Earning your stripes in India

SPEEDING across the animal trails of the Vindhya Hills in a jeep, Diana Plater realises tigers really are the beauty of India.

EARTHENWARE cups of steaming marsala tea and hot samosas are very welcome on this freezing winter morning at Bandhavgarh National Park in central India.

We're at centrepoint, as it's known, where jeeps regroup after spinning around different tracks through the park in the pursuit of tigers.

I'm waiting in our jeep with Deepak Talan, a self-taught conservationist and writer originally from Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) and a man passionate about his country's animals.

We're not going to shoot tigers, as the maharajas did in years gone by, but the trip has some of the circus-like flavour of the hunting processions that once involved up to 2,000 people.

After our pre-breakfast snack, the jeeps take off together in a whirl of dust.

The huge national park, north-east of Jabalpur, is one of several wildlife sanctuaries in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Spread among the Vindhya Hills, it was the former hunting preserve of the Maharaja of Rewa, but was made a national park in 1968 and declared a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1993.

A convoy of jeeps meet at the main gate, where we are assigned a forest department guide and a route. We're covered in rugs torn from our resort beds and the guides wear woollen scarves over their heads.

We pass a sign which shows a tiger with a cartoon bubble, saying we may not have seen him but he's seen us. Obviously many people leave disappointed.

The plan though is that elephant safaris track the big cats, and radio in to centrepoint when one is spotted.

Tiger tracks

The guides point out other wildlife including leopards, chital, sambar and barking deer, sloth bear, jungle cat, langur and rhesus monkey, wild boar and sometimes a fox or jackal, as well as many species of local and migratory birds.

The guides look out for warning signs that a tiger is around, including pug marks, droppings and animal alert calls, particularly from deer, owls and monkeys.

We are finally rewarded for our early start as Deepak takes us to a spot where with binoculars or through our camera lenses we can see a tigress. She seems to be sunbaking in the early morning light, totally nonchalant about our presence, and more interested in keeping an eye on her meal of deer.

In the afternoon we are back at the same place in the hope the tigress will still be there. We have taken a back road to try to nab the best spot.

The peacocks are making alarm calls, and the smell of her "kill" drifts across as we sit as quietly to tourists and journalists.

"Maharajas used to sit and wait for nine hours," whispers Deepak, who reminds me of a cross between a character from a Rudyard Kipling novel and a fatigues-clad Hawkeye from Mnbs;Anbsp;Snbsp;Hnbsp;.

But gradually more and more jeeps have been given the word and turn up. It's not our exclusive spot anymore.

A population at risk

After almost two hours of waiting, there's a stirring and we look over. Tourists in one jeep, which is out on its own, are jumping up and down and pointing.

Immediately every other jeep turns and zooms over to their viewing spot. Two tigers can be seen but they languidly stroll off and that's the end of spotting for the day.

On another safari (we do them in the morning and late afternoon) we pass beneath a now-deserted 14th century cliff-top fort and visit an 11-metre reclining statue known as Shesh Shaya, where a permanent spring seeps out from under Lord Vishnu's feet.

The park of mixed forests, stretches of bamboo and grasslands is beautiful whatever time of day, and strangely peaceful despite the tourists in jeeps.

Deepak, who despite being confined to a wheelchair is incredibly mobile, says he feels a connection with writers, particularly as he is penning a book about tigers.

His biggest concern is the diminishing number of tigers in the wild, not only because of habitat loss but also because of poaching.

This incredible but endangered animal is poisoned or electrocuted, speared and cut up, with parts, including the claws, bones and teeth, sold to the thriving Chinese medicine trade, while its skin is sold internationally.

Tigers have disappeared from 40 per cent of their range in the past 10 years in India. Three of the eight sub-species of tiger have already become extinct and the other populations are at high risk. There could be as few as 1,500 wild tigers left in the country.

Cat attacks

Bandhavgarh National Park is said to have the highest density of tigers in India – around 46 to 52 of the big cats – and is known for its royal Bengal tigers.

It was once known for the white tiger, but none have been reported in the wild in the past 50 years.

Deepak believes tourism is good for the tiger and for local people, bringing in much-needed revenue that can be used for controlling poaching.

Tigers can still be dangerous – a local woman was killed in 2007 while gathering wood inside the park – and Deepak has written about a 2003 incident when Rajvardhan Sharma, the owner of the Nature Heritage Resort, where we are staying, saved two French tourists' lives when they were attacked in a jeep.

The last evening we sit around the fire at the resort and talk with Deepak and Raj about the frustrations of stopping poaching.

The beauty of India

The resort is a member of Travel Operators for Tigers, which has drawn up responsible tourism best practice guidelines, aimed at helping the local communities become more involved. The tiger reserve needs money to employ local people as guides as well as jeeps and motorcycles and basics such as solar lights for checkposts, bikes, shoes, torches, sweaters and mosquito nets.

The reserve is also being fenced to stop cattle getting in and tigers getting out and attacking animals and crops.

Finally, Deepak is asked in the context of India's huge poor population why so much attention should be given to the tiger.

He has a poetic and biblical analogy, saying in times of trouble, things of beauty should be kept, as Noah did with the Ark.

"There must be some people who can save a flower so when good times come they have the seed," he says. "Some people say India is a poor country and saving a tiger is a luxury. (But) you cannot sacrifice the beauty of India for the sake of modern things ... We should have something beautiful, which is our heritage."

The writer was a guest of Peregrine Adventures flying Thai Airlines to Delhi