Tigers in India’s Wild
What would ever prompt a sane person to travel halfway around the world in hopes of witnessing something that may not ever happen? Traversing the vagaries of the aviation system and all its somewhat-deserved diminished reputation. The waiting. The flying. The congestion and noise and chaos of Delhi and its nearly 34 million inhabitants.
Fast forward a week, and you remember why. There you are, among the sal tree glades and grassy meadows of rural India. It is still early. The sun’s rays light up the high clouds in streamers that go pink. The warmth of the sun topping the horizon is welcome after our 4:30am start to be first in line at the national park gate.
We have driven well into the park on the heels of dawn. Birdsong greets us, as do the langur monkeys, who are on the move. The herds of spotted deer, called chital, are grazing peacefully. At home, fawns lose their spots in maturity, but soon I’m accustomed to seeing adults with such spots. Chital are the favorite meal of the object of our quest: the Bengal tiger. Brought back from the brink of extinction by India’s progressive and dedicated efforts beginning in 1972, the tigers enjoy status that approaches royalty. They are, after all, the national animal. Indira Gandhi was right: something needed to be done and the tiger reserves we are visiting are the results.
But to find a tiger requires a healthy degree of optimism. Happily, we are in the hands of naturalists and guides who know this land well, and the ways the sectors of this national park/tiger reserve intersect one other. They are familiar with the trails the tigers tend to use when patrolling their territories or searching for a meal. They drive, stop, turn off the engines, listen. Then drive, stop, turn off the engines, listen. The “work” of a game drive, for us, the clients, involves waiting in our seats, wrapped in a blanket and grateful for the provided hot water bottle. One can do little besides be patient and find contentment with whatever bubbles up moment to moment. A crested hawk eagle, perched on a high branch, calling. Mist rising from the grasses. A sweet kingfisher, with his prominent orangish beak and resplendent aqua and duff feathers darting from here to there. A jackal trotting by, glancing over at us with an air of confidence and sass.
We listen above all for alarm calls by the chital and other prey critters. They announce to the whole forest when a tiger has crept into the vicinity—including us. Our expert guides triangulate the sounds and relocate the vehicles to where they know a tiger will most likely cross the road. The race to the best vantage point sometimes begins to feel like Mario Andretti on the final lap as we joust with the rest of the paparazzi vying for a view. But then: silence, as drivers turn off their engines, freeing people to witness one of earth’s largest predators, free, wild, and completely relaxed. As they pass, the tigers seem to know that the armies of green vehicles mean no danger to them, and they seem utterly uninterested in us.
The Indian tiger reserve system was built with the animals in mind. Each of the 55 parks has a “core” area reserved solely for the tigers. Only the intrusion of vehicles from the park service carrying curious tourists and ranger teams riding elephants off-road to assess their well-being and (try to) keep count are allowed in. Encircling the core area is a “buffer zone.” There could be some tiger/human interaction, but the system mostly works. Beyond that is the sea of humanity. The tigers are not fenced in. They are free to roam, but they do not typically need to leave a reserve’s core area (unless, perhaps, they are in search of new territory). There is plenty of “fast food” (chital and other prey animals) in the core areas!
Happily, tiger numbers are rising after appalling losses to game hunting and habitat destruction (from 40,000 tigers in India in 1940, tiger numbers were at 1,400 in 1972, and are about 3,100 today). And our persistence (plus the skills of our guides) pays off. There! Do you see it? A tiger, coming through the woods. A flash of orange and black, moving steadily, and heading for the road. Another time: there! In the meadow, a mother with two sub-adult cubs, playing like big kittens. And another: there! She’s left the camouflage of the bushes and is lapping pond water beside the road. And what about the immense male who materialized from the woods right by the vehicles? All of it: stunning. We were incredibly fortunate in our nine game drives in three of the tiger reserves in early 2024 to enjoy eleven tiger sightings Stay tuned! There’s more to come.
Thanks to Karan at Pugdundee Safaris (www.pugdundeesafaris.com) and Iain Allen at Tropical Ice (www.tropical-ice.com) for top-notch logistics and guiding! For fun, go to Iain’s blog, which contains some spectacular videos of some of the tigers we saw: www.tropical-ice.com/journal/wild-india-blog-2024
