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Clltheroe Advertiser & Times,Tliursdsy, June 7,2012 www.clltheroeadver1lsor.co.ui, www.cmhoroeaclvertlser.co.uk f I J l O i Clltheroe Advertiser & Times, Thursday, June 7,2012 23


The tiger team assess Rani's dental condition to


establish her age.


(s)


Ciitheroe Advertiser and Times clitherocadvertiser.co.uk/property EJ£SKiJ;-C4


Christina and Maiy in


Bangladesh. (s)


\Mh A tiger in my bedroom


"TIGER immobilised. Start the boat. Adam's words crackle from my sister's mobile


■' I,


phone. Eyes wide, Christina and I exchange a look of exhilaration. Are they reaily going to bring a wild tiger into our cabin? , I'm taking a break from my nine-to-five marketing job to visit my sister, Christina, and her husband. Dr Adam Barlow, on the Sundarbans Tiger Project.


And I'm reiishing the prospect - aibeit a


winter into the thick heat of Bangladesh. ■ A 10-hour bus journey takes us from pollution-


rempte one - of seeing my first wild tiger. I fly from the depths of a Northern English


caked Dhaka to the Sundarbans: a beautiful, but threatened mangrove forest, home to about


10% of the 4,000-or-so wild tigers ieft on the planet.


.... h : r


Adam and Christina have dedicated their lives to the tiger project here/running it in


.partnership with theZooiogicai Society, of London, and the Wildiife Trust, of Bangiadesh. And their hard work has not gone unnoticed:


I >


Adam has featured in severai BBC wiidlife programmes. Princess Anne visited earlier this year and the project was on Wili and Kate's


wedding iist of favoured charities. We jump aboard a smali converted fishing


boat, skippered by expert tiger-tracker Mizan Rahman, and'chug downstream.


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As evening fails we drop anchor and, sipping


sundowners, we are treated to evening bird song and a glimpse of a spotted deer. But no tiger. Then> at bedtime - as I'm tucking my mosquito


net under my mattress - 1 hear the startling news: a tiger has strayed into one of the viilages that skirt the forest and we are going to investigate.


Two hours later our boat approaches


Kadamtola village. Torches shine on us from the river bank. ■


Chris. "I don't know," she replies. We re aii too aware of incidents of stray tigers


Are they friendly?" I whisper anxiousiy to


biudgeoned to death by angiy and fearfui viliagers.


■ To our relief the crowd is fairiy smali.' Among


thern is the local village tiger response team, specialiy trained for this kind of operation and led byAlam Howlader.


Quite recently Alam's brother was killed by a


tiger, yet he remains utterly dedicated to the cause. ; ;


KIBBLE Valley tiger conservationist Christina Greenwood Barlow and her husband, Adam, run a project in Bangladesh called the Sundarbans Tiger Project (www.zsl.org/bangladesh). Her sister Maiy Greenwood, who works in marketing and lives in Whalley, visited the project and found herself helping In the first ever successful retrieval of a stray wild tiger in Bangladesh, which


; was a joyous event but with a sad epilogue. Here Mary, who is passionate about wildlife and animal welfare and Is a volunteer on her local committee


of the RSPCA, recalls her extraordinary adventure. Adam and the response team disappear into


the darkness, Mizan canying an anaesthetic-


dart gun, and an uneasy stiiiness setties over the village.


Then cornes Adam's phone call. The/ve


successfully anaesthetised the tiger and the/re bringing it back to the boat.


■ So I vyatch in awe as the team carefuily lifts a sieeping tiger into our cramped cabin. Then our boat slips away frbrh the restless village and heads into the quiet arms of the forest It is a surreai sight. An adult female tiger is iying where I was standing brushing my teeth a few hours earlier. Her stripes are the colour of burnt


yellow- like turmeric - and a deep charcoal, and her fur feels so soft.


She's priceless, yet her skin wouid.fetch a hefty


sum on the black market. In fact, many tiger parts are revered for their medicinal properties


in the Far East, despite zero scientific evidence forthis. ■ Physicaliy she's weii past her prime. Probably


usurped from her territory by a younger, stronger tiger, she would have-wandered into the village in search of food. A tiger's main prey is deer, but a desperate


animal will brave humanity for the easy pickings of livestock. She has a gash above one eye and a slash on the cheek frorn the beating.


We name her Kadamtola Rani: Queen of Kadamtola. We keep a bedside vigil as Mizan navigates our


boat through the maze of river channels. As dawn breaks Adam begins to assess potential release locations and I snatch some


sleep on the open deck. Half-an-hour later I'm woken bv the deeo rumble of a tioer stirrina


Kadamtola Rani in "her cabin" (s) beneath me. Through the slightly-ajar door we


from the anaesthetic and her injuries. ^ ^


^ Come on. Rani!" Chris and I encourage her "You can do it, girl!"


originally


plastic wash bowl containing a chicken into the She polishes off a further three birds then


Adam squirts water from a plastic bottle inm bow!. Ram laps like a house cat at a saucer then rtar« at us as we crouch behind the cover of the


^ i s IS. now the chicken door," Adam iokes The Queen is not amused, her glare intensT


She cou d easily split the door wi^ one S but she IS content to lick her paws and i


her chops, self-grooming just like my own domeS:


It's Haven on earth


• • • With this particular kitty, however, I sense the


flow of love is only one way. Adam has found a suitable location for her


release, but we'll have to wait for the tide to recede so that our Queen has a dry path into the forest. Fortunately, Rani decides she's quite


' happy in her quarters, at least for now, and curls up for an afternoon cat nap.


Night falls and the moment of truth arrives.


Naser opens the chicken door, then Adam bangs and shouts in the adjoining cabin to encourage her out The rest of us are on the open deck above, a sheet curtain between us and Rani's planned departure route. This is only to guide her; if she leapt up at


us then a piece of cloth would be no defence against eighty kilograms'of wild tiger. So - cameras poised, hearts racing, barely


breathing - we wait Then we see the flash of Naser's torch, signalling. Rani is on the move. Our ey« strain the darkness. The torch beam casts Rani's shadow on the river bank as she


. jumps down from the boat Then I catch a last glifnpse of the Queen


herself, illuminated by camera flashes as she heads for cover like an elusive movie star. A full moon is showing her the way, while fireflies dance in the air as if in celebration. Rani is home, where she belongs. Elated, we hug each other. Forme, all the


nervous tension of the past 24 hours has broken. But for Adarn and .Chris, this special moment is


the culmination of years of research, dedication . and personal sacrifice., Back in Lancashire; j receiye bad news. Weeks


after her release, our Rani wandered into another village. This time the tiger team were unable to Mve her T there just aren't enough trained Forest Department staff in place yet But there is some comfort in the knowledge


mat Rani had a little extra time in the forest doing what she did best tiger stuff. And Kadamtola Rani's death is not in vain.


Her legacy provide the project with invaluable well as vital publidty for the cause.


For the veiy fiist time in Bangladesh, a stray


ger was immobilised tiien released into the orest and I feel deeply privileged to have played *


we can find a way in which tigers


and humans can peacefully co-exist. A world wmout wild tigers would be a sad place indeed. ■ .For more information on the project visit www.zsl.ora/banalaclesh.


-


porch, the original pine door leads into a spacious lounge


Hurst Green, the property, which is on the market for £499,950, has been extended and extensively modernised to the highest of standards. Through an entrance


with a feature carved stoiie fireplace with multi-fuel Hunter stove, feature beamed


ceiling and oak panelling to' the staircase.


living Idtchen has an extensive range of cream wall and floor units, granite work surfaces and integrated appliances including a Lacanche dual


which has fitted cupboards and shelving, plate rack and a glazed sliding door and screen into the office/garden room. This has a stable door to the patio outside. ■^e bespoke Mills & Scott


There is a study/snug room


THE Haven is a beautiful spa­ cious semi-detached period property situated in a lovely rural location with superb views of the countryside. Located down Bhll Lane, ■


fuel range cooker. Full of character, there are feature ceiling beams and double


glazed casement windows - the latter which can be seen throughout the property. Bevelled edged glazed doors open into the utility


■ house bathroom also has a fully tiled double shower by Grohe and a Jacuzzi bath. Located down a quiet coun­


split level landing leading to a master bedroom which boasts an en-suite shower room with a fully tiled double shower by Grohe. The other two bedrooms have built in ward­ robes, while the four-piece


room with a Belfast sink and fitted cupboards. Upstairs there is a spacious


try lane, the property benefits from good sizea gardens with panoramic countiyside views. There is also a driveway pro­ viding off road parking and a detached double garage. .


arrange a viewing call 01200 For further details or to


420100 or visit: www.ather- tons-uk.com


HOUSE prices have grown by more than 250% above the gen­ eral rate of inflation during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, ac­


cording to research by Savills. In 1952 the total UK housing


stock was worth £30 billion, which now equates to the value of the housing stock in single cities such as Manchester (£25bn), Bristol (£30bn) and Glasgow (£31bn). During this time the cost of two


: has risen by a more modest 2,300% with,-for example, the cost of a loaf • of bread increasins from 2.5n ffidl ■ '


of life’s essentials - food and shelter - have diverged hugely. 'While the average UK house price has risen by more than 8,000%, the price of food


Sixty years of houses going up, up and up!


to around £1.35. “Over the past 60 years we have seen great changes in the way we


• view housing,” says Lucian Cook, director of research at Savills. “Our


demands on and requirements from housing have changed, meaning that it has become part necessity, part luxuiy and part investment. “Combined with a mismatch be­ tween housing demand and supply'


and a shift to smaller households, this has meant that more of the ■


. nation’s surplus income has been di­ rected at housing.'As a result house prices have risen more in line with • the standard than the cost of living, leaving the UK with an asset class worth a total of£4.3 trillion.” ■ ComDarihc the nosition now to


1952, Mr Cook added: “General ra­ tioning has been replaced by mort-


. gage rationing and inflation appears much less of a risk, meaning that it


is currently'difficult to identify the - triggers for the next cycle of booin and bust. -


‘ ^ ^ ^


‘Tt shouldn’t be forgotten tht the' first 10 years of the Queen’s reign


was a decade of austerity when house prices fell in real terms by 3%. It wasn’t until the early 1970s


that we saw the cycles of boom and bust take hold, with each subse­


quent decade recording significant real house price grovrth. Periods of


boom and bust have been inter­ spersed with more stable price growth, causing the housing market ' ■ cvcles to increase in lennth in the


is for real house price fails at a


predicts that home ownership has p e^ ed and it therefore seems unlikely that we will see a repeat of Such dramatic recent price growth. “In the short term our forecast


second halfofthe Queen’s reign.” ' Looking beyond 2012, Savills


. national mainstream market level, • as inflation strips out price growth,” said Mr Cook. “We expect these to lead to a period of much less spectacular house price growth than we have become accustomed to at


certain parts in the housing market cycle.


'


sharp corrections are inevitable... but there’ll be a long wait for the next boom.” -


“Future house prices booms and HOMESNEWS P \ - \ u : «


V'


INSIDE TODAY


HOTHOMES


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