If you have any doomsday predictions for the decline of the tiger, please do not knock on the door of Dr. K. Ullas Karanth. Of all the people involved in studying the tiger, Karanth, a conservation zoologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, is consistently among the most optimistic. History and science, he says, have proved that there is reason for hope. It rained during the previous two nights, so the roads look like giant red-clay scars cutting through layers of green. The deciduous forest is now in its lush state and full of life.
Langur monkeys rock the branches.
A group of wild elephants feasts nearby. Even though we don't utter a word above a whisper and are parked hundreds of feet away, the elephants sense our presence and swiftly but gently move deeper into the bush. Given a place to set up its territory and enough prey to hunt, says Karanth, the tiger will survive. We wake the sole officer at home, Nandesh. A member of a local tribal group of Betta Kuruba, he has worked in the Bandipur forest for 17 years.