TIGER ZINDA HAI

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night"

I am sure most of us would recall this William Blake poem from our school days. The national tiger census is an occasion to celebrate with the roaring success of Project Tiger. At the last count, India boasts of 3682 Panthera Tigris, their scientific name. When the project was conceived half a century ago, the aim was crystal clear, save the King of the jungle from extinction and not let them perish into oblivion like the cheetah. The worst predators in the history of this planet had successfully hunted these animals down for perverse pleasure. Shikar as practised by the erstwhile Royals and in their eagerness to please their colonial masters, this cowardly act was named rather grandiosely "big game". It just demonstrated the smallness of human beings, killing these animals for mere trophies in their living rooms.

Tigers are awe inspiring by their majestic gait, their menacing eyes, reminding us of the anthem of Rocky, "Eye of the tiger",  predators par excellence who rule the jungle with no other cat family brethren as challengers to the throne. We have Asiatic Lions who are restricted to their ‘pride’, Leopards lead a lonely trail, now we also boast of a few African Cheetahs who are still in familiarisation and acclimatisation stage. Personally I prefer the Jaguars, yes of course the Car, after all it is owned by the Tatas now, but also because I belong to the family Felidae along with the Lions, Cheetahs being a Jaguar from our favourite hunting ground, the National Defence Academy. Having been a Black Cat myself the affinity is also with the Black Jaguars. 

Having seen them in the zoos, we were keen to get a glimpse in the wild, and in our quest, we have gone to Jim Corbett,Sariska,Pench but were not fortunate to have a tete a tete with the Tigers. All that we managed to locate were supposedly some pug marks and their poo, I could only console myself that there can be only one tiger in the jungle and in my presence he has obviously gone into hiding. 

Be that as it may, Indian Army too boasts of tigers in their own fiefdom, though honestly quite a few of them are mere pretenders. There is an old adage that "a tiger can't change its stripes", but in the army a tiger today can be a lamb tomorrow and vice versa. Although no tiger prefers to be a lamb but then one doesn't have a choice in this matter and one has to bow to the authorities. For the uninitiated, in the Army, commanders are referred to as Tigers, so he could be a Company Tiger or a Battalion one or even a Corps Tiger depending on his rank and his command. His deputy is referred to as the Lamb and these roles can change as one moves on in service. Although these days Tigers in the Army are on the verge of extinction, Paper Tigers have conveniently moved in and are ruling the roost.

Today’s generation is familiar with Tiger Shroff and “Ek Tha Tiger”or "Tiger Zinda Hai" who are cat’s whiskers but not the real Cats obviously. When we were growing up it was Lipton Tiger Tea, which was supposed to be the favourite drink of ‘Sher Dil Jawans’ (Lion hearted soldiers). Some of us may even recall the good old Tiger balm, which cured many a headaches. 

Incidentally my home state Madhya Pradesh is the numero uno as far as Tiger population goes with the figure touching 785 in all, spread over Pench, Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Shivpuri, Satpura and guess what now we in Mhow too can boast of our Tigers. A tiger or may be a couple more have been on the prowl in close vicinity venturing tantalisingly close to Army War College, may be it was on the lookout for his namesake..!!