Wildest India

Covering 200,000 square kilometers, India’s Thar Desert is one of the harshest places on the planet. Baking heat, desiccating winds and near permanent drought has earned this unforgiving land another name – “the region of death.” As we explore India’s great desert we unveil its hidden secrets, and ultimately shed light as to how the Thar has become the most crowded desert in the world.

Outside Asia, no peak reaches above 7000 metres, but along the Himalayan range, over 100 mountains exceed this height by at least 200 metres, making it the tallest mountain range on the planet. As Earth meets the sky along this hostile terrain, powerful winds, sub-zero temperatures, and a lack of oxygen oppose virtually all forms of life, but remarkably, this immense geological feature somehow supports one of the largest and most diverse collections of creatures on the planet – including man. While the Himalayas rugged highlands offer little direct refuge to humans, in the shadow below, over a billion people in India rely on the mountains for survival.

Imagine a lost world – head hunting tribes, tiger-infested forests, unclimbed mountains, pristine rivers. Known as the Seven Sisters of India, there are seven relatively unexplored and isolated Indian states. What mysteries lie within this secretive land and why have they remained untouched for so long? North-east India is an anthropological paradise; there is no other place on Earth with so many different ethnic groups. The forest slopes are filled with mysterious tribes whose lives are dictated by the ebb and flow of the rain and the seasonal fruits of the forest. In these largely unexplored and isolated areas people scarcely known to the Western world continue a way of life steeped in ancient rituals.