1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:03,280 Viewers like you make this program possible. 2 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:05,400 Support your local PBS station. 3 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,920 First magical moment when I saw a tiger in Ranthambhore, 4 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:24,200 it was absolutely mesmerizing. 5 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:28,320 It's a moment where you lose yourself 6 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:30,400 somewhere within yourself. 7 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:39,040 This is the best place in the world to see wild tigers. 8 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:47,560 For centuries, India's rulers battled over Ranthambhore Fort. 9 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,760 Today, it's home to a family with an extraordinary story. 10 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,040 It's about what you don't know is going to happen. 11 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:22,600 And that's the great joy of Ranthambhore. 12 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,720 March 1984. 13 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:15,480 A day that rewrote tiger history. 14 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:19,400 I was helping my brother-in-law Tejbir film a tiger 15 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,080 as it watched sambar deer feed in the lakes. 16 00:02:26,920 --> 00:02:29,600 What happened next shocked us. 17 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:13,920 No one had ever filmed a tiger killing in deep water before. 18 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:18,440 But then no one had really filmed wild tigers at all. 19 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,760 And I was there in the heart of it. 20 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:31,680 In the jungles of northwestern India, 21 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:37,200 there is a magical fort called Ranthambhore. 22 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:42,440 It has stood for more than a thousand years. 23 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:51,200 There are three lakes a few hundred feet from each other. 24 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:54,120 And it's full of wildlife. 25 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:08,640 Something happening every minute. 26 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:24,040 More wild tigers live in India than anywhere else on Earth 27 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:28,000 and this is one of their most important strongholds. 28 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:34,720 And when a tiger walks through the lakes. 29 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:41,880 The sound, the magic, the explosion of activity. 30 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,600 So, yes. The lake's a place to die for. 31 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:01,000 But in 1976, 32 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,000 when I first came to Ranthambhore 33 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,240 it wasn't known for tigers. 34 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:12,200 Back then, no one really knew anything about wild tigers. 35 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:14,200 Myself included. 36 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:16,120 I'm Valmik Thapar. 37 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:19,800 I'd grown up a city-boy. 38 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:23,760 I was very busy in Delhi making documentary films. 39 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:26,280 My first marriage was collapsing. 40 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:31,920 And one afternoon I just walked out of my house, 41 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,200 leaving everything behind 42 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:36,920 and caught a train to Ranthambhore. 43 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,920 I went on a whim to escape the city. 44 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,320 It took me nearly a day to meet Fateh Singh, 45 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:53,760 the director of the park, 46 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:57,360 and he looked me up and down and said, "What do you want?" 47 00:05:57,480 --> 00:05:58,960 I said, "I want to go to the forest." 48 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:00,680 He said, "But nobody goes to this forest. 49 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:04,320 It's an unknown area." 50 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:06,720 When I was passing the old gate, 51 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:11,320 as you went past the gate and you crossed the rise of a hill, 52 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:12,920 there in the distance 53 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,240 was Ranthambore Fort, looking at you. 54 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:18,640 And it grabbed me. 55 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:23,280 And that moment changed my life. 56 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,640 I wasn't a scientist or a naturalist, 57 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:29,880 an activist or a conservationist. 58 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,920 I was simply a filmmaker who fell in love 59 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:36,080 with the beauty of this place. 60 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:38,040 And with its tigers. 61 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,360 For the next half century, 62 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:46,200 I've had the great privilege of being amongst them. 63 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:52,880 All tiger life revolves around the female. 64 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:54,520 And across the decades, 65 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:58,680 five tigresses became like family. 66 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:00,720 Now, for the first time, 67 00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:05,440 I'm able to piece together the story of their matriarchal clan 68 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:07,440 and tell you how these five revealed 69 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:09,800 the secret life of tigers. 70 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,000 None are closer to my heart 71 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,680 than my first Ranthambhore tiger-- 72 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:19,520 Padmini. 73 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:25,040 She lived through some very dark times. 74 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:38,000 Not that long ago, 75 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:43,440 people estimated there were 100,000 tigers in India. 76 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,440 When Europeans and their guns arrived in the 18th century, 77 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:49,400 a massacre began. 78 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:56,080 It makes me sick to think of the maharajas, 79 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:58,800 the queens and kings who flushed out tigers 80 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,280 and hammered them with their guns. 81 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:04,320 I mean, one of our maharajas, 82 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,320 just one single man, 83 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:11,920 killed 1,300 tigers and boasts about it. 84 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,360 The kings, the rulers, the emperors, the rich-- 85 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:21,720 They all had tiger skins in the house. 86 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:23,440 I mean, 87 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:25,200 even the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth 88 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:28,720 had gone to Ranthambhore and shot tigers there. 89 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,320 In the early 1970s, 90 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,720 the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi banned tiger hunting. 91 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:44,880 A census had revealed 92 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,960 that there were just 1,800 wild tigers left in India. 93 00:08:56,800 --> 00:08:59,120 And she set up Project Tiger. 94 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:06,400 It was a wildlife conservation program with one aim-- 95 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:10,000 to protect India's remaining tigers. 96 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:15,400 In this land where the tiger roams, 97 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:19,040 it is not only an animal, but a symbol. 98 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:24,520 For thousands of years, India has had a culture 99 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:28,440 that goddesses ride a tiger to defeat evil. 100 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:35,360 The tiger is sacred. 101 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:38,080 The guardian of the forest. 102 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:46,360 In 1973, we set aside nine areas of the country for tigers. 103 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,760 The old fort of Ranthambore, with its lakes and forests, 104 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:56,480 was the smallest of these special tiger reserves. 105 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,280 And then began a long, difficult task-- 106 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:06,080 rehoming the many people and cattle 107 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,640 that lived within the boundaries. 108 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,000 Such sacrifices were made for the tiger. 109 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,880 Now, in the heart of Ranthambhore, 110 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:24,360 it was thought that just 12, maybe 13 tigers remained. 111 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:30,080 And they only ever came out at night. 112 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,280 I didn't think I had a hope of seeing one. 113 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,800 But I went out anyway with some of the park guards 114 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:01,160 and a searchlight to try. 115 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,560 Anywhere and everywhere. Just couldn't find tigers. 116 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:17,960 The director of the park, Fateh Singh Rathore, 117 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,960 had slowly become my tiger guru. 118 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,000 He knew every inch of this tiger reserve. 119 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:28,320 Huge twirling mustache, very tough, 120 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:30,800 with a great sense of humor. 121 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,760 And one day we drove too close to the water. 122 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,920 So, we were floating in the shallow water of a lake. 123 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:54,240 A head appeared. 124 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:57,440 It was my first Ranthambhore tiger. 125 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,200 We called her Padmini. 126 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:09,000 I was 23, 127 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:11,560 and I'd never felt such a connection 128 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:15,680 to any living thing before. 129 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:19,000 How sad that these few photos are the only record 130 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:21,200 of my times with her. 131 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:28,560 But she deserves her place in this history. 132 00:12:28,680 --> 00:12:31,760 She went on to have five cubs. 133 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,600 Four survived. 134 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,880 And it was the beginning of Ranthambhore's clan of tigers. 135 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:43,680 She led that clan. 136 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:47,120 She was like the godmother of all the tigers 137 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:49,920 I've known in Ranthambhore. 138 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:52,560 And she was the mother of my next tiger, 139 00:12:52,680 --> 00:12:57,240 the one who brought me the most joy. 140 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:01,160 The beginning of Ranthambhore's golden age. 141 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:12,640 In the 1980s, Ranthambhore was a place transformed. 142 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,960 Tigers shed their nocturnal cloak. 143 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,160 They suddenly had no fear of man. 144 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:32,080 And the visibility, the low savanna grasslands here, 145 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:33,920 meant you could see the tigers 146 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:38,400 and watch their behavior like nowhere else on Earth. 147 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:41,080 Noon was my favorite. 148 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:45,840 She was called Noon because she was really active at noon. 149 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:47,840 Noon was a delight. 150 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,640 She was absolutely the opposite of Padmini. 151 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,280 She was the new generation of tigers 152 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:57,080 that had grown without the fear of man. 153 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:09,160 I watched Noon drive away other females; fight them over prey. 154 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:10,880 Force out her sister. 155 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:21,840 I began to understand 156 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,960 that the few square kilometers around the lakes 157 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:26,960 were her territory. 158 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:32,840 She had claimed the richest tiger turf, 159 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,040 one teeming with prey. 160 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:37,760 And now the hunters and people were gone, 161 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:39,840 it was a Tiger Paradise. 162 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,160 Pure magic. 163 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:46,520 It was around this time 164 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:51,360 that I bought some land on the edge of Ranthambhore. 165 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:55,160 More and more, this is where I wanted to be-- 166 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:59,520 alongside the tigers, learning more about their lives. 167 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,240 Ah, wow! 168 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:12,880 This is Noon's mate. A big male called Genghis. 169 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:22,360 One day back in 1983, he had appeared suddenly by the lakes. 170 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:25,280 From where? We don't know. 171 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,840 No one was monitoring the tigers in those days. 172 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,200 What we did know was that males move around 173 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,760 much more than females. 174 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,520 As adults, they leave their family. 175 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,080 They seek out new, big territories 176 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:48,120 that give them access to several females and lots of prey. 177 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,200 Areas like the lakes. 178 00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:00,040 I remember a day, a few months after he arrived. 179 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,160 Sambar deer had congregated in huge numbers 180 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,600 to feast on succulent water plants. 181 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:17,280 But deer weren't the only animals in the water. 182 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:24,520 There are about 120 crocodiles in the lakes. 183 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,560 It's one of the only places in the world 184 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,360 where sambar deer face both predators. 185 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,200 We thought tigers only hunted them on land. 186 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:51,840 But then we saw Genghis make that extraordinary kill. 187 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,400 I couldn't believe 188 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:39,360 that I was seeing an enormous tiger rushing into the water, 189 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:41,160 killing a sambar. 190 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:45,640 And we were lucky. 191 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:54,840 This was the time to record for the world 192 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:56,880 what Ranthambhore was giving, 193 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,680 because so far, the world had no real wild pictures of tigers. 194 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:07,000 And Ranthambhore's tiger population was growing. 195 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,440 There were thirteen tigers when I first arrived. 196 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:13,440 Now we thought there were 45. 197 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,160 They were the best days of my life. 198 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:22,800 Days I thought would never end. 199 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:32,840 I thought I would have another season with Genghis. 200 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:34,800 I didn't know, 201 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:39,320 but that was the last time I saw Genghis in my life. 202 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:56,880 When it happened, it was like a nightmare. 203 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:04,760 Sometime in 1991, I was with Fateh Singh, my tiger guru, 204 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:08,080 and we were wondering what happened to a few of the tigers 205 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:09,560 that we were watching. 206 00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:12,680 We could no longer find them. 207 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:14,760 And Fateh Singh felt that they were missing 208 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:17,920 and maybe they could have been poached. 209 00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:20,120 And I said no, not possible. 210 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:24,120 Who would poach these incredibly beautiful animals? 211 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:35,320 But then began our year of horror-- 212 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,960 poachers started to be caught with skins. 213 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,360 It knocked Fateh Singh and me out. 214 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,840 We just couldn't believe that this was a possibility. 215 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:03,080 The price of bones is soaring as tiger numbers plummet. 216 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,920 India's tigers are being murdered so the Chinese can turn 217 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:09,760 their bones into folk cures for fevers and rheumatism. 218 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:16,680 I think the population all over India is going down. 219 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,000 I think the primary reason for this is poaching 220 00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:20,920 and the bone trade 221 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:23,120 to meet the Chinese demand for medicinal derivatives. 222 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:29,640 I think the tiger faces probable extinction in the next decade. 223 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:31,680 Fateh Singh had no time for poachers. 224 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,040 If he found a poacher, he would charge after him, 225 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:35,440 take him to jail. 226 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:36,880 He believed that this was the only way 227 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:38,200 Ranthambhore would survive. 228 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:39,680 And he was beaten up himself. 229 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:41,680 He nearly died. 230 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,960 His driver jumped on his body to save him and took the beating. 231 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:53,080 This is a letter my Tiger guru Fateh Singh wrote at that time. 232 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:55,200 "It is a massacre. 233 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:57,760 When the police chief showed me the skin, 234 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:00,280 I could not control myself. 235 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,960 Tears were rolling down my cheeks. 236 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:07,760 It's heartbreaking, 237 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:09,840 and sometimes I feel guilty 238 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:14,280 that I taught them to have faith in human beings. 239 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:19,640 All the tigers were shot at point blank range, 240 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,920 just innocently looking at the man with the gun." 241 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,520 I think both Fateh and I felt that over the years 242 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:32,720 we'd worked very hard with the tigers. 243 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,000 They'd lost their fear of man, 244 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:40,400 and they treated the poachers in the friendliest of ways 245 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:42,680 and they lost their lives. 246 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:50,760 Because by now we had learned to identify individuals 247 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:57,400 by their stripes, we could say with certainty that 30 tigers, 248 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,560 tigers that we knew, were gone. 249 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:07,720 Around the lakes just 15 terrified tigers remained, 250 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,880 and I was determined to do all I could to keep them alive. 251 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,880 I entered the arena of government. 252 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,160 Sat on endless committees. 253 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,080 I started a charity with local people. 254 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:27,320 I wrote books. I made a TV series. 255 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,800 I'm Valmik Thapar. 256 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,680 It was the most time I'd spent away from Ranthambhore. 257 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:41,560 But then my next lake tigress drew me back in. 258 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:53,160 Of all the tigers, 259 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:57,200 she is the one who would teach me most about the tiger's life. 260 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,320 We called her Machli, which means fish, 261 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,920 because she had marks like fish bones on her cheek. 262 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,480 She was born during the crisis. 263 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,720 And for the first two years of her life 264 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:22,840 she had stayed with her mother, 265 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:24,920 as all tiger cubs do. 266 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,120 Now, Machli was nearing adulthood. 267 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,880 I guess soon she would need a territory of her own. 268 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:51,680 But when and how would she carve one out? 269 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,400 Tigers communicate with each other silently. 270 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,200 They leave their scent in their territories. 271 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,360 This can attract conflict or repel conflict. 272 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,240 And through this process of territorial marking 273 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:08,080 they talk to each other. 274 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:17,640 Fateh and I watched the pair closely, 275 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:22,440 certain their time together was coming to an end. 276 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,800 The lakes were rich with prey, 277 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,840 but there was only enough for one resident tigress. 278 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,160 Would her mother force Machli out? 279 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,320 The bond Machli once shared with her mother was gone. 280 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,400 And replaced with aggression. 281 00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:11,360 This time, Machli was the one to back down. 282 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,760 At the edge of the lakes is my favorite place. 283 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,320 Raj Bagh-- 284 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,360 the ruined garden of the Kings. 285 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,280 Now tigers hold court here. 286 00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:52,000 I suspected Machli would soon try to overthrow her mother 287 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,680 so she could rule these ruins. 288 00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:02,800 Her mother too sniffed out the threat. 289 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:20,840 To me, Machli seemed a little afraid. 290 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:22,760 But she stood her ground. 291 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,840 I wasn't sure who'd won the confrontation, 292 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:54,600 but shortly after this, Machli's mother left. 293 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,920 Maybe it was the threat of constant conflict. 294 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:01,320 Maybe she sacrificed her territory for her daughter. 295 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:04,800 Either way, Machli now ruled here. 296 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:13,480 Later that year, 297 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,600 Fateh and I realized that a new male had arrived at the lakes. 298 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:24,120 He soon picked up Machli's scent. 299 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,840 We called him Bumboo Ram. 300 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,440 And gradually he got closer to Machli, 301 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,680 leaving markers of his own. 302 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:53,480 Then, one day, Machli approached him. 303 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,000 He was aged 6 or 7. 304 00:27:56,120 --> 00:27:57,800 And in his prime. 305 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,480 It wasn't long before Machli decided she was ready to mate. 306 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,840 The ferocity of tiger mating always impresses me. 307 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,360 I was excited by the thought of a new generation. 308 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,800 It was like a new dawn. 309 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,360 The dark days of hunting and poaching 310 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,760 had long gone, I thought. 311 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:17,800 This was the chance for the clan to truly thrive. 312 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,920 It was a very happy time for me. 313 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,080 I'd met my wife, Sanjna, 314 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:25,480 and had a son, Hamir, 315 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:30,040 named after one of Ranthambhore's greatest rulers. 316 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:34,840 And soon Machli herself had a litter. 317 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:36,480 Two cubs. 318 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,320 This is family life amongst the tiger. 319 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,040 This is the beauty of Ranthambhore. 320 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,880 They are both male cubs. 321 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,560 She is really looking after them at the moment. 322 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:01,160 Oh, wow. Look at them. Learning the ways of the mother. 323 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,800 It was an absolute delight watching these boys grow up. 324 00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,320 But then one day we heard rumors 325 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,480 that trouble was headed their way-- 326 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,520 Their father had vanished 327 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,640 and a new male was patrolling the area. 328 00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:32,280 We called him Nick. 329 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:42,840 Without the protection of their father, 330 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:47,240 Machli's family were in danger. 331 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,240 I'm really worried about these two cubs 332 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:53,040 because they are young male cubs. 333 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:55,680 There could be a new resident male in the area. 334 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:58,880 So the tigress has to be really careful. 335 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,440 She's got to keep them well-protected. 336 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:06,560 She has to defend them and chase away any male intruder. 337 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,800 In fact, she's bound to fight the male 338 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,360 so that he keeps her distance from the cubs. 339 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:20,680 Nick was a huge male in his prime. 340 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,840 I shuddered to think what he could do to the cubs. 341 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:35,200 He could easily kill them in order to mate with Machli 342 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:37,600 and father a litter of his own. 343 00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:52,600 A few days later, I found Machli being pursued by Nick. 344 00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:14,160 He was definitely interested in mating. 345 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,120 Would she give in and let him mate with her, 346 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,160 or would she try and fight him off? 347 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,760 At first, it looked like she was keeping away from Nick 348 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:02,960 so he couldn't get behind her and mount her. 349 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,680 But Nick was really enticed by her scent. 350 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,880 It didn't look like he would give up. 351 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,800 For Machli-- Victory. 352 00:33:54,920 --> 00:34:00,080 For Nick-- An injury that would make it hard to hunt. 353 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,320 Now he knew the cubs had a mother 354 00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,880 who would risk it all to protect them. 355 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,440 A few months later, I saw the most extraordinary moment 356 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:39,640 between a tigress and her cubs. 357 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,400 Machli suckled them. 358 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:08,560 Her cubs were almost two years old. 359 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:11,680 There would have been no milk for them at this age. 360 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,960 Perhaps it was Machli's way of telling them 361 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,440 it was time to say goodbye. 362 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:48,360 After that, everything changed. 363 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,760 I never saw the family together again. 364 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,960 And the cubs struck out to find territories of their own. 365 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:14,760 In 2004, I was very busy with a Supreme Court committee, 366 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:16,640 and we were hearing regularly 367 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,400 that there was something going wrong in Sariska. 368 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:25,440 150 kilometers from the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, 369 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:27,840 that poachers were out. 370 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,440 Nobody was sure about it. 371 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,360 The government of the day refused to admit 372 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,360 that there was a problem, 373 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:40,280 even though the director of the park was crying out for help. 374 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,960 Every tiger in Sariska by September 2004 375 00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:46,920 had been poached and killed. 376 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,080 Sariska had no tigers, and then in central India, 377 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,080 not so far from Ranthambhore, the Panna Tiger Reserve, 378 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,000 all the tigers went extinct there, 379 00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,840 so poaching took a massive turn. 380 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,440 When it happened the second time 381 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,120 it was the same Chinese pressure. 382 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:25,480 It was the illegal trade. 383 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,920 And a new demand for ornamental tiger skins. 384 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,240 It was again trying to keep your tiger safe. 385 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:39,280 How are you going to do it the second time around? 386 00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:02,640 "Scattered thoughts. June 2005. 387 00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:07,440 The future of the tiger is bleak. 388 00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:09,480 God help us." 389 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:19,520 The monsoon of that year was a critical moment. 390 00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,320 It's a time when the rains lash the forest 391 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,360 with incredible force. 392 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:29,120 Ranthambhore completely shuts down. 393 00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:31,400 The roads are washed away. 394 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:36,560 The perfect cover for poachers to strike. 395 00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:40,800 I had no idea where Machli was or if she was still alive. 396 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:48,880 I kept busy in Delhi, 397 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,880 working with the then Prime Minister 398 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,560 to create a moment of huge change. 399 00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:57,760 In the end Project Tiger was scrapped and 400 00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:02,720 and the National Tiger Conservation Authority was launched. 401 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,560 This time because of various connections 402 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:07,160 with the Empowered Committee, 403 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,160 with the Supreme Court Committee, 404 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:12,680 we declared a red alert and an emergency in Ranthambhore. 405 00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:19,600 200 armed men were sent in to surround the periphery 406 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:24,480 and to flush out any intruder, and it created a scare. 407 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,120 We knew that there were problems in Ranthambhore. 408 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:32,120 Fateh Singh, who had by now retired, 409 00:39:32,240 --> 00:39:34,920 said that half the tigers of Ranthambhore had been poached 410 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:39,480 and there were barely 21 tigers left, terrified tigers 411 00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:42,640 who'd experienced a second round of poaching. 412 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,520 I think the lake tigers must have known what was going on, 413 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:51,280 because on the edges of their territory 414 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,720 there were vacant areas. 415 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,840 The tigers on the outer areas had vanished, 416 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:03,960 and the silence of death hung in the air. 417 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,480 Every tiger on the lakes would have known that. 418 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,400 Luckily the area around the lakes was the inner sanctum. 419 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:29,080 It was very difficult for poachers 420 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:30,800 to get to the lake area. 421 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:38,240 So, the lake tigresses has survived 422 00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:40,920 because the area around is fortified, 423 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:42,640 there are gates and entry points. 424 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:44,680 There are lots of forest guards. 425 00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,080 So the poachers were not going to take a risk in this area. 426 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:55,560 So the lake tigers kept on producing cubs 427 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,400 that would go out and repopulate areas 428 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:00,360 where tigers had been poached. 429 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,920 And that's what happened. That's what saved Ranthambhore. 430 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,520 And that's what saved Machli. 431 00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:13,880 She survived yet another crisis. 432 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,280 And her final litter would grow up 433 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,640 and spread out all over Ranthambhore and beyond. 434 00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:42,400 When I first went to Ranthambhore, 435 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:46,600 it was a tiny patch of 300 square kilometers. 436 00:41:46,720 --> 00:41:51,120 Today, adjacent to it are three tiger reserves, 437 00:41:51,240 --> 00:41:54,320 and we have 5,000 square kilometers 438 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:56,840 where tiger populations can go to, 439 00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,400 where tigers can migrate to. 440 00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,320 That's success. 441 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:06,600 That required hard work by a bunch of people. 442 00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,880 And one of those people is my colleague, 443 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,800 Dr. Dharmendra Khandal. 444 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:23,280 He has data of 20 years of Ranthambhore's tigers. 445 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,160 And that enables us to really look back 446 00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:27,960 and work out for the first time 447 00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:33,360 exactly how Ranthambhore's tigers are related. 448 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:38,600 Today, we know that Machli's genes are in 75% 449 00:42:38,720 --> 00:42:41,360 of all Ranthambhore tigers. 450 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:44,480 Including my next tiger, Krishna. 451 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:46,600 One of Machli's daughters. 452 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:49,400 And a tigress that shook my being. 453 00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:53,080 She ruled the lakes for a while. 454 00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:56,280 And had four little cubs of her own. 455 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:05,960 It's very rare to find a tigress with four small cubs. 456 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:09,960 And there was an incredible afternoon when she took her cubs 457 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,040 and walked to the palace den. 458 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:18,440 To get to the palace den 459 00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:22,480 you have to cross a little bit of water. 460 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:28,120 And that's where a few big crocodiles lie, 461 00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:30,920 waiting to get their chance on anything that passes. 462 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:40,520 She carefully negotiated the water carrying the weakest cub 463 00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:44,240 in her mouth while the others followed her. 464 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,200 She lost one of the cubs. 465 00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:57,600 It brought tears to my eyes that day. 466 00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:09,360 One of the cubs that survived 467 00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,960 still lives around the lakes today. 468 00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:16,200 She was named Arrowhead because she has two pointy eyebrows, 469 00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:19,320 like two arrows, on her forehead. 470 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:23,800 She's family, 471 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:27,120 she always surprises me 472 00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:29,560 and I see much of her today. 473 00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:36,560 For a while, she ruled the lakes. 474 00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,360 But today, this territory is no longer hers 475 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,960 and she should not be here. 476 00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:47,080 Recently she started behaving in unpredictable ways. 477 00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:53,360 I was startled when I saw on a camera's viewfinder 478 00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:56,680 Arrowhead arriving at the lakes 479 00:45:56,800 --> 00:46:01,360 and finding a way to attack an enormous softshell turtle. 480 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,920 And she not only grabs a turtle in the shallow water, 481 00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:31,120 she picks it up and rushes back into the grass 482 00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:33,640 and starts to devour it. 483 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:37,080 Was she, like Genghis all those years before, 484 00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:40,360 not afraid of crocodiles in the lakes? 485 00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:43,680 Well, what I saw next made me think 486 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,440 that she was not fearless, but desperate. 487 00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,000 Arrowhead's back in the lakes. 488 00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:59,000 And this time she chases after a small crocodile. 489 00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:05,080 She charges into the water, misses the baby crocodile, 490 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,240 but she doesn't realize she's in a deep place. 491 00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,520 And there are bigger crocodiles. 492 00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,320 Big crocodiles pounce on her under the water. 493 00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:22,600 Then I don't know how, 494 00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:25,480 she manages to free herself. 495 00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:37,560 And then, a short while later, 496 00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:40,800 someone filmed her eating a crocodile. 497 00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:56,440 Suddenly, memories of years ago came flooding back. 498 00:47:56,560 --> 00:48:01,200 And I remembered that my nephew Jaisal had filmed this. 499 00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,640 Arrowhead's grandmother Machli wrestling 500 00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:09,240 and eventually killing a 4-meter crocodile. 501 00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:15,440 No one had ever recorded such a thing before or since. 502 00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:19,800 Severe droughts had driven Machli to behave in this way. 503 00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,320 What was driving Arrowhead? 504 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:32,720 A few days later, we found out. 505 00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:35,200 She had been pregnant 506 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:40,520 and in desperate need of protein for her milk. 507 00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:44,920 Now her cubs have been filmed just weeks old. 508 00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:49,440 Oh, they are lovely shots. Absolutely lovely. 509 00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:55,960 It's amazing. 510 00:48:56,080 --> 00:48:59,880 This is really valuable, precious footage. 511 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:02,520 They are barely able to crawl. 512 00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:10,520 Wow. It's amazing. 513 00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:13,480 This is the secret life of tigers. 514 00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:26,280 But how will Arrowhead keep them alive? 515 00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:32,760 She no longer rules the lakes. 516 00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:36,080 And she's finding it difficult to survive. 517 00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:42,320 She's desperate because she has very little prey to hunt. 518 00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:46,720 Trespassing into the lake territory as she'd done before 519 00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:50,960 is much more risky with such small cubs. 520 00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:10,440 Today the lakes are ruled by another tigress-- Riddhi. 521 00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:15,680 She too has three cubs, three mouths to feed. 522 00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:18,440 She is one of Arrowhead's older daughters 523 00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,720 from a previous litter. 524 00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:26,000 So now we have mother and daughter with three cubs each, 525 00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:28,320 in bordering territories. 526 00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:36,520 What will happen? We have no idea. 527 00:50:36,640 --> 00:50:38,880 Which of them will survive? 528 00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,640 Will they meet? 529 00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:42,640 Will they fight? 530 00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,240 Will they play? 531 00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:50,440 I can't wait to see this new family drama play out. 532 00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:57,800 Today, 70 tigers live across this landscape 533 00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:02,240 instead of the 13 we began with 50 years ago. 534 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:06,240 And I wonder which of them will become like family. 535 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,840 When I am asked what I have done with my life, 536 00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:22,200 the only answer I can give is this-- 537 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:24,840 That I have been amongst the wild tigers 538 00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:28,440 that roam Ranthambhore's magnificent lakes 539 00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:32,000 and helped them to thrive. 540 00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:38,000 And my love for five tigresses in particular has molded me. 541 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,320 Padmini. 542 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:43,720 Noon. 543 00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:46,640 Machli. 544 00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,080 Krishna. 545 00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:51,520 And Arrowhead. 546 00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:57,920 Piecing together the story of their matriarchal clan 547 00:51:58,040 --> 00:52:00,600 has been the privilege of my life. 548 00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,200 They have been like a family to me. 549 00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:22,320 And I can only hope that this story of their secret lives 550 00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:26,760 will help others to love them as I do. 551 00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:30,400 And endeavor to fight for their future.