Businessweek
There’s Never Been a Better Time for Tiger Tourism in India
As the country’s tiger population rebounds, developers are racing to build luxury camps around India’s hottest wildlife reserves.
The whooping call of a langur monkey means the tigers must be close. Dawn light leaks through the forest canopy of the Bandhavgarh National Park, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, as I rattle along a dirt track in an open-top SUV. My guide, Suryanshi Singh, scans the path ahead. A trail of tiger pugmarks is visible in the sand, saucer-size and still fresh.
Deeper into the forest, we pass trees scarred with claw marks (territorial markings, Singh says) and round patches of flattened grass. We’re hot on the heels of the Bengal tigers we’ve come to see, but alas, the jungle becomes still again.