An orphaned tiger cub crouches silently in the undergrowth. A chital grazes a few metres away, unaware of the predator inching closer. Hidden behind camouflage screens, forest guards watch every movement through binoculars. No one speaks. No one steps forward. The cub must never know they are there. If the hunt succeeds, it will have learnt another vital lesson.
This is not a zoo or safari, but one of Madhya Pradesh’s hidden “tiger schools”, where orphaned cubs are prepared for survival in the wild without ever knowing that humans kept them alive.