National Park After Dark - The Terrible Fate of Tiger T-24: Ranthambore National Park

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

Tiger T-24 was the king of Ranthambore National Park. After being linked to the killing of four people, he was labeled a man-eater who was too dangerous to exist in the park and was removed from the wild to live a life of captivity inside of a zoo.  The move sparked nation wide protests and ignited conversations regarding the detrimental impacts of human-wildlife conflict.Listen ad free and get exclusive content when you join Apple Subscriptions . For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Athena Club: Go to athenaclub.com and use promo code NPAD today and you’ll get 25% off your first order!Earth Breeze: Use our link to subscribe and save 40%.Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your first order.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our link.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Have you ever wondered how many people there are on this planet?

There are approximately 8 billion, 19,000, 303,358 people on Earth. But that is a statistic that I am reading at 10.50 a.m. on Tuesday, February 28, 2020. Already on this day, 165,968 people and counting have been born. 83,207 people and counting have died today. That means that the population growth has surpassed 83,000 new people just this morning. And the population growth for this year has surpassed 10,700,000 and it's only February. We have seen a drastic population increase over the past several decades. Since the 1960s, our population has grown by over 4 billion people.

The implications we have seen and will continue to see throughout our own lifetime and the next will vary in all aspects of our lives. The increase in people create an increased demand for food, water, housing, healthcare, transportation, and jobs. More people leads to the need for more deforestation, spikes in pollution, and wars fought over depleting land and natural resources. To put it in simple terms, humans are taking up so much space on the planet that we are running out of room. Land that we were once able to share with the wildlife around us, we are now invading to make space for ourselves. We are seeing more and more human wildlife conflict. In many instances, we have taken over and driven species out entirely.

And in others, we have attempted to live amongst the largest and most dangerous apex predators that exist. But with our increasing populations and wildlife's depleting resources and land that they are able to exist on, we have created a new and hostile environment. We have trapped these creatures in small corners of the world, expecting them to live off the little means that we are willing to share. But what happens when humans back apex predators into a corner and threaten their very existence? You create man-eaters. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I have goosebumps.

It's my favorite type of episode, and I'm so excited that you're telling me instead of vice versa. I know. We've switched roles for this one. Oh, my God, I'm so excited. But to be fair, you are the one who told me about this episode. This episode was your idea. Okay, yes, but I'm still, I know very little about it. Intentionally, because I was like, okay, I know this subject.

brought it up to you and I'm just excited for you to take the rain so I can because I stopped I was like I don't want to know any more about it I just want to be taught so like I want to sit back and relax and hear the story yes oh my god okay I'm so excited you're doing this this week okay really quick before we get into the story I just want to say if you want to listen to this episode ad free we are now on Apple subscriptions we also have bonus monthly episodes we have extra trail tales we have a lot of exclusive content on there so you can join on Apple subscription Yeah, now you have two choices, Patreon or Apple. Pick your poison. Yeah, whatever you prefer. Yeah, but there's a lot of cool stuff on there. Okay, all right, are we good? Sorry to rush you. Like,

this is all great, but I am so excited for this episode. Okay, let's talk about tigers. Okay, great. Well, we are doing a man-eater episode, and we're doing another tiger man-eater episode for this one, and we are heading to India for it. Just get it to do it. I'm just so excited. Just go. We have nothing to talk about, just tell the story. Okay, well, we are going to Ratham Borne National Park. It is located in northern India south of New Delhi. The national park is one of the largest national parks in India and covers over 1,300 square kilometers of land, which is over 500 square miles. It is also one of the most renowned parks because it was once a famous hunting ground for royal families, including Queen Elizabeth. There's lots of photos of them hunting here because there is an abundance of wildlife

that resides here. There's leopards, hyenas, sloth bears, marsh crocodiles, Indian pythons, jackals, and the most infamous of the area, which is the Royal Bengal Tigers. Because there are so many tigers here, the park was originally established as one of the Project Tiger Reserves in 1973. The project began because of the mass amounts of hunting that was happening to tigers. In just a couple of years, the tiger population went from around 40,000 across India and China to just under 5,000, with three of the eight subspecies going completely extinct. This has been caused by a combination of habitat loss, overhunting, and human conflict. Tigers are commonly hunted as trophies, but they are also used for traditional Chinese medicine. Their bones are used to treat ulcers,

typhoid, malaria, burns, and even arthritis. Their whistisd, are worn as talismans and protective charms. And some believe that their whiskers make you bulletproof and their skin and furs are worn as a symbol of wealth. And it's not like they think that it actually makes you bulletproof. It makes you like, it gives you the luck that makes it so nothing will happen to you. So it's kind of like you're bulletproof to anything coming at you. Okay. Tiger penises are used as an aphrodisiac when they're eaten. And despite there being absolutely no medical evidence, they are, are used as a treatment for erectile dysfunction. Yeah, the key for that is no medical evidence of that work. Yeah, like there's other means for that. Yeah, let's find another route to get it going, to get it spicy. Along with that, even though some of the use of tiger stuff has been proved to help with ailments,

scientists have found alternative methods that work significantly better. They've found simple herbal treatments that work better than tigers than anything that tigers have, and they also have developed actual medications that help. Despite this, the poaching of tigers is still happening and is still a major problem. And even Chinese and South Asian governments have informed the public of these treatment methods and have tried to yield against tiger poaching, but it's still happening very often. There's an average of 124 tigers that are killed every year. In 2016, a known 316 tigers were confiscated from traffic.

and just Thailand alone. Now, these numbers might not sound like they're super alarming and huge when we're talking about a couple hundred, but tigers are one of the most critically endangered animals in the entire world. The Ratham Boar National Park was established on November 1st, 1980, to grant further access and protection to the tigers inside of this park. Along with that, the Tiger Reserve was expanded to surrounding forests as well. So there's the park, and then right outside the park there's tiger reserves specifically for them okay kind of like a buffer zone yeah it is it but there are issues because there is a small buffer zone on certain parts of the park and we'll get into it more but there's other parts of the park that there's almost no buffer zone at all and there's

actually from the town to the park all it is is a stone wall oh shit okay this episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. With this park, with all this land, only 20% of the park is open for tourists, but this park is now one of the most popular parks in the world to see tigers in the wild, and there are over 430,000 people who visit every year.

For that reason, I'm sure. For that reason, because you can just come in and you're pretty much guaranteed to see a tiger in this 20% of the park that they're willing to share with tourists. Now, while it brings a lot of tourism, Rathambor is also widely used among locals. Just outside the park walls is the city of Sawai, Madobu. Boar, which houses a population of over 165,000 people. Inside of the park, along with the tigers, is the old Rantambor Fort, which is remnants of a building that still stands that withstood ancient wartimes and has sacred mosques and temples that are still standing inside of it. So this park is not

just used for seeing tigers, but locals use this as a sacred temple place to visit. The Ganesha Temple is a major attraction to the fort where religious worship, still takes place every single day. The temple is the only one like it in the entire world. In the Hindu religion, it is the most famous and oldest temple of Lord Ganesha, who in Hindu mythology, is said to be the god of wish fulfillment. He is the god of wealth, fortune, wisdom, and education. It is said that he and his whole family once lived in the temple,

and Hindus from around the world travel to be here. And even every single year, thousands of people send in letters and their marriage invitations to this temple in beliefs that they will get the blessing from Lord Ganesha as a symbol of their hope and wishes to be fulfilled. Oh, that's really interesting. Yeah, it has a huge cultural significance here. However, to travel here, you have to use the Fort Trail, which is a walking slash road trail that leads you directly through Tiger territory. And for some unlucky travelers, they cross path with Tiger T-24, also known as Ustad, the king of Rathambeer National Park, who was also to become a known man-eater.

So you just walk. You just walk through tiger territory. I mean, there's something to be said about, I know people walk, technically walk through tiger territory all of the time because they live there and tigers are part of the ecosystem. But to be in such a place that has such a high concentration of tigers that you're almost guaranteed to see them is a whole different situation. You're just strolling down a dirt road. It's like, ah.

And people do drive and you can take motorbikes and stuff, but walking is also a way to get to the temple in a very common way. That reminds me of like, have you seen those videos of, it's a person on a GoPro on like a dirt bike or a motorbike and they're just like strolling down the road and then all of a sudden a tiger comes out of like the bush and like chases after them? Have you ever seen those? Oh my God. I've seen the ones with bears. doing that, but not a tiger. Yeah. Yeah, there's a couple I've seen that like get circulated here and there, you know. And it's so scary because I just think of a cat like wanting to chase something that's going fast, that's zipping by it.

You know what I mean? And they're so fast. I know. I know. Well, back to Eustod, T24. Eustad translates to the master and he was born in Rathambeorn National Park in 2005 to Tiger T20 and Tigris T22. He grew to be one of the largest tigers that has ever been inside of the park. He weighed a total of 596 pounds, which is 270 kilograms, and to put that into perspective,

a typical Bengal tiger ranges between 240 to 500 pounds. So he was almost 100 pounds heavier than any other tiger in the park. Because of his size and his sheer strength that came with it, he remained unmatched for male competitors, and he ruled over the park for nine years. His size and his reign over the park drew an attention from wildlife lovers and photographers, but it wasn't just his size and the fact that he was the king of the park. He also had some peculiar behavior that people were really interested in seeing. Tigers are typically known to avoid human interactions and to attempt to remain out of sight.

T24, however, was known to kill his prey and that he would move it and drag it near highways and open roads, and he would eat his kill in full public view. Ooh, okay. Like have a show. He's like, I just fucking murdered this. Yeah, like, look at me. Look at me. Look at me.

Look at me. Look at me. Yeah. And while he didn't engage with humans, he never attempted to approach them. He wasn't even going outside of his territory boundaries that was known. He didn't fear them like other tigers did. When he would cross paths with humans, he didn't stop his daily routine. Like, just because there was a person there, he didn't.

didn't get up and move. He didn't change his course. He seemed really unfaced by them. Which is concerning. Which is concerning. Yeah. And people, but people loved it because he became a tiger that was very easy to photograph. Yeah, I guess. But yeah, there's like something in the back of your mind that should be flagging about that. I'm like, what is going on here? Yeah. Everyone else is afraid and this huge ass tiger doesn't care. Now, while Bengal's tigers typically live alone and aggressively mark their territories to keep any rivals away, males will also briefly allow the company of female tigers for mating purposes only. And while it is documented that male tigers will have a role in raising cubs if the mother's not around, typically the mother leaves and raises the cubs on their own.

There's some single moms over there. And both male and female tigers are known to mate with many other tigers throughout their lifetime. People have joked that they're polyamorous, they don't have life partners, they kind of just travel around mating with whoever, creating more tigers. But T-24 was different. This was another behavior that was very different that made him more interesting than some of the other tigers. T-24 found a life mate. Her name was Nore, also known as T-34. They ruled the park together, and with their first litter, they had a male cub who T-24 helped to raise. Photographers and visitors the park captured videos and pictures of T-24 teaching and playing with their cub. Ustad and Nora lived in harmony together.

From all witness accounts, they got along really well. They had raised cubs together and they seemed to have a routine. Often it was Noor who hunted for them while Eustad protected their territory. Nor would go out, hunt. And typically the way that she would do this and how all bengal tigers would do this is they quietly stalk their prey from behind, get as close as they can without being seen, then they lunge at the animal's neck and with one singular swift swoop, they hold on tightly with their powerful jaws on their neck. And you would think that they die from bleeding out or whatever,

but often their prey actually dies from suffocation because their jaws cut off their airway. Oh yeah. It is possible. I mean, sometimes they'll hit an artery and they bleed out really quickly and die, but many times when a tiger kills, they die from suffocation. Interesting. During our live show, someone asked us, like, what was the, I forget the specific question of like during our Spotify live. Someone asked how we would want to die by an animal. Yeah. And I was like, big cat for sure. For this exact reason, it's quick. And you don't see it coming, hopefully. Yeah. It's just like, one and done. Yeah, like, I don't want to go any other way where it's like suffering or I know it's coming or whatever. Like, if I could just... It's just like, you're strolling having a nice time and then

your lights out. Yeah. I wake up somewhere else. I'm like, oh, my God. That's simulation. over. Wow. Wow, that's cool. I'm a fucking eagle now. Exactly. So, Nor often did the hunting for them, and she would make her kills, and then Eustad was actually the one who would go back later for it, and he would drag it into a well-hidden place for him, her, and their cub to eat in a safe private area. So did they spend a lot of time together, or was it just they got together? They shared the same territory, and they spent, all their time together. Okay, because I wasn't sure if you meant that they just repetitively mated with each other, whereas usually they would just like find whoever else. No, they live

together and this was like kind of an odd behavior because a lot of times it was just you mate and then you live on your own. But they lived harmoniously together. They hunted together. They ate together. They stayed in the same areas. They didn't, um, I shouldn't say they hunted together because they hunted separately, but ate the same kills. Yeah. They hunted for each other. Okay. Mostly nor. And sometimes these kills did clash with locals because the park literally bordered the city. There was just a wall that separated them. And on the other side of that wall was grazing pastures for farm animals. So it wasn't uncommon for farm cows to pass through the open gates and get taken down by a tiger. Which caused a huge issue for locals because this was how they made their money. It was their means to survive were these

farm cows and this livestock. So this would cause a lot of stress to the locals when this would happen. But because Rathamor has park rangers employed to protect the tigers from angry locals and poachers, it was very difficult for the locals to ever retaliate against the tigers. It was not, it didn't mean it didn't happen because it certainly did sometimes when locals had been upset or that this type of thing had happened or upset with the service for not protect. them from tigers, it wasn't uncommon for them to try and poison them, to burn down forests. There was even instances where the people burned down the park services building. Oh, shit.

Because they were so angry. So there's definitely some high tensions between the people of the area and these tigers being there. You stad in Norse Cub, after about two years with them, left the territory. And it's not uncommon for young to become the alpha male and actually take over the territory and not leave. Many times the son will actually take over after the father because they're big, strong, younger. However, their cub never outgrew the massive size of Eustad and did not attempt to even challenge him. When it came time, he left and he found his own territory further north outside of the park and inside of a tiger reserve. Where T-24 was located inside of the park, his territory was directly through the walking path to the temple.

Park Rangers, because of this, had to heavily monitor the path, and often they did close it because of tiger activity that was too close to it. They would monitor to protect visitors and also to protect the tigers from the visitors. It was not uncommon for park rangers to move a recent kill away from the walking path to have it open daily for visitors. If the tigers killed their prey and moved it close to the path, the rangers would then move it farther away, disrupting the patterns of the tigers, which would then cause them stress and unwelior. when finding their kill to be moved. With so many visitors walking along the pathway, it was also just too dangerous to have them so close to humans. So they were trying to mitigate this issue by having tigers as far away as possible,

but they were influencing that and then still allowing the people to come in for their daily prayer. And their daily prayer, I think I read it was they have five prayers a day. Oh, wow. So there are people coming in and out of this path all day long. Can you just think about for a second how scary that job is? So scary. Like, it's like, okay, you have to, I'm sure there's many people involved. Like, people on the lookout, armed guards, and people to actually physically move it too.

But damn, like, what a scary endeavor. Yeah, you just never know when one's going to be around. In April, 2009, T-24 had an infected paw wound from a large thorn, and he was observed heavily limping on that paw. Conservationist ended up intervening and they sedated him, cleaned his paw, bandaged it, and administered antibiotics. But while a typical circumstance of something like this happening would take about 30 minutes because they would want to have the least amount of impact on wildlife as possible, they kept T24 for 48 hours with him under heavy sedation. Before they released him, they put a radio caller on him to be able to monitor him and study him. And some believe that this may have had a huge impact on future relationships with humans and to the abnormal fearlessness that he had towards them.

They said that keeping him for 48 hours around people in such close proximity, and he was sedated, but he wasn't under anesthesia. Like he was still conscious when this was happening. Yeah. So they think that it's possible that this instance could have affected him later in life. It was in 2010 when T-24 first became the suspect. and a human killing. Gamondi Lal, a young man, was killed in a tiger attack when he went into the park and went straight into tiger territory to collect wood. He had been cutting down a tree that a tiger was

resting in the shade underneath. Oh, okay. Yeah, like, hello. Of all the trees, first of all, this is the one. Is that legal to do there? I don't think so, but I did read, There's multiple instances of this happening because there's kind of a gray area between like right outside the park and the park boundary where people are trying to use resources for their own farming. Okay. So it's not uncommon. He was found after his wife reported him missing and was worried that something happened to him inside the park. He was found just a few feet inside of the park boundaries along the edge of the park's stone wall. When they found his body, T-24 was sitting on top of him.

Although this didn't necessarily indicate that he was the killer, later T24's radio caller put him at the site around the same time he was estimated to have been attacked. While it has been widely reported that he went into the park to cut wood, his father insists that it was a different story. He said that his son actually went into the park to defecate and was not aware that he was being stalked by a tiger. And this might sound really weird and outlandish, like why would he go into the park to poop? Yeah, I have questions. But with the park, literally bordering the city, there were thousands of people on the other side of it. And it was common for locals to climb over the wall and use the woods as a bathroom. It's illegal. It's very illegal. But people do it very often.

There's no bathrooms. There's no public restrooms around. And I saw there's a documentary, and I'll talk about it a little bit later, but they had video of it. And it looked like it was people who were like working or selling things. and there's no bathroom there are outside, and they would just hop over the wall, walk into tiger territory, go to the bathroom, jump back over the wall. Yeah, I feel like I just risk it somewhere else. Even if there is no public, either way, you're not using a public facility. So why would you go into a tiger reserve to do something?

But the other option is an open road with thousands of people walking around. I guess. I don't know. Take your chances, but. Yeah, I don't know. This guy, he did, and it didn't work out too well for him. Following the attack, friends and family members came together in mobs protesting T-24 and threatening violence against T-24, the park rangers, everyone.

And because of this, researchers really feared for the future of T-24, so they removed his collar after the incident. We don't want him to be linked to anything. It was deemed that because he had entered the park illegally and the park rangers did not know he was there and he was killed in known tiger territory. while behaving in an illegal and reckless way. It was determined that it was not T24's fault for his death and it was likely a one-time incident. And it was also determined that they couldn't prove it was T-24.

Just because T-24 was sitting on top of his body does not mean that he was the one who killed him because it was common behavior that tigers would kill their prey and come back for it later. So it was possible that he would just happen to be in the area, came across it, and was sitting on him. Right. And he's also bigger than any other tiger there. If he, like, came across it with another tiger guarding it, he could have easily overcome and overtaken another animal for that. Exactly. On March 9, 2012, Ashfag Amend was the second human that T24 was thought to have killed. He was inside tiger territory, cutting down a specific type of leaves that he fed his goats when he was attacked and killed.

Neighbors shortly afterwards, who were out in the same area as him, came out looking at. for him. They found his blood and an axe on the ground. When they walked a little further, they found Ashfok's head severed from his body, and also his arms were removed from his body laying on the ground. It was clear the rest of his body had already been consumed. It is believed that what had happened to him was the tiger was probably already in that area, sitting, relaxing, and hanging out where they were. It was steep, rocky terrain. And it was likely that Ashfok spooked him and was attacked as a result. Where he was found has been an ongoing area of tensions

between the tigers and the people of the neighboring city because the tiger territory interlaces with the same land that farmers used to collect food for their animals and bring to their livestock to graze. Here, tigers coexist with humans and humans are supposed to be wary of any attacks, even though they are pretty rare. Because this happened in known T-4's territory,

it is believed that he was killed by him, even though T-24 was not seen to be the one who attacked him. But no, tiger was. Like, no, they didn't pin in on any specific animal. No, they just found that he was consumed. Okay. And T-24 was in the area because it's his territory. Right.

Later that following year, on October 25th, 2012, another person was killed. This time, it was a forest ranger named Gizu Tsai, and he was killed while working inside of the park. He was one of the men who was employed to protect tigers and the forest inside of the park. That day, he had been doing maintenance on the road, and he was cleaning out brush and cleaning up the road, just making it drivable for people and walkable. That day, there were two separate groups of foresters that were working. Gizu had walked about 50 meters ahead and around a bend in the road. And unbeknownst to him, around that corner, on top of a large rock, was T-24 sitting on top of it.

Only a couple moments later, foresters heard him shouting, a tiger's caught me. He's eating me. Oh, God. In a panic, the other men rushed to his aid. But by the time they had reached him, he had disappeared. In an attempt to scare the tiger from finishing the attack, the foresters screamed as loud as they could. They threw rocks in all types of directions.

But there was no sign of the tiger or their friend. And it was way too dangerous for the men to walk off of the path for them to look for him. So they're just screaming, throwing rocks. They radio for help. And about 20 minutes later, Rangers arrived. in a jeep. And being inside of a jeep meant that your chances of being attacked by a tiger were significantly lower. It was not typical for a tiger to go after a jeep. Even though a lot of these jeeps that go through the park, they're open in the back. They're not like the closed off. They're

sitting in the back. They're open. Tigers wouldn't go near them. Now with this Jeep, it wasn't long before they found the tiger in Kizu. The tiger was sitting on top of his lifeless body. They hollered. they threw things at the tiger in attempts to drive him away. But this tiger snarled and charged them and was protecting his kill. For their own safety, they had to reverse and wait for more help. And then almost 20 more vehicles showed up. But T24 was still not leaving and he was aggressively protecting the Forrester's body. With all of the jeeps that had been open-backed and easily offering access, even though it's unlikely,

if they had approached and he was acting aggressively, he could, could have killed someone else. So they had no other option. All they could do was photograph the body and photograph the tiger, proving that it was T4 to positively identify him later. After several hours and the use of firecrackers, they were able to get T24 away from the body long enough to come in and retrieve it. And it was really fast. It was like he stepped away, get in, get in, get out. Yeah. And it was very clear that he was killed in deliberate tiger fashion. He had, had taken him, grabbed one quick grab to his neck, and suffocated him from the force. This was now the third victim of T24, and townspeople were a mixture of upset and understanding.

Some people believe that if you enter tiger territory, that was the risk. While others believed that tigers were a huge danger to all people, especially T24. I just have a question really quick before you go on. Yeah. How was he able to shout out that he was being a... actively eaten if he was suffocated so quickly in one swift movement. I don't understand that. I don't know. Like maybe it was like he grabbed him and maybe he hadn't like clenched down fully yet or something. I don't know. It's just like a logistical question, I guess. I mean, and rhetorical because

obviously you don't know. People heard it. That's how they discovered. So, but when they looked at his body leader, it was obvious that he had one big bite wound in his neck. Yeah. Gotcha. So now we're getting to the, like, is it okay, is it not type of thing now with T20? Because now this is the third instance. This is the third attack. People are starting to get mad. Yeah. They're like, come on.

He's attacked three people now. Yeah. And when this happens, you look at the tiger, but also these families are losing their loved ones. Right. And sometimes they're losing their providers for their families. And in this instance, he had killed someone who was actively working at the park. Not someone going in illegally to do, you know, as was the other cases. Yeah.

Where it was easier to kind of like side with the tiger and natural behavior and this and that. Whereas now it's still a natural behavior. Don't get me wrong. Like as far as hunting easy prey. But it's like, okay, but this is someone that wasn't doing anything illegal. They weren't reckless. They were literally just doing their job. And they were labeling T-24 as a man eater now.

They're like, this is the third person. come on, what's going on? But with the park service and conservationists, they're still saying, you know, he probably spooked him. He came across. We were walking in tiger territory. This is the risk with the job. And he would not have wanted a tiger to pay the consequence. Yeah, it was just like at the end of the day, this is their behavior. This is the risk. We know the risks and we work here. So nothing happened still with the tiger. And the next few years went relatively smoothly for tiger attacks. There were no fatalities. You Staud and Nor continued living their lives inside the park. They had another litter and this time they had two male tigers. Again,

they stayed together as lifemates. They raised the cubs together. They caught more footage of interactions between T24 and his cubs. He was playing with them, teaching them. They had footage of his cubs like kind of annoying him and jumping on him and him just like allowing it to happen. He was all in all. He was like a good dad. As they grew older, the and larger, the dynamic did change a little bit. As they were now about one years old, they were still allowed in T24's territory as they were still learning the ropes and figuring out how to hunt and things. But because they were larger now, they could be perceived as a threat. And they needed to be more wary of T24 because it was not uncommon for males to kill their own cubs to keep the dominance over their own territory. However, T24 was also different in his behavior in this way. T24 was forgiving and his cubs didn't have to avoid him entirely. His cubs could approach him where in other circumstances, if they were to approach in other circumstances, it would be considered as a threat and as a challenge and another tiger

might have killed them. For him, he would allow it to happen as long as they submitted and showed that, like, hey, I know that you're the boss here. I know you're stronger. I'm not challenging you. I'm just hanging out. He was fine with it. He didn't show aggression towards them. He let them be in his territory in his vicinity, not even just like in his own territory, but next to him. I feel like this has a lot to do with, maybe it's partially a difference in temperament, but like I feel like that's all due to his sheer size and power. Like he's just so like unfaced. He knows. He's like, what are you going to do?

Yeah. Like, I don't know. It's interesting. I understand the fascination with him because it is so different from typical tiger behavior. And it's like, okay, well, what is the root of that? Where is that coming from? Yeah. Is it a change in like just behavior? Is it because of his physiology? Like, where is that all rooted?

Yeah. And I think that that's a good point. I mean, if you don't feel threatened by anyone, then what do you care about it? I mean, people really liked T24 because of it. They saw almost like this human side of him because he's like, oh, he's. he's a dad he has a life partner he loves them and he cares for them and he protects them so there's like this very like personal they're anthropomorphizing him yes yeah and that's why they have names too they're not just t 24 they're not just t 39 they're yestad and nor and his cbs had names too like

people were really interested in their family dynamic and tourists love them too torus would love to come in and photograph them. And now that Eustad was an unknown man eater, people were more interested in him too. People had heard he had killed people and then they see him with his family. They see him hanging out in the woods and they get a chance to photograph him. But because he was a man eater, Rangers were heavily patrolling the walking trail. They were making sure no one was out without permission and they would turn around anyone who was because there was ways to get into the park even if the gates weren't open, so they were constantly patrolling, making sure that people were being safe. They were constantly tracking the tigers that were in the area to make sure that they knew where they were at all times,

especially when visitors were allowed inside the park. But despite their efforts and despite all of their patrolling and monitoring, tracking, studying, on May 16th, 2015, three years after the most recent death, a fourth person was killed inside the park. and this time it was a park ranger. Ron Paul Sani was a longtime forest ranger at 42 years old when he was out on patrol and got an incoming radio call that there had been a tiger spotted crossing the main road inside the park. With visitors that were on the path that were on motorbikes, bicycles, cars, I mean, there were people walking.

It was his job and two other rangers to investigate and to evaluate the danger that was there. When the three rangers arrived, they were informed of, the tiger in the area and where it was last seen. Rom Paul gathered information from the witness, who was a man visiting the temple that day with his family, and then he walked in the direction of where the tiger was last seen. When he stepped off the path, he was attacked by a tiger. The witness who had originally called them heard the wrestling in the bushes. He jumped in his car and drove quickly to the area, slammed on his brakes right where Ron Paul had stopped, and he saw Ron Paul with his neck inside a tiger's mouth. His body was limp and the tiger was lifting him up to drag him away.

With the screeching of the man's brakes, the tiger was spooked, dropped Rampal, and took off. The other rangers were able to quickly jump off the trail and drag his body onto the main road. At the same time, a Jeep that was carrying a group of tourists on safari was passing by. They stopped the Jeep, had all the tourists jump out of it, and they loaded Rompal into it. Then they took off to a nearby hospital where unfortunately Ron Paul died on his way there. Okay. So he wasn't deceased at the scene. No.

Okay. Very quickly after. I can just imagine being a tourist in that situation where it's like this person just got attacked right here. Get out. Get out of your Jeep and walk. I know. It's like the time you're still on the loose that literally just attacked this guy. He's around here somewhere, but we got to go.

We have to confiscate your vehicle. Best of luck to you. I mean, obviously, I know there was still people. with them. But yeah, it wasn't experience. And it was a large group. And there was someone with a car and stuff too. And it's just like seeing that as a tourist. Especially like, who knows what part of the world you're from when you're on that safari and you're just like, it's your first time in India. So out of your element. And that happens. The worst case scenario. Yeah. Yeah. While the witness did see the tiger attack Rampal, he could not confirm which tiger it was or say that it was definitely T-24. What he did know was

was that it was a male tiger, but T24's son, who was also very large, was in the area as well. To evaluate the incident, more Rangers came to the scene where they found and identified T24 searching for the body. He was seen licking up blood that was on the ground, and when Rangers approached and the jeeps, he growled at them. Eventually, T24 gave up his search for the body and left the area. The reasons for this attack was widely argued. Some say that the tiger was surprised by Rumpal and reacted by attacking. Others say that he was carrying a baton at the time, and the tiger felt threatened and attacked

because he thought that he might be attacked with the baton. While others disagree with both of those theories, and they say that the tiger was clearly stalking him and chose his prey. This attack on a forest guard hit news reports quickly and spread countrywide. First, it was reported that T-24 Sun was the man-eater, but quickly those reports changed to it being T-24.

While there was no proof at all that T24 was the killer, the news spread across the nation that T24, a man-eater, had killed a fourth person. And this sparked absolute outrage among citizens. Many people begged for T-24 to be killed or to be relocated. Some villagers threatened to go in and hunt him themselves, even though that was very illegal. And with the positive ID of T-24 smelling the blood of Rompal, they came to the conclusion that it was T-24. However, we also know that T-24 was often not the hunter in his territory.

It had been observed many times that Nora was hunting or that he would steal kills from other animals. There were leopards in the area that he often stole kills from as well. So with this behavior of just seeing him searching for the body was no indication that it was actually him that killed Rampal. Yeah, you can't base the whole argument on that. That would never hold up in court. Never. But they did. And while forensics are a mean to identify man-eating tigers, they can use forensics to look for human

DNA on the tiger. And it's a measure that's commonly used in instances where people are consumed by animals. They didn't do that. Why? Do they have, okay, I guess my question is, do they have when they had him for those two days? Did they take, like, DNA samples from him? And I feel like they should have that on. or some in some sort of bank so that they could test the bodies. I don't I don't know if they did,

but they could easily come in sedate him or grab. Yeah, they could take DNA from, I mean, you can collect DNA from like scat samples and other things like that. Like, I feel like it's easy enough to conduct an investigation that way. But you're telling me they didn't. They didn't. They did not do that. And a lot of people have the same argument that you're having right now. Like, hey, it's so easy. People do this all the time. Why aren't we? doing it. And this was blamed on lack of funding and resources by the Indian government. So they were severely underfunded and they were so severely underfunded that even the rangers in the park don't have uniforms. Okay. That like they are living off of very little needs to protect the park. Now if a tiger

is to be relocated due to behavior, there are guidelines that are supposed to be taken and that is getting permission by the National Tiger Conservation Authority beforehand. In T24's case, the chief wildlife warden didn't ask for any permissions. And instead, he deemed that T24 would be removed from the park and moved to a zoo several miles away. With no authority and no proof of T24 being the tiger that killed Rompal, he was moved to a 2.4 acre or a half a hectare enclosure inside of a zoo. That is so fucking sad. That's like a cape. It's very depressing. Very depressing.

People were upset. I mean, this sparked nationwide outrage. Many people argued that they lacked the evidence that T-24 killed Rompal. Others argued that this was his fault. I mean, people entering Tiger's territory along with all of the deaths before this, they were all entering his territory. There was never a single instance that T-24 had left his territory and attacked someone. All of these attacks were when people.

intruded on his own turf. Okay. So many people had that as an argument as well. Some argued that the forest guards were the people who were at fault. They accused them of being inept in their ability to protect visitors. And they also accused them of managing the park incorrectly. They said that they were allowing too many people inside the park. They weren't monitoring the road safely enough.

And they weren't protecting the people from the tigers and they weren't protecting the tigers from the people. And they argued that T-24 had been a victim. of human conflict that was entirely at the fault of the park service. So complicated. So complicated. And another reason I love these episodes because it just sparks so much contemplation and debate about real life situations and problems that we obviously haven't found a solution for.

I mean, this is the same story like copy and paste in so many different places like Yellowstone comes up right away with the wolves. But there's other places that this happens with apex predators. all the time for the same exact reasons. I mean, the Jim Corbett National Park that we did with the other Tiger episode was very similar. And it just has a lot of commonalities. And it's just so interesting. And when you have 165,000 people living just outside the walls of a Tiger's territory,

things are bound to happen. Right. And like your intro gave me chills because it's so, I'm about to go on a rant that I should have probably saved for the end. But no, do it. I'm ready. It's just like we, and I've said it so many times, I feel like a broken record, but it's just we've, like you said, we've cornered so many types of wildlife and then we get mad when they're just trying to adapt to a new world that we've given them or force them to partake in and they're always the ones that suffer. And not to say there aren't multiple victims, because obviously people are losing their lives. And they're just kind of paying the price for a bigger

problem, I think. And it is hard because it's like, we can sit here and be like, well, what do you expect? But unless it's like if you picture your loved one being actively consumed by a tiger, the story changes a little bit and your attitude might change a little bit. You know what I mean? And to have the attitude of like, well, that's just the way of the world now. If it's your person, it's a little more unlikely you're going to think that way. Yes. Or your community member or it's your life that's in peril when you need to go through day-to-day activities, you know. Yeah, if you're the one who's walking around being worried, you're going to be consumed by a tiger and having your brother have been consumed by a tiger a year ago, things are going to,

you're going to be looking at things from a different lens. Exactly. But it's like, when is, when do we draw the line? Like, when is enough enough as far as what, how much we're taking and consuming and pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. And it's just, and the other thing, just kind of like change gears for a second, when you said they put him in the zoo and they're like, okay, great, we got the man eater. And they didn't do any testing. I understand there's a severe lack of resources. But were people comfortable with that of like, are we sure we got the right animal here? Because if we didn't and we're just kind of shifting the

blame and kind of wiping our hands and saying, oh, we got it. He's fine. He's in an enclosure now. And everyone is, we can go back to normal and it's safe. Like, is it really safe? I wouldn't think that I would feel comfortable with that without proof that that was the animal, not just for morality reasons, but for actual safety reasons. Yeah. Well, it was kind of, that was part of the outrage that the sparked was a lot of people were like this was guilty before a fair trial, you know?

And it's do we have the right animal that did this? Are we safer? And are we putting away someone who we don't even know if they did it? Right. And so a lot of people were really upset about it. But because this was the fourth instance, I think for the most part, people were more people who wanted the tiger put away were happy with the outcome because they had already deemed him as the man-eater.

You know, he was already linked to three other deaths. This was the fourth one. I don't think for the people who wanted T-24 gone, they were happy. They did not care about the DNA evidence, anything like that. The people who were outraged at what happened to him were the people that were like, hey, we don't even know if this was the right tiger. I feel like also, just a quick side note, just because I'm thinking of in regards to, like, I don't know, say in Yellowstone with a grizzly attack or a attack anywhere in any park in

U.S. I don't think they would give him four chances. You know, no. Like, I know we're talking to Wes this week of tooth and claw. We're doing like another crossover with them. And it's kind of, like I'm interested. Obviously, he's the expert. I feel like it's like one and done. It's like if you attack a person and consume a person, that's it. Yeah. And not even the relocating. It's like you're gone. Right. Like there's just a way lower tolerance here, I think. So yeah, I kind of, I want ask him about that now. That would be a good question. For sure. So along with all of these arguments, there was another argument that people reasoned for these attacks. Now, often when animals become man-eaters, and we've talked about it before, it's because they can't hunt for themselves.

It's because they are dealing with some type of ailment or illness. And some people believed that, and argued, that the attacks could have been linked to his paw injury and that he never fully recovered from it and that these kills were easy and opportunistic. They weren't, he wasn't out searching for it. And he was known his behaviors was often he would be eating Norse kills or he would be stealing kills from other animals. And he wasn't really known to typically get in a lot of fights or anything because he was the king. He was the biggest animal. If he approached, the other animals in the area didn't question it. They left. So some people were like, was he actually dealing with an ailment that affected his ability to hunt, and that's contributing to

this cause. Now, with all of these arguments, thousands of activists stepped forward and fought for the return for T-24 to come back into the park. While people were fighting for him, he also became this huge national symbol to protect all tigers. People were like, this is not right for T-24, and we want to save him, but this is also a really good opportunity to bring a widespread eye to, all tigers in the fight to protect all of them and the issues that we're facing. There was also another issue that people were really concerned about and they brought the attention to the fact that because T-24 was removed, now his two cubs who were just over a year old at this point were at risk of a tiger attack. With T-24 gone, it was only a matter of time before a new dominant tiger

would come in, claim the territory as their own and more than likely kill the two cubs. Yeah, steal Nor. Steal his lady. Steal his lady. Which brings me to Nor and how she's dealing with this. As his life mate, she was under severe stress when T-24 was gone. She was seen walking their territory in search of him. She was wailing and crying, calling out to him, and each time she received no response, she became more distressed. She spent the next several weeks searching and crying for him. One day, after all of T24's sense had been washed away from the reins, a new male tiger entered his territory, and he pursued Nour, who was still, I will add, was actively searching for Eustod at this point. He followed her relentlessly until one day she finally submitted to him and mated with him. Now, with this new male taking over the territory, T24's Cubs abandoned the area and headed north and have not been seen in that area again. The fight to bring T-20s, back was brought to the courts.

After other courts refused to hear the petition to bring T24 or shut it down entirely, one activist went straight to the Supreme Court. He petitioned that the Wildlife Department had failed in their treatment of T24, when they blatantly ignored to get the correct permissions to relocate him that are instituted by law under the Wildlife Protection Act. He argued that T24 was given capital punishment without a fair trial. He stated that there was no forensic evidence. that connected to him or any of the other deaths that he was accused of, he stated that T-24 should not be moved to a zoo or another park

until after the appropriate proceedings were done. While waiting for this petition to be heard, T-24 was experiencing severe medical issues under the supervision of the zoo. With T-24 only being fed already dead animals and almost no area to roam in comparison to what he had before, his lack of movement caused an intestinal. blockage, which required him to have emergency surgery. The surgery was successful and he did recover, but this became a chronic issue that frequented his life for the rest of his life. The Supreme Court ultimately decided that they were not going to interfere with a removal and relocation of Eustad.

They stated that because he was a known man-eater, he was linked to three other desks, despite this one not having forensic evidence. They were not willing to risk more human. He was, human lives and they sentenced Eustad to live out the remainder of his life in captivity. On December 28th, 2002, at 17 years old, Eustad died in captivity after being diagnosed with bone cancer. Nor, also known as T-39, is still spotted within the park. She has had several litters since T-24 was relocated to the zoo, and she has not found another life mate. Most recently, her two cubs that she had with another tiger, have been reported missing and it has thought that they have been killed by her mate to prevent them from taking over their territory. Rantlinbore faces another challenge today. The population of tigers inside the park has increased drastically with a 45% increase in the past eight years.

In 2014, there were 59 tigers. Today, there are 86 of them living within the park, which has caused issues with tigers fighting over territory. it has also increased risk of humid conflict it attacks inside the park. Inside India, there used to be over 40,000 of them that used to thrive. But now, with this increased population of people, only 2% of India's land has designated areas for tigers. While it is a promising and exciting sign that the tiger population is now growing, it means that their protections are being successful and poaching is becoming less. Now there's not enough designated space for them, and human conflict is a major issue that has yet to be resolved. And the story of T24 is not the last one to happen in the park. In 2019, Tiger T-104 was captured and relocated into a zoo after killing three people. Because Rathamore is not large enough to accommodate

all of the tigers that are now there, this tiger ventured out of the park walls in search of new territory where it encountered and killed people. This has again sparked a major conversation in how the park and tigers are being managed and the issue in human wildlife conflict. People have been bringing the attention of the major roles that tigers play in the ecosystem. As apex predators, they are a huge balance in ecosystems. Their protection and the protection of the forests that they need to live in will directly impact climate change in a positive way. Living among tigers is balance that has yet to be figured out in modern day society. And while it is a constant fight, stories like T-24s is a continued reminder of why it is important that we find that balance

for both the people of the world and our tigers. And that is what I have for this episode. And I did want to mention part of my research for this was I watched a documentary. It is called Tiger 24. I rented it on Amazon for 599 for a 48-hour trial. you can even buy it on Amazon for 1499. But the documentary is really interesting because the person who created it, they went to Rathamore National Park to create a documentary on tigers there. And he was originally told, like, go check out a mom tiger and her tcubs. It makes for great documentary footage.

And he came across T24 and was immediately, like, enthralled with him and follows him. And while he's following him and documenting him, he killed. He kills the park ranger inside the park. Oh, so this is happening as the story's unfolding, not afterwards. Okay, that does make it very interesting. I mean, not that it wouldn't be already, but. Yeah, so he has footage of the park ranger, like, right after he was killed, trying to get the tiger off of him. I mean, he was there when all of this was unfolding.

And he was also there while all of this outrage was outpouring for the families that were affected. You know, he goes into their homes. You can see how horribly affected that the families are by this. You see how horribly affected the park is by this. It was a really interesting documentary. I totally recommend it if people are interested. It's called Tiger 24. Well, I'm definitely interested.

And I was holding out because the whole reason I even suggested this story, or this story even came up, is because I saw a preview for the documentary. And that's how I recommended it to you. I'm like, oh, like, this looks cool. And then, yeah, I've been holding off watching it because, like I said, I didn't really want to know anything about it until you presented it. And you did it so lovely in such a good way. So one last question about it. Do you know if the park has any sort of management plan going forward due to the increase in tiger population population? Or like, is there any changes in the tiger population management protocol or park protocol or anything to kind of adapt to the change in population population. I don't want to say that there hasn't been because I can't say that for 100% certainty. But from everything I read, it doesn't sound like all that much has changed. Okay.

It's a lot of, there's a lot of articles that are talking about that it's a big issue now. Because of this change in population of tigers, there's not enough territory for each of them. And there's all these tiger fights that are happening. Now they're going outside of the boundaries. And so now they're facing other issues and newer issues. and they're still trying to work out that balance, and there's still people who are actively trying to combat human conflict and try and make it not happen. But as far as like the protocols and things that are being done differently, I'm not totally sure. Okay. Interesting. And then I guess

the last thing is something that we talked about in the very, very beginning briefly. And I just kind of want to like, it's a selfish, like, it's a selfish inquiry. Just because obviously, like we have so many listeners that just surprise us with the connections they have. And not that like I couldn't do this on my own, but there is a facility in just outside of Denver that I've been really interested in visiting. And you can visit it. But it's not like you can just go up and visit it willy-nilly. I think you have to know people. No people. You're like, does anyone know people? Are you someone who can connect? Seriously, that's what I'm doing. Okay, what is this facility?

Okay, it's called the National Eagle and Wildlife Property Repository. And it's essentially this huge like 16,000 foot square foot warehouse that has over a million different specimens from different like critically endangered species that have been confiscated for the illegal wildlife trade. And it's outside of temper. And it just reminded me because you talked about. about, you know, the trade and kind of trafficking of wild, of tiger parts, which obviously is illegal in many places. And it just kind of sparked that. I'm like, oh, yeah. It's not a museum or anything, even though they do, I think, do sometimes tours or different educational talks there and things about the illegal wildlife trade. But I think it's managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service. Interesting. But yeah, if anyone has connections, I would love a tour of that facility. And to talk to anyone there because that, I mean, the illegal wildlife trade has just been like the thing that lights my soul on fire. Like it just gets me so riled up. You need a tour. I need a tour, man. Someone hook me up. But it is like it's just, it's such a widespread problem. And obviously that's a story for another day.

I'm actually, I have a book that I'm reading. It always starts with the book. It always starts with a book. Let me get the author. before I say anything because I want to give people the credit. Okay, yeah, so the book is called, and it's one of those that I'm like, I'm reading a little bit at a time in between other things. So I've been technically reading it for a while, but it's called poached inside the dark world

of wildlife trafficking. And it's by Rachel Love Newer. And it is just so good. Like, it's just such a, it's one of those books that makes you sad to read. It's like a double-edged sword. Like you want to know, but it's. also extremely depressing. The ones you know, it's like, oh.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And she's a journalist and she kind of goes deep into the underground, dark side, dark belly of the global wildlife illegal trafficking trade and whatever. Anyways, we're going off the rails. I'm going off the rails. As I always do. Someone email us if you know at NPAD

podcast at gmail.com. Please send an email. For the love of God, please do it. Okay, anyway. All right, well, I'm going to put the documentary on the list to watch, and thank you for covering him and his story. Yeah. Well, everyone, thanks for tuning in. I know this was a longer episode. We'll see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPAD Podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After. dark and on Twitter at NPAD Podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock

monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more. Visit our website at npaddpodcast.com. and please rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet.

Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025.

Potential savings will vary.