I am off on the TOFTigers Bike4Tiger Challenge in mid-November. I am challenging myself to ride 180 kms over 3 days between two well-known tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh, Pench and Kanha, on forest tracks and trails through tiger habitat and bordering village farmlands, to support both TOFTigers Village Wildlife Guardians and its anti-poaching and conservation scheme in Pench.

The money raised will help protect Tiger reserves and the vital corridor and buffer landscapes from the ravages of poachers, illegal logging and the bushmeat trade. For further details see http://toftigers.org/TOFT/Sponsor-a-guardian TOFTigers is part of the Nature Stewardship Alliance charity (No 1172519)

£35 buys a guardian warm rainproof clothing and a pair of tough shoes

£50 buys a guardian a smart phone for rapid coms and collecting vital photographic evidence of illegal activities

£65 pays for a guardian’s part time salary for a month

£100 pays for a whole training course for new guardians

£300 pays for a guardian’s camera trap to monitor wildlife movements and illegal activities

£800 pays for a guardian part time salary for a whole year

Please give what you can and help ensure another trained pair of eyes and ears to help patrol their own villages, farmlands and vital forests. All money raised goes to the guardians programme.

Did you know these frightening facts?

• The world has lost 58% of its wildlife in the past 40 years.

• The tiger population has shrunk from c.100,000 tigers a century ago in India to 2,226 at the last census.

• Humans have destroyed a tenth of the Earth's wilderness in just 25 years.

• Nature's services are vital to our long term future - from clean air and water to flood defences, natural materials, medicines wellbeing and food.

TOFTigers helps to catalyse, advocate and protect wild lands and biodiversity, and provide livelihoods for rural communities through the best conservation tool there is – well planned, well run, sustainable nature tourism.

www.toftigers.org