Mystery surrounds disappearance of one of India’s most important tigers in Rajasthan

On a crisp winter morning in January this year, every available forest ranger scrambled into their jeep and rolled out into the grasslands and valleys of Sariska Tiger Reserve in western India’s Rajasthan state.

Around 35 search teams in all, including staff called in from three neighbouring ranges, entered the dense, thorny forest of the reserve’s core tiger habitat with a single shared goal — to find Sariska’s apex male Royal Bengal tiger, which had not been seen for five days and appeared to have vanished without a trace.

There was already a sense of alarm even that early on, the Sariska officials in charge of the search tell The Independent, because five days is a long time for a tiger to be missing. Even if the animal itself isn’t sighted, tigers leave behind plenty of clues to their presence, from pugmarks to fresh scratches on trees and even sprays of urine, which local rangers can attribute to a particular individual.

ST-13, the codename by which this missing animal is known, is no ordinary tiger, carrying the legacy of India’s most legendary big cat— his mother was the offspring of Machli from Ranthambore national park, dubbed the world’s most famous and most photographed tigress. He maintained his position of dominance in the park through an aggressive streak, fiercely guarding his territory against challengers, and his fertility was of critical importance to maintaining the reserve’s tiger population – in a park with just 27 individuals, he is believed to have fathered around two dozen cubs.

Days of searching turned to weeks, and after 90 days of fruitless efforts ST-13 was formally declared missing on 16 April. His disappearance has made national news headlines, in a country which has made great efforts to boost its tiger population — the largest of any country in the world, but still only numbering fewer than 3,000 individuals, according to a 2019 census.

The loss would be particularly traumatic for Sariska, which in 2004 earned the unwelcome accolade of being the only tiger reserve since India’s independence not to have any tigers. Building the population back up has been a huge undertaking, including the reintroduction of mating adults from Ranthambore and other more abundant reserves.

On a visit to Sariska, officials tell The Independent that ST-13 was last seen on camera traps in his territory on 14 January, and his last pugmarks were found on 15 January before they were washed away by rain that night. What happened next to the tiger is a mystery, and the subject of alarming claims of possible poaching, local corruption and ultimately a cover-up.

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Tigers as important as ST-13 are tracked with a GPS collar, yet this is where the contradictory reports begin. One ranger among those charged with regularly tracking ST-13 insists the collar was responsive right up to 14 January, at which point the signal went dead.

Officials have given a different story — that the collar had been unresponsive for months before that night, and that a request to replace it was pending with the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

In early April, frustrated by the lack of progress in the search and the mixed messaging around ST-13’s disapperance, some members of Sariska’s ranger staff sent an anonymous letter to the environment ministry, claiming the tiger had been killed and the body disposed of in Sirawas village, 46km away from the reserve, and that the circumstances were known to the reserve’s management.

“We want to tell you about the tiger ST-13 which has been missing from the forests of Sariska, and has been killed and buried,” begins the letter, a copy of which has been seen by The Independent.

“The tiger died due to electrical shock and the information of this was given to the forest department’s deputy field director and field director a month back,” it reads.

The staff explain that the tiger would roam around in the Sirawas area and that it died due to electric shock, having come in contact with human habitation. “As soon as the officials learnt about this, they decided to hide the tiger’s body and cut off its collar and threw it away in a nearby borewell. The tiger has been buried in the fields of Sirawas and its remains can be found on search,” the letter says.

No action was taken by officials, the letter alleges, “because the accused in the incident is a known personality and the son of a former local sarpanch (village chief), who is known to be closely associated with the field director”. The staff told the ministry they believe efforts are being made to conceal the death of the tiger and to make sure that the matter is disposed of quickly.

The Independent has contacted the environment ministry, but did not receive a comment on the letter prior to publication.

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Narendra Singh Rathore, chairman of the Wild Cats Conservation Society, a local NGO, tells The Independent there are fears the sudden death of ST-13 could mark the return of poaching to Sariska if the incident is seen to go unchecked.

A retired forest guard who worked in Sariska for three decades, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the local forest department officials have managed to successfully cover up the death without so much as making an attempt to find the carcass.

Niranjan Singh Rajput, one of Sariska’s best-known forest guides, says that everyone is aware of the local and political pressure to cover up the sequence of events and the exact circumstances under which the tiger is believed to have died, saying they fear the far-reaching consequences of speaking out. None of the local rangers or residents The Independent spoke to would name the allegedly well-connected figure at the centre of the claims.

In an interview, a senior forest department official said they were aware of the allegations, but denied there had been any cover-up.

“We are going to consider [ST-13] missing, till I get any evidence of poaching,” Sudarshan Sharma, the divisional forest officer who is heading the investigation, told The Independent.

Mr Sharma said there has been no sign of the tiger since 15 January or any evidence of a body having been buried, as the letter claims.

“We went to the suggested area [in Sirawas] but found nothing, despite questioning [locals] for three to four days,” the officer said.

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“The person whose name surfaced in Sirawas behind this has been questioned. He has a large agricultural farm. A tiger is not a small animal, and disposing of it requires more than just one person. It is impossible for the neighbours or locals in the area to not see something of this sort happen in a hushed manner,” he told The Independent.

Asked if ST-13 could have suffered an accidental death rather than poaching, he said this could “possibly” be the case. “The road leading to the reserve is available for the tigers to roam. It could have died in a road accident, or could have tripped and fallen into a well... it could be anything.”

And Mr Sharma said it was wrong to assume that, in such a case, officials would find the tiger’s body. “You think I will be able to find a tiger’s dead remains in a 1,200 sq kilometre area? You cannot find it,” he says.

“It’s a massive landscape with tough terrain. And if it is a natural death and a tiger knows it’s time has come, it goes and spends its last days in a cave or a safe territory to die in peace. How many of those corpses from natural death do you think are recovered? Not even one per cent,” Mr Sharma said.

Writing ST-13 off as “missing” or presuming death by natural causes is a hard outcome to stomach for guides like Mr Rajput who knew the tiger as a majestic animal in its prime, facing little to no threats or territorial conflict.

“Overnight a tiger has vanished and officials have shown no urgency to solve the mystery behind the disappearance. Will that not embolden poachers? Because there is practically no other reason for our tigers to go missing,” asks Mr Rajput.

Locals fear the dire consequences of allowing poaching to creep back into Sariska — the primary reason tigers were wiped out here 18 years ago. But even without further human intervention, ST-13’s disappearance leaves the tiger population here in a precarious position. The reserve is now left with just three adult male tigers, none of whom have yet been able to assert their dominance in the vacuum left behind. ST-13’s angry roar may now be missing from his vast territory, but the rumblings of discontent within the forest seem only likely to grow louder.