From one of India's foremost reserves, right under the gaze of an establishment meant exclusively to protect the tiger, the big cat has gone missing. But this disappearance is rather unsurprising. It is not as if the ground below suddenly gave way, plunging the tiger into an abyss. The fact is, the tiger has been helped, by its custodians and guardian angels alike, along a downhill path paved methodically over many years with dishonesty and ineptitude, but more dangerously, with ignorance. Good intentions notwithstanding, the future of all our wildlife