It is literally a Tiger's tale. Tour guide Rajvardhan Sharma grabbed a tigress by the tail in Bandhavgarh last week in an act of raw courage. He was trying to save the lives of his French clients who were attacked at the tiger sanctuary. P.J. Pijeavd and Claude Hedan were attacked by the tigress Mohini while they were sitting in their vehicle. One had his thumb chewed off while the other suffered injuries on the shoulder.

CLASS PROTEST: Parents outside the cardinal's home

Tourists being attacked by tigers is a rare occurrence in Bandhavgarh and it now appears that the tigress had had other provocations. It seems she had fought with another tiger as there was blood dripping from her mouth before she attacked the tourists. Sharma was also injured but his effort scared the tigress off.

"We have video coverage of the event, so we will soon be able to determine what happened,'' says state Forest Minister Harvansh Singh. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers in the country and any more such attacks could take a big bite out of the state's tourism earnings.

— Neeraj Mishra

The king of the jungle is the prime attraction of wildlife tourism in India. Some addresses:

Corbett National Park, Uttaranchal: At India's oldest 520-acre national park, there is one tiger to every 5 acres. But the Corbett tiger is reclusive and you are more likely to spot a tiger near a water body than to meet him or her accidentally on the forest path.

Best time to visit: February to May.

Getting there: 300 km from Delhi. Closest railhead is Ramnagar.

Ranthambhore National Park: The dry deciduous sanctuary boasts of one of the largest tiger populations. They can be easily spotted roaming or hunting sambars. It is India's most picturesque sanctuary.

Best time to visit: October to March.

Getting there: 145 km from Jaipur.

Bandhavgarh National Park: The last home of the white tiger, this 4,000-year-old forest finds mention even in the Ramayan. Mahouts with walkie-talkies help you spot tiger.

Best time to visit: February to June.

Getting there: Nearest railhead, Jabalpur.

It's a question of Soli saying velly solly, but not before there was egg on the face of the Central Government, the Law Ministry headed by Arun Jaitley and his own office of Attorney General following the Centre's somersault on the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court regarding the invocation of POTA against MDMK leader Vaiko. Soli Sorabjee didn't quite say sorry, but passed the buck to his juniors for the faux pas in the Centre's affidavit of March 29 which said Vaiko's speech at Tirumangalam last year amounted to an act of terrorism. "The petitioner has been drawing support for LTTE, a banned terrorist organisation ...," it said, adding that "a person commits an offence if he addresses, submitting for the purpose of encouraging support for terrorist organisation or to further its activities." As this big blow to Vaiko-who is in prison for about nine months-shocked others in the NDA, Sorabjee tried some damage control. "The Government's view is that POTA is constitutional. But one or two sentences have crept in (to the affidavit), obviously due to misapprehensions at the junior level," he said. The Centre approached the Supreme Court with an additional affidavit on March 31, saying, "If properly interpreted and read in the entire context of (Vaiko's) speech and the surrounding circumstances it doesn't attract Section 21 of POTA." It also sought to consider as removed the sentences Sorabjee was referring to.