- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi failed to sight a single tiger during his much publicised visit to a tiger reserve in south India on Sunday (9) which was part of a commemorative event to mark 50 years of India’s Tiger Project and ideally to draw attention to the fact that the big cat population in India has gone up.
According to the latest survey, the number of tigers in the wild went up from 2,967 in 2018 to more than 3,100 by the end of 2022.
Yet, Modi did not see anything more than pawprints during his two-hour safari in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in the state of Karnataka and according to an Independent report, the reserve’s director, Ramesh Kumar, has defended his staff after the leader failed to see a single tiger.
According to local media reports, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as senior officials from the federal forest department complained to the reserve authorities and tried to blame Madhusudhan, the driver of Modi’s safari vehicle for the ‘failure’, suggesting that he should have changed the safari’s route if no tiger could be seen.
Also images widely circulated on social media purported to show that the registration of the vehicle was cancelled in the wake of the criticism. The reserve’s director refuted the claim.
Modi’s safari in the core area of the Bandipur reserve continued for two hours but he could only view elephants, gaurs (Indian bison) and deer.
The reserve’s senior officials defended the driver saying he “did his job”. According to them, Madhusudhan “took the route which was finalised” by the PM’s security staff prior to his visit.
Kumar was quoted as saying that vehicles repeatedly went on the selected route in the name of security and it hampered the sightings, the report added.
According to rangers, security personnel, including the prime minister’s Special Protection Group (SPG) and local police officers were “camping” on the identified route for days before Modi came and tigers were spotted at that time.
The park officials had to request them to vacate the route on Saturday (8) night so that the animals could return, the Independent report added.
The Hindu newspaper cited sources as saying that Modi, while expressing happiness at the wildlife sightings, “joked” at the SPG that their security drills might have forced the big cats to move away.
However, there were also reports saying the prime minister scolded the security team.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Madhusudhan said, “Sightings in forests is just luck. When I did the trial run on Friday and Saturday for the security teams, two tigers were sighted.”
“In fact, the PM saw fresh tiger pugmarks, but just missed the tiger. I followed the route as my boss told me. I was so scared that I couldn’t even talk to the PM. All my focus and attention was on his safety.”
