Clinton goes looking for tigers, finds two. Clicks his camera furiously

Clinton’s visit itself marked a high point in the history of Ranthambore. The elaborate arrangements, fool-proof security cordon in and around the park, over a 40 Gypsies and open-air safari trucks criss-crossing the dirt tracks of the park… the entire Sawai Madhopur town sealed off from the park for a group of about 100. This was something which even Rajiv Gandhi missed during his much-publicised 1985 trip to Ranthambore.

This evening, luck travelled all the way with Clinton. Minutes after the party spotted the tiger in Bakola area — it turned out to be Bambu Ram, the largest male in the park — they came across another unforgettable sight of a full-grown tigress stalking a deer. Two tigers in three hours. Obviously no match for US Ambassador Richard Celeste’s sighting of seven tigers in the park last month — he was here today also with the entourage — but the President was certainly not complaining.

Interestingly, though the park was closed to tourists from last morning, the forest authorities gave up — at the last minute — the previous plan to dispatch tiger trackers inside the park. This could as well have shooed away the tiger further out of sight. Instead, this morning Fateh Singh Rathore, noted tiger expert now synonymous with Ranthambore, drove down into the park. The aim was to locate fresh pug marks of the big cat. He found these aplenty in Bakola — characterised by cool springs and a horde of `jamun’ trees forming a canopy over the running water, it is also called the tiger’s summer capital of Ranthambore — and returned quietly.

Thereafter the place was zeroed in on and the tiger marked. “There was just no way Clinton would have missed it,” a jubilant Rathore later told The Indian Express. Bambu Ram they had to see; the tigress turned out to be a bonus.

Hanging over the convoy as long as it remained inside the park were two helicopters carrying armed US guards. That was for security reasons.

Deputy Field Director G Vishwanath Reddy who, along with Rathore, was travelling with Clinton in the same safari truck, recalled that the US President did nothing to hide his gushing enthusiasm over the first sighting. “He started clicking his camera wildly. He even made a photogapher take his shots with the tiger in the background. Both he and Chelesa were completely bowled over,” Reddy said.

Other notables in the tiger-sighting party were Clinton’s mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, BJP leader Vasundhara Raje Scindia and the Rajasthan Forest Minister Bhograj Choudhary.

Since dawn, over 150 forest officials had fanned out inside the park — many of them armed with walky-talkies.

In spite of the cordoning of the park, the authorities could not prevent a large group of town residents from descending upon the edge of the park to have one look at the US President. Clinton did not disappoint them. For several seconds he waved at the crowd that now looked all set to break the metallic barriers.

Apart from the park’s rich wildlife, pointed out Reddy, Clinton was also impressed with its fauna. A huge banbyan tree — its branches spreading out over three hectares — held him spellbound. For several minutes, he watched the tree silently.

Reddy sincerely hopes that after the successful tiger-sighting, Clinton would make a statement on wildlife conservation. “It would do a lot of good for the Indian wildlife in particular,” he said.

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