I like to travel to beat the insipidity of mundane city life every now and then. Ranthambore  had been on my wish list for quite some time.  So having got a few days off, my friend and I along with four other members set off for Ranthambore. We reached Sawai Madhopur in the morning and proceeded to our hotel.  After lunch we left for our first safari with excitement and the hope of getting a glimpse of the elusive tiger.  Having heard tales from others of not having seen a tiger on their safaris we kept our fingers crossed.

- By Alka Kanetkar

Strange as it may sound, only about 10% of the tourists traveling to Ladakh, actually go to Zanskar. The initial discussions on Zanskar with people in Ladakh gave me an idea of how remote this land is and how difficult it is to get there. Our driver, in his very informative and earnest tone told us, "the first time an army chopper had gone there for a rescue operation, the villagers had thought a huge bird had flown to their land and they welcomed it with food!"

- Gaurav

An official report on the state of tigers in India published last year bares the stark reality of the possibility of a Tiger-less "Incredible India". It says that only 1411 have survived in the Indian wilderness, with statistical variance in place the figure could be as less than 1165 or as high as 1657.   A collapse of over 40 per cent in just the last ten years. Poaching, revenge killings, Chinese medicine, pelt sales, population and livestock pressures and deforestation are held up as the principle causes. It is no matter of discussion that the current systems in place are not working. - Ayush