New Delhi, June 26 -- About a month ago, around 6 in the morning, when the sun had only just begun to press its heat into the fields of Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, Chameli Devi, 60, stepped out for rakhwali-her daily work of keeping watch over the standing crop, warding off stray cattle, nilgai, and whatever else the forest might send into the fields. The wheat, brushing against the edge of the forest fence, stood ready for harvest.

That morning, the fields somehow felt hostile. Then a low, guttural roar cut through the stillness. Chameli froze. About 15 metres ahead, well inside the field but partly concealed between the standing wheat and the thinning tree line, stood a tiger.

"It was almost camouflaged in the cereal grass," she says. ...