dangerous tigress that is known to have killed 21 people.

Only this year, so it behooves me to take with me all the protection I can from both the tiger and the wandering herds of elephants, which in the eyes of the locals are much more dangerous. Carrying my fire with me serves two purposes, one is that I don't have to try to start a new one if it rains and two is that the smoke helps ward off predators or intractable elephants and it is the elephant dung that I can use to carry the fire here we go, but everything I really need to get the pasta going to burn, that's where I can use the pot that should burn nicely for a few hours, believe it or not.

I have used elephant dung before and it works wonderfully, but this is not available. There's no water left to drink, but I'm sure you can use it as tinder for the fire. Perfect. I have decided to leave the ranger's house behind so I can explore the possibilities of survival in the forest, but I also hope to find a better source of drinking water for this survival journey. make me more vulnerable to a tiger attack or an encounter with an elephant. I have the elephant dung still burning in the kettle behind my back, hanging outside, hopefully it won't get too hot and burn the herd, but so far so good, it looks like I'm working on getting someone to mark their territory.

Be nice if there are any bigger fish. I wonder if that little survival kit that was wrapped around the rope had anything fishing in it. I bet so. I'll check. I mean, no. I'll be able to catch minnows with it, what I should have done was take the mosquito net from the cabin, I left it there out of consideration, now I'm looking forward to having it because if I get to deep enough water. and enough fish, I could catch some, but I don't have them, so I'm hoping they're big enough that I can use this little fish survival kit, which I'm pretty sure is, we'll get there, there's got to be a little . fishing line in this little kit, I don't know, I haven't checked it, but I hope there is, especially now that I see fish in the water, that's cool, look how beautiful it is, I mean, it's just stunning here, just at the base in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains oh, there are also elephant footprints, that's a big elephant print, there we go, that's classic, I have a big elephant print with a tiger print in the middle, no I see that very often there is the elephant's footprint, there is the tiger's footprint, that is incredible, that surely speaks of the dangers here.

There have been so many places I've been with some strong inherent dangers and most of the time I just have to deal with them, you know, grizzlies, mountain lions, black bears. that kind of thing and here I am being followed by a couple of men with guns instead of tigers and I can't see them, you know, every now and then I might catch a glimpse of eyes far away that wouldn't allow me to be in this area without an armed guard, like that that I'm here surviving and there are a couple of armed guards following me like little ninja warriors.

I think this is what I could call home for the night. I think elephant dung is my favorite fire bringer. It worked wonders, you know, it just burns there, it doesn't catch fire or burn while I'm on the road and the advantage of using elephant dung is, according to tradition, an elephant tongue fire stays elephants away, so if that's the case I'm okay with that so now for a dry fire it shouldn't be a big deal in fact one of my priorities for camp location is based on the amount of dry firewood available, struggling to find sticks.

Burning is a big disadvantage in the middle of a dark night. One habit I always employ in a survival situation is to not light the fire too early because getting firewood at night is always a big task when it comes to burning. That should be fine. There is some firewood. I see a very large opening there and I want to check it out. This coincides with my checking of my evaluation zones if you think about every time you go somewhere new. In a survival situation, you should repeat the process of going through your assessment zones, so now it's stage number one of my body and you know I'm in for a few days with no enmity food, just green leaves and feeling a little bit. a little weaker because of that, um, but I'm well hydrated, lots of water and I feel a little more comfortable in the area, so that's my evaluation zone number one, number two, it's what I have on hand, well, that's the simple thing, I've got the kettle and now I've got a smoking elephant made, that's really good, it makes it easier to start a fire, but here's number three, a little further away.

I want to come and see this area because if I'm going to stay here all night, it would be nice to know what's here and hopefully nothing as threatening as a royal Bengal tiger, which is another one of those little mini savannahs. I'm not so sure about my choice of location here, but I don't want to get too far into the day before I sit down, so I'm counting on the fire to do most of the work for me now, since there's an elephant gun right there. over here, I'm going to take advantage of it, bring it to the fire and keep it burning. since it is said that it will keep them away, that will work for me, that will be enough I hope.

I guess if I'm going to make something to drink out of this teapot, I might as well rinse it out after having a burning elephant die in it to see if I can. I can put this on the fire now well that was quick, quick and easy. Well, time to make some of that herbal tea they gave me. I was told that this tea leaf should calm me down. Oh that's good. It actually makes a big difference. Is really nice. Anything I can do. What I can do to feel a sense of familiarity, such as drinking a hot cup of tea, can help me calm down in an anxious situation.

I don't like. I just heard a deer barking in the distance and it's not barking because To me, its warning calls are very clear signs, there it is again, so wait, see the deer barking, they only bark for a reason, the tigers, and they let every creature in the area know that a tiger is lurking around every creature, I mean me, okay, so there's definitely a tiger crawling around there the warning signs are there I'll just stay near this fire all night i hope it works i am in the foothills of the himalaya mountains in northern

india

in a region known to be home to one of the densest populations of tigers on the planet, many of which are man-eaters.

There are so many places on this planet that you know where you can come and just sleep under the stars. I set up a tent, but there are a handful of areas where I just can't do it, you have to have some kind of armed protection. Africa, of course, with the lions, the Arctic, with the polar bears, here, the tigers, so it's a delicate balance between all the humans that walk around here and the tigers, unfortunately for him. humans from time to time, in fact from time to time the balance shifts in favor of the tiger, hundreds of people are eaten every year and yet the biggest warning I was given was regarding elephants, they are known to elephants drag people off sleeping platforms by the legs only to throw them broken into the Indian jungle there's nothing like sitting by a fire all night worrying about tigers to put your life in perspective that's for sure I'm Finding my way through the jungle.

Let's say there are a lot of trails, that makes things a lot easier, that's for sure, I don't know what kind of poop it is, there's a lot of it and it's big, so I really don't want to know. Yes, I definitely see an opening. on a riverbed up there come on, let's go see this, I can take this for a while anyway, it's not that it's not a dangerous place, it's a very active place, there's actually a lot of soft sand here, so Keep an eye out for tiger tracks, okay, let's go. in the shade I'll have to look at getting too burned in the sun that's for sure just take off my shirt it's getting too hot stop leaving the backpack just stop and look and there's a huge tiger print right here look at the size of that I mean , it's huge, it's definitely a tiger print, there's no doubt about it, I just showed you that the sand reveals what happens around here during the night and hopefully not the day, oh boy, nice elephant tracks.

I have to see them, never knowing in a situation like this if it's a good thing that I'm walking outdoors right in the middle because it makes all the animals move forward or if it's a bad thing because it marks me out as an easy target at any time. The predator in an opportunistic mood and looking for food will see a slowly moving human outdoors as an opportunity, but more likely it will act like a big, loud, confident human that chases everything away, more often than not it is the small creatures that pose the greatest threat.

I don't think I can catch it on camera. I saw a small viper, a tiny type the same color as a stick but poisonous. However, there is a river bed. The river bed is the elephant highway. I just saw a small deer-like creature. Don't know. I think it was a deer, although only one in front of me, there are still a couple of spotted deer, although I wouldn't want to come back here in the dark or dawn twilight, there's too much chance I'll come across the wrong kind of encounter . I'm always a little nervous about breaking up old nests and removing a new wasp nest or a dormant copperhead outbreak.

I was hoping it was a new termite nest, but it's old. Many of these are too old. I'm trying to find one that's new. so I can eat some termites, there aren't as many as I thought there were going to be and if I make it like a monkey stick, hook it all the way down, let them climb on it, here we go, it only needs a twig. Well, that's huge, that's a huge tiger print, why is it walking on the path I want to go? I mean, you know, that's what I've always said, what I've always said about spotting animals later is when you see an animal, you know it's an animal, if he says I can't tell, that's not right, then usually It's not, it's probably a stump or a rock, sure enough, there's a little stump in the water here that caused my heart to skip a beat for a second and then I thought I wasn't sure and it's only because I wasn't sure almost 100 of the time.

Sometimes it won't be an animal, it's a stump, look at all this noise that's happening here right now. It's probably my fault when I'm sitting still and things start happening, that's when maybe something else is lurking around, a big part of how I need to be when I'm here is to walk with purpose projecting a level of real confidence in In other words, it doesn't look like a dam, Holy, so what happened? I went to tell them about a plant I saw and stepped on a bee's nest. Now my nerves are on edge, Holy Mack, that was a wake-up call.

I guess I can outrun one. elephant and maybe be stealthier than a tiger but when it comes to hornets, wasps and bees there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide okay I know this sounds like it but I just heard a tiger , I listened and it was absolutely a tiger, not a monkey, not a don't grab an elephant that was a tiger at this distance here that's not a tiger they are monkeys but they are in the trees and sometimes that means that's not a good sign It's actually a warning there's a tree here that I can I can Come on, oh my gosh, it's surrounded by nettles, though wow,I can knock those things down with my cane, huh, I think I see tiger scratches on the tree, I bet you that's exactly what I need to climb higher, damn nettle, oh. right across this street, oh that's going to burn for a while, yeah, things go down first, well maybe the tigers don't like nettles, that would be a plus, damn, I really didn't want to come here so early, I thought.

I would stay down, take that elephant dung and start some fire, use the protection of the fire, but I heard a roar, I got warnings from the monkeys and I'm surrounded by what I like to call tiger shadow, all these green bushes and lower than tigers. I can sneak away if something comes after me in a mad dash. I can go higher. It's really hard to get there now and I couldn't take the camera with me. I would have to let it fall to the ground. I'm fine for tonight. If I have to, I'll sit here all night, if I have to, that's pretty much what's going to happen, I'm pretty sure of it with the adrenaline rushing in my voice, I have no choice but to wait for it.

I spent the night 12 feet off the ground and from a tree I didn't even have. Time to set up a second camera to point at me, if I have to sit up all night I might as well sit in a tree, okay, first comes the tiger and then the elephant, then comes Lester running really fast, I have a rope on me, It's time to use it now tie it to the tiger stick. I'm just going to use a simple leaf ratchet. Always works when you have to tie something around a pole. Locks it nice and tight.

Do it well. It will not. Get out lucky, I did it now. I can lower it and raise it again if necessary. I also strapped the camera so I could lower and raise it and keep my hands free. That worked now that the camera is strapped to my waist. I can let it go and I wasn't thinking about how to prepare for the night when I decided to jump into this tree which is what's around me anyway. I'm doing that trick of mine where I just look around and something like that. Memorize everything because once it gets dark you get scared, but it's like you know what the exact same forest is with the exception of the aforementioned potential visitors.

Sometimes I wonder how I get into these situations. I don't know what that is. I'll just turn up the camera gain so you can still see me, but now the camera is seeing something much brighter than me. It's darker for me. There are many more sounds in this forest at night than during the day. during the day it's just leaves falling from the trees at night it adds all kinds of wonderful creatures. The good news is that they let you know when something big is coming when I first got here, no doubt about it, well I heard the growl anyway within 15 minutes. from the growl it must have moved a little no, then the monkeys started, then the deer started, then the deer stopped, the monkey stopped and I meanwhile was walking away towards the nettle, it could be an illusion, but I would probably believe it. the sound he was making scared him if there was ever a time to make the statement this is going to be a long night now it's physical survival means getting food, water and shelter intellectual survival means evaluating and using information but on the emotional level Feeling like surviving It means controlling myself and allowing my intellect and physique to win the day when I have to let go of fears, both real and imagined, so that I can hand over the responsibility of survival to the mind and body in life.

It's best to let the heart rule, but in pure bush survival sometimes you have to ask the fearful heart to accept the mind and body, but how do I do that with a 500 pound Royal Bengal Tiger looking for food only a few meters away?