I will no doubt have more to say on this subject but for the record I have yet to see one here in Kanha after four safaris. I can live with that and here is why. Those four days have coincided with ridiculous numbers of visitors in the park. The scenes in the morning have been chaotic with people arriving at three in the morning just to get in. The admin staff at the park entrance at Khatia have shown extraordinary patience and resilience given the crush of people wanting to get in. The demand is now so great that there is a Ticket Verification counter in an attempt to stop the resale of entry tickets. How is that for a model of the basic economics of scarcity. Sadly this is both the future and the reality of Tiger Tourism – ever increasing numbers chasing (and I mean physically chasing ) ever decreasing numbers of charismatic megafauna. I watched a gypsy jeep chase two Gaur calves off the road today in their haste to get a better view. I was mildly inconvenienced as I was trying to take a photo of them at the time but I wondered about why would you bother coming to a National Park if you evidently aren’t that concerned about wildlife except as a backdrop to a nice day out ? Is it all about the tiger? Probably yes. there are an awful lot of visitors who feel that they want their money back if they don’t see the stripes. I don’t which is a good thing as I’m now booked for another two weeks of safaris. I’m very glad to be here and just watching the birdlife or even the light on the sal forest is reason enough to be so. If the next two weeks brings tiger then so be it. I’d just like actually getting inside the park to be a bit less like Pandaemonium which the literate of you out there on ‘tinterweb will know was Milton’s Infernal City from Paradise Lost.