King of the jungle

In echoes of Rudyard Kipling’s seminal collection of short stories, Rupert Uloth journeys to India and Suján Sher Bagh in search of his own Shere Khan

- Rupert Uloth

Day one 

I WAS completely paralysed by the tiger’s roar. I simply couldn’t move from visceral terror.’ We let these words sink in as we sit around the flickering campfire at Suján Sher Bagh. We know that in the morning we may experience a similar sensation: even after decades of guiding, Yusuf remains in awe of these creatures that so impressed Rudyard Kipling when he wrote The Jungle Book almost 130 years ago. Clearly, the thrilling prospect of spotting our first tiger in the wild now has an edge to it. We are excited to meet our very own Shere Khan.

Suján Sher Bagh is the dream made true of owner Jaisal Singh. His parents first came to Ranthambhore when it was only a dusty winding track. They filmed and documented some of the first footage of wild tigers there and magnificent giant photographs adorn the walls of the camp that would be the envy of a Raj-era Viceroy, with its luxurious tented rooms furnished in perfectly judged colonial style.

We enter the park in an open-topped jeep with Yusuf, who, with his impressive and immaculately coiffed moustache, looks every inch an Indian prince, but whose rounded public-school vowels reveal an education at Stowe and time spent with the Coldstream Guards. We are also accompanied by a driver and a spotter-cum-tracker. As recently as the 1970s, this was a maharajah’s hunting ground, but now it is a conservation haven where 78 tigers are living wild.

Passing under the ancient Mughal gateway in the narrow gorge, we are immediately aware of a different world. We can see why those fearsome warriors built their fortress here: almost impregnable, it is also teeming with Nature and animals. A population of 40,000 was recorded in the 16th century living in the fort that covered four square miles. Now, it is home only to the animals and birds.