National Geographic: Land of the Tiger

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December.

It is winter in Kanha National Park

in central India.

These very same grasslands and

forests were the inspiration

for Rudyard Kipling's immortal

Jungle Book stories.

The spirit of wild India that

he evoked still lives here.

Kanha National Park is

prime tiger country.

Sixty years ago its 363 square miles

were part of vast primordial forests.

Since then these forests have been

denuded on a gigantic scale.

But Kanha has been preserved

in its pristine state.

The tiger still roars here,

still spreads his dread.

Just before dawn

this male tiger killed a sambar stag.

Now, a few hours later,

he drags his prize into deep cover

to hide it

from the prying eyes of vultures.

Like all of his kind he is solitary

for most of his life

a lone hunter who lives by stealth.

The night has been cold.

The gray langur monkeys,

after their first meal of the day,

rest and groom each other

in the warmth of the early sun.

winter is the season of birth

for most langurs.

This newborn, only a few hours old,

is the center of attraction.

The new member of the troop is passed

from one female to another

as many as ten times in half an hour.

It is treated with great curiosity

and affection.

This "aunt" behavior, as it is called,

inducts the infant into the troop,

makes it feel welcome and secure.

The monsoon rains ceased

more than two months ago.

But along the streams the vegetation

is still green.

Grass-shrouded water holes are

perfect hiding places

from which the tiger tries

to ambush the chital.

Despite his power and camouflage

the tiger often fails to make a kill.

Only about one hunt in twenty

ends in success.

In mid-January, when winter

is at its coldest,

the rut of the barasingha

reaches its peak.

During this season of courtship

and mating,

stages bugle and fight

to establish who among them

will mate with the does.

A tigress watches the combat

from her cave

where she is hiding newborn cubs.

Helpless young with great fierceness

and devotion.

It will be some weeks before she will

bring her cubs out into the open.

For the most part, Kanha's tigers

remain elusive and mysterious,

concealed by the dense undergrowth

and the jungles of grass.

But in Ranthambhor National Park

the habitat is drier and more open.

In February, early spring in India,

Ranthambhor's 64 square miles

are already parched.

The monsoon rains are only

a vague memory.

But cradled in the hills is

a chain of lakes,

and it is because of this permanent

water that wild animals flourish here.

Unlike pristine Kanha,

Ranthambhor has a long history

of human occupation

dating back to the 11th century.

Dominating the reserve

is Ranthambhor fort.

Now deserted by man, the fort

has become the haunt of animals.

Centuries ago it was the focal point

of a vigorous city.

Battles raged back and forth

over the hills.

In more recent times villages thrived

deep inside Ranthambhor.

But their inhabitants have also gone.

They were encouraged to settle

on better land outside the park.

Monuments to forgotten dramas

dot the reserve.

This stone marks the spot where

a widow committed suttee

where she burned herself alive

on her husband's funeral pyre.

Only the ruins remain.

Man has moved out of Ranthambhor after

almost a thousand years

and returned it to the wildlife.

On this cool spring morning it is not

an ancient warrior who keeps vigil,

but a tigress on the lookout for sambar,

her favorite prey.

When the sambar lie down to chew

their cud, they are still out of range

The tigress waits patiently.

The deer's senses of smell

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