On multiple safaris to Rajasthan’s iconic Ranthambhore tiger reserve last year, a veteran chronicler repeatedly spotted something unusual: tigers crouching at the edge of undergrowth, a few metres away from a wall by the road at the Jogi Mahal gate that leads to tourist zones around the lakes Padam talao, Rajbagh and Malik talao.
The gaze of these tigers, he noticed, was fixed on one of the two small rooms behind the wall. On closer inspection, he heard low grunts of a buffalo on the other side of the closed doors. It turned out forest staff were using that room to stock a live buffalo to be presented as weekly bait to a well-known tigress called Arrowhead. Aghast, the veteran warned the staff on duty they “may have to pay the price for luring tigers so close”.
On Sunday, forest range officer Devendra Singh Choudhury was killed a few metres from that spot, sources told . It was the second death inside Ranthambhore in less than a month which, experts say, was precipitated by a series of “thoughtless interventions and oversights”.
Consider this:
* 15 tigers frequenting a space of roughly five sq km around Jogi Mahal, Ranthambhore Fort and Ganesh temple — spots that attract hundreds of tourists and pilgrims daily.
* Nine of these tigers habituated to live bait — six since birth.
* Continuous live baiting — at least once a week — with buffalo calves for nearly two years.
* Multiple instances of “unusual” tiger behaviour overlooked.
* Ad hoc measures, such as using firecrackers, were recommended to deter big cats.
* A proposal to shift a tigress after it attacked a guard and killed a 7-year-old boy last month was turned down.
It all began at the onset of summer in 2023, when tigress Arrowhead — then a little over eight years old and displaced by her offspring, tigress Riddhi, from prime habitat along the lakes to the adjacent Nalghati area — was spotted with a hip bone deformity. Increasingly handicapped, Arrowhead had its fourth litter of two females and a male soon after. Worried for the cubs, the forest department started providing Arrowhead with live buffalo baits in August 2023.
Around the same time, Riddhi gave birth to a litter of three — two females and a male. It did not take long for these six cubs, Riddhi and T-120, the resident male, to start feeding opportunistically on the live baits laid out for Arrowhead. Meanwhile, a third tigress — T-107 (Sultana) — also had a litter of three cubs soon after Arrowhead and Riddhi. This family used the space on the other side of the Jogi Mahal gate along with T-105 (Noor) and T-101, the resident male.
By the end of 2024, four tigresses, two tigers and nine grown-up cubs were using the area around the Jogi Mahal gate (see chart).
Of the six young tigers now habituated with baits and stalking people, Arrowhead’s three were frequenting the main Ranthambhore road crowded by safari tourists, visitors to the fort and pilgrims to the Ganesh temple. Of them, tigress Kankati turned out to be the most uninhibited.
The first attack was recorded on April 13 when a tigress jumped on forest guard Babu outside Jogi Mahal. He identified and yelled at Kankati and survived with a scratch as the tigress backed away.
On April 16, the day of Ganesh Chaturthi, the number of pilgrims to the temple swelled, and many travelled on foot. Early afternoon, Kartik Suman (7) was walking holding his grandmother’s hand on the busy road when he was snatched by a tigress in the presence of at least 50 people in the vicinity. It was Kankati again.
On Sunday, sources said, ranger Choudhury alighted from a forest vehicle near the Jogi Mahal gate and walked a few steps towards Yagnashala, an old structure now under renovation. In the full view of labourers and some safari tourists, a tigress accompanied by a tiger took Choudhury down right on the road.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Ranthambhore Field Director K R Anoop confirmed that Kankati has been identified as the tigress involved in both fatal attacks on April 16 and May 11. Asked if the tigress will now be shifted as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s protocol that calls for removing a big cat after two deliberate attacks on people, Anoop said, “A decision on the potential transfer of the tigress is awaited.”
Govind Sagar Bhardwaj, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said he is yet to receive any report on the latest incident from Rajasthan. “The protocol is clear. The chief wildlife warden (CWLW) of the state will have to take a call,” he said. When contacted, Rajasthan CWLW Shikha Mehra declined to comment. Sources in the department said the matter “is being decided at the secretary level”.
Field Director Anoop declined to confirm or comment on official communication, but sources said the reserve administration had sought to shift the tigress after the April 16 incident to an enclosure. The instruction from the Jaipur headquarters, it is learnt, was to control pilgrim traffic and use firecrackers instead.
On numerous occasions, said local sources, Kankati and her siblings showed aggressive behaviour and ventured fearlessly outside the reserve. Only this Friday, Kankati created a commotion by scaling a boundary wall on the main Ranthambhore road. A few days ago, the sources said,the tigress was “rescued” from a hotel where it ventured without a care.
“They followed the vehicle that took the live bait inside the forest and then began to follow random vehicles, thinking they were carrying food. They started frequenting the Jogi Mahal gate area and stalking the room for buffalo. They have lost all fear and we don’t feel confident on foot any more,” said a forest guard.
“By offering medical care, food and creating water facilities, we artificially increased the tiger population and also made them get used to human presence. Arrowhead’s grown-up cubs may pose even greater problems in the future, as they are no longer hunters. They are becoming semi-domesticated animals waiting to be fed,” said Khandal of TigerWatch, a Ranthambhore-based NGO.
Valmik Thapar, who has followed tigers in Ranthambhore for over five decades, said any tiger that kills a human being must be relocated. “It is our job to protect the tiger’s future, but not by letting man-killers and man-eaters roam. Some tigers turn into nasty killers and must be jailed just like humans are for killing. That is the only way man and tiger will be able to survive into the future,” he said.
Mazoomdaar’s major investigations include the extirpation of tigers in Sariska, global offshore probes such as Panama Papers, Robert Vadra’s land deals in Rajasthan, India’s dubious forest cover data, Vyapam deaths in Madhya Pradesh, mega projects flouting clearance conditions, Nitin Gadkari’s link to e-rickshaws, India shifting stand on ivory ban to fly in African cheetahs, the loss of indigenous cow breeds, the hydel rush in Arunachal Pradesh, land mafias inside Corbett, the JDY financial inclusion scheme, an iron ore heist in Odisha, highways expansion through the Kanha-Pench landscape etc.
