English: Bandhavgarh in the middle of India is a location coveted for its density of the Royal Bengal Tigers. Almost 30,000 of these at the turn of the 20th Century was brought to the brink of extinction with close to just a 1000 surviving in the wild.

Project Tiger was initiated in 1973 and as a result of this, and despite the constant threat of poaching, the population has slowly risen to around 2500 in 2016.

I had spent some time in these forests several decades ago when I was still roaming the jungles of India. But I never had the opportunity to see one in the wild. Several decades later, and courtesy of the Project Tiger, I was fortunate to have been to this place in November and was able to see a tigress and her three sub-adult female cubs, another tigress with her sub-adult male cubs and some solitary males.

It was indeed an experience I was overwhelmed by. The thick post-monsoon undergrowth (grass) and the Sal (Shorea robusta) as the dominant tree canopy set up the perfect milieu for the largest and perhaps the brightest feline on this planet (along with the Caspian and the Siberian tigers).