Hunting tigers out in India

MOST PEOPLE HAVE only seen tigers in zoos, in photographs or on the Discovery Channel, but very rarely where they are best observed – in the wild. There are only a few thousand left in the wild and they tend to do most of their promenading at dawn or dusk in remote parts of India, and Central and Southeast Asia. There is also the disappointing fact that most times you go looking for them, all you find is a pugmark or two.

It was on my fourth visit to a tiger reserve that I first spotted one and even then it was from a distance. But I can still recall the event in vivid detail because nothing – repeat nothing – has the shock and awe of sighting your first tiger in the wild.

It was about 7am in Ranthambore National Park, 1,200sq km of mountainous jungle and brush in eastern Rajasthan in India. Before the tiger came into view, there was a cacophony of screeches and howls from a variety of animals and birds. These urgent alarms were still being passed down the line when we saw it – a fully mature tigress – walking casually through the bush seemingly unaware of the din it had set off.

Ranthambore remains my favorite place to go tiger spotting, and not just for the tigers – there are plenty of other attractions. For a start, there is the sheer beauty of the place, which was formerly a private tiger reserve of the Maharajahs of Jaipur. It was here in 1960 that Prince Philip became the last person to officially shoot a tiger in India – the Queen had rather diplomatically “sprained her trigger finger.”

After you enter the park through a series of ancient gates, you rise up an incline past chattering monkeys and assorted birdlife. Then, out of nowhere, appears a huge cliff topped with an imposing wall and fort, which was built in the 10th century.

In earlier times, the human inhabitants were somewhat more vicious than the surrounding wildlife. An early ruler used to force his captives to engorge themselves on different colored dyes with milk and then hurl them down the cliffs to make patterns on the rocks below.

And the lakes and swamps, with their crumbling remnants of Mogul architecture, are unforgettable. It was here that a battle to the death was once observed between a tiger and a crocodile – naturally, the tiger triumphed. My most memorable viewing was in a riverbed with a nearly full-grown male tiger chomping on a five-foot monitor lizard. It was busy sorting out this meal for more than an hour and showed complete indifference at our presence only 3m away in an open-sided jeep. The only note of tension was when my teenage son abruptly jumped from the side closest to the action to the other side of the jeep. The tiger’s eyes suddenly fixed onto my son for two or three seconds before moving back to its prey. After finishing off the remains of the reptile, it ambled down the track and then leapt silently into the brush with such stealth that it raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

You can only look for tigers on selected routes either in jeeps or open top buses for a maximum three or four hours a day, ideally at dawn and dusk. Fortunately, for the remainder of the time there are three first-rate tented camps to spend your time. My favorite is Sher Bagh (I suppose you could call it the “shabby chic” option). Then there is Amanresort’s Aman-i-Khás, a luxury experience found in a dozen grand Mogul-style tents. The third is the Vanyavilas, which is more like staying in a luxury hotel than a tented camp.

Sher Bagh is owned by Delhi socialites Anjali and Jaisal Singh, who have excellent managers in place, along with a gaggle of charming English gap-year girls, to help the guests out. The camp has Jodhpur-style tents, while first-rate colonial reproduction furnishings add to the Raj feel. What makes this even more attractive are the campfire dinners each evening, with an unending supply of obscure malt whiskeys and glasses of Veuve Clicquot. The cuisine is outstanding north Indian, freshly cooked each evening. It is such a popular scene that guests at the nearby Aman-i-Khás often come over to join in the fun.

Despite the orderly nature of the whole establishment, it is best to remember that you are still in a wild place. At night, leopards and tigers occasionally roam through the site. An Indian foreign minister nearly became an evening snack when he stumbled on a tiger just outside his tent at Vanyavilas, and most locals can recall tales of unexpected encounters.

Although not the most pleasant time to visit India, April and May offer the best chance of a sighting tigers because of the lack of groundwater and cover. But even if you fail to get lucky, the charm of the place more than compensates for the frustration – and what better excuse to book a return visit?