December. It is winter in Kanha National Park in central India. These very same grasslands and forests were the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's immortal Jungle Book stories. The spirit of wild India that he evoked still lives here. Kanha National Park is prime tiger country. Sixty years ago its 363 square miles were part of vast primordial forests. Since then these forests have been denuded on a gigantic scale. But Kanha has been preserved in its pristine state.

The tiger still roars here, still spreads his dread. Just before dawn this male tiger killed a sambar stag. Now, a few hours later, he drags his prize into deep cover to hide it from the prying eyes of vultures. Like all of his kind he is solitary for most of his life a lone hunter who lives by stealth. The night has been cold. The gray langur monkeys, after their first meal of the day, rest and groom each other in the warmth of the early sun. winter is the season of birth for most langurs. This newborn, only a few hours old, is the center of attraction. The new member of the troop is passed from one female to another as many as ten times in half an hour. It is treated with great curiosity and affection. This "aunt" behavior, as it is called, inducts the infant into the troop, makes it feel welcome and secure.

The monsoon rains ceased more than two months ago. But along the streams the vegetation is still green. Grass-shrouded water holes are perfect hiding places from which the tiger tries to ambush the chital. Despite his power and camouflage the tiger often fails to make a kill. Only about one hunt in twenty ends in success. In mid-January, when winter is at its coldest, the rut of the barasingha reaches its peak. During this season of courtship and mating, stages bugle and fight to establish who among them will mate with the does. A tigress watches the combat from her cave where she is hiding newborn cubs. Helpless young with great fierceness and devotion. It will be some weeks before she will bring her cubs out into the open. For the most part, Kanha's tigers remain elusive and mysterious, concealed by the dense undergrowth and the jungles of grass. But in Ranthambhor National Park 370 miles to the northwest, the habitat is drier and more open. In February, early spring in India, Ranthambhor's 64 square miles are already parched.