Ranthambore tiger naps on road, leaves 30 safari jeeps waiting: ‘Classic India Traffic jam’

In the clip, the tiger can be seen lying comfortably on the road while several safari jeeps wait nearby. Tourists appear to be keeping their distance as they watch the animal rest.

2 min readNew DelhiSep 23, 2026 06:55 PM IST

Tourists kept their distance as they watched the animal rest.

A tiger brought safaris to a standstill at Rajasthan’s Ranthambore National Park after settling down for a nap in the middle of a forest track, leaving a long line of safari vehicles waiting for the big cat to move.

Foreign tourist Elena captured the unusual encounter on camera and shared the video on Instagram. In the clip, the tiger can be seen lying comfortably on the road while several safari jeeps wait nearby. Tourists appear to be keeping their distance as they watch the animal rest.

The wait eventually paid off when the tiger woke up, stretched and slowly walked away into the forest, seemingly unfazed by the crowd of visitors and cameras around it.

Watch the video:

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A post shared by Elena I Travel addict (@elen_d.ream)

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Describing the moment in her caption, Elena wrote: “Classic India. Traffic jam. But make it tiger. Our 3rd tiger we’ve seen in Ranthambore. This one decided to nap in the middle of the road. 30 jeeps, pure chaos – cameras, whispers, trying to get closer to a 200kg cat sleeping. Then woke up, stretched like my house cat, and walked into the forest like we were nothing.”

“$50 safari. No guarantee you see one. We saw 3 in 4 safaris, but this boy was so close- once-in-a-lifetime moment. This is why you go. Would you wait?” she wrote.

The video drew plenty of reactions online, with users amused and amazed by the tiger’s relaxed behaviour. “Soft kitty warm kitty little ball of fur,” one person wrote. “A tiger is the most generous animal in the world, provided you let it live freely in its own world,” commented another.

“Jim Corbett National Park has the big baddies. The Royal Bengal tigers,” a third user wrote. “You are my territory so wait. I will decide either u can go or stay,” another commented.

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