Broken Tooth
by Rakesh Bhagat

Having persuaded my employers to allow me to take a sabbatical in the early part of 2006, I spent about three months at the Panna Tiger Reserve in central India. I have recounted below one of the many special events that I shared with the family of travellers, naturalists, scientists, mahouts and forest guides in Panna. A community, if you will.endangered vultures nesting along the sides of the cliff faces.

As the engines of five or six jeeps started up, we heard a monstrous growling noise from the gorge below. At first we were all stunned. Even our forest guides cocked their heads a little, saying nothing. Then it came again and this time louder - made all the more chilling because the sound reverberated against the surrounding walls of the gorge. Those who knew what it was ran to the edge of the cliff. The rest of us followed.

For a few moments I even overcame my extreme fear of heights to peer down from the edge of the cliff. What we saw was a fully grown tiger, slowly making its way across a rocky dry riverbed. One of the naturalists looking through his binoculars identified it as Broken Tooth, from a distinctive diamond shape marking on its body. This was one of the resident male tigers, about five years old. As his name suggests he is missing one of his canines although by all accounts this does not seem to have affected his hunting abilities.