A factual story of India’s Living Legend, Bakasur, possibly the biggest Tiger that will ever be.
Nearly two years ago, a lovely Tigress named PC was unfortunately snared by a wire trap in Tipeshwar and almost succumbed to the snare. She managed to break the wire but the loop tightened around her neck and the poor girl was unable to hunt and became dangerously weak. She had two cubs to nurture…. Bakasur and pretty Sindhu.
The Forest officials resorted to baiting PC in an effort to tranquillise her but she would run away with just a little bit of the bait. Bakasur would then pounce upon the bait and would gorge around 25 kilos of meat in a single sitting. Sindhu too would eat a good leftover portion.
Bakasur would pause his gorging and then after an hour or so would begin eating again, only to bring out the excessive meat, a little while later. He would remain sitting and then would devour whatever he had thrown up and this continued for over two months until his mom, PC, was finally tranquillised and the snare removed.
By now the young cub had become a ferocious killer, and by the time he was over a year and a half, he resorted to cattle killing along the ‘Kheti boundary’. No one dared come near Bakasur. Even the Gypsy drivers with tourists would stay away from this tiger as he had charged upon several Gypsies.
Bakasur could finish off a spotted deer in a single day.
Bakasur represents gluttony, greed, and the destruction caused by unchecked power. He is truly so.
On March 10 of 2026, as I was returning from installing a TWL Solar Pump at Compartment 146/143 – Guru Nanak Piao -9, I was dead tired and half asleep in the forest jeep, a hard top vehicle. Suddenly, about 300 meters away, I saw a slight movement and within seconds a big male Tiger appeared on the jeep track. In a flash, I had my pro-camera out and ready and when I looked at the tiger through the 600 mm lens, my jaw dropped. The biggest face of a Tiger I had ever seen (and I’ve seen quite a few). It was Bakasur.
What follows is a sequence of a shoot that i took while stepping out of the vehicle (hard top and couldn’t shoot through the wind shield) and how this giant finally accepted me.
