On World Tiger Day, Scroll.in came up with a nice article around thrilling tiger encounters, featuring Valmik Thapar, Bittu Sahgal, Neha Parmar, Rohan Chakravarty, and yours truly.

 On World Tiger Day, five lovers of the big cat describe their most thrilling brush with the animal

https://scroll.in/magazine/845150/on-world-tiger-day-six-lovers-of-the-big-cat-describe-their-most-thrilling-brush-with-the-animal

Other memorable moments: 

  • The very first time I took a decent photo of a tiger. Bandhavgarh. A tigress walking up a rocky slope straight towards us.
  • Tiger cubs playing in Tadoba
  • Kalua – a sub-adult tiger that time – lying on a forest boundary wall in Ranthambore. Just 10 feet away.
  • 7 safaris in Tadoba, without any good tiger encounter. And then on the last and 8th one, Maya decides to do her catwalk for 30 minutes. 
  • Tiger killing a feral cow just outside the forest rest house. Satpura. 
  • A big tiger sitting among the rocks. 7 pm, Masinagudi, Nilgiris. Observed using binocluars, since it was too dark and far away for the naked eye. 

And a few facts about Indian tigers:

  • Tiger population has been increasing in the last few years. In 2006, there were 1,400 tigers which increased to 1,700 in 2011 and 2,200+ in 2014. Estimates given by National Tiger Conservation Authority.
  • Tiger habitat has been decreasing. Huge issue, leading to increasing human-tiger conflict. 
  • India is home to ~ 70 percent of tigers in the world.