It is tiger mania in Ranthambhore ...by Sunny Sebastian in the HINDU newspaper.

The `Lady of the Lake' gives `darshan' to one and all

RANTHAMBHORE: It was fun watching the same tigress watched by the country's Prime Minister the previous day watching you lazily. The day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the Project Tiger at Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur district on Tuesday, the "Lady of the Lake'', the tigress that gave "darshan'', surfaced. Wednesday was the day the Park reopened after a brief period of closure, made to facilitate the census operations and there was renewed enthusiasm among the naturalists and the lower functionaries of the sanctuary. The tourists were not many. The hotels along the 15 km drive between the Ranthambhore Fort and the district town once again started offering concessions after having raised their room rates for the Prime Minister's visit.

Yet the people were there. And myriads of langurs too, at the towering stonewalled main gate of the sanctuary which doubles as the entry point to the Park and the Ranthambhore Fort which houses a very popular Ganesh temple. Wednesday is the day to worship Shri Shri 1008 Shri Ganeshji of Ranthambhore, or for that matter any Ganeshji anywhere. Many of the pilgrims were young couples -- child brides and grooms included -- who were to seek the blessings of the Lord after getting into the wedlock the previous night on Peepal Purnima (full moon day). And there was this Jhalra tigress (as she is popularly known due to the habitat she confines herself to) lying on the middle of the mud road at Kamaldhar, almost the same locale Manmohan Singh -- and most probably his lady, Gursharan Kaur, too -- happened to chance upon sighting his first tiger in the wild

As Manoj Sharma, the driver of our Gypsy, mildly shooed us to silence and tried to get nearer, the tigress gazed at the human intruders for a few seconds before slowly climbing up the higher side of the road. It was around 6-20 a.m. The langurs did their duty of giving out the alarm, by grunting noisily -- a sign mostly made use of by those who track tiger presence. As sighting a tiger in Ranthambhore does not remain a secret for long, within 10 minutes three more Gypsies carrying some foreigners and Indian travellers reached the spot. Soon after Canters too arrived and there was a traffic jam inside the Park.

"Jhalra tigress or the Lady of the Lake, as referred to by the Prime Minister, has a problem now in getting the kills,'' Manoj explained. The tigress, which has two cubs of 6-7 months, is around 16 years of age and this is her third litter. "For days together she does not get anything to eat for herself or for her cubs,'' Manoj explained though other naturalists and Forest guards were divided in their opinion about the animal's health. Some of them said she was ill and others said that day she already had a kill and was finding it difficult to walk! With the foreign visitors there seemed no satiation of gazing at the wild tigress. When this correspondent returned to the same spot, they were still there around 7-45 at Nalghati watching a by now indifferent tigress.

It looked as if the mela site has been shifted to the inside of the Park. There were a dozen vehicles, and the tigress at the same spot we had left her. Tiger was spotted in Ranthambhore on Thursday as well. M.D. Parashar, painter-photographer belonging to the Ranthambhore School of Painting, called up in the evening to inform that he spotted the tigress at Guda with her two cubs during the evening trip. The tigress of Semali was also spotted at Lambi Ka Nala in the same evening. It is tiger mania in Ranthambhore. It is a pity that the visitors miss the lovely forests for the tiger. But then for the time being it is the tiger. So the more the merrier.