The Times of India – Bombay Edition,
September 7, 1899, ProQuest.

Did you know that there were tigers housed in Bangalore’s Lalbagh Botanical Garden? Along with a rhino, black panther, lion, and a selection of deer. It was only a few years ago that my father recollected a story to me about a tiger that had escaped from the Lalbagh menagerie and walked up and down Lalbagh Road.

In the 1960s, whilst growing up in our ancestral home on Lalbagh Road, my father’s great uncle would tell him stories after dinner. One such story was about Lalbagh’s tiger, kept there by an enthusiast Englishman who built a menagerie of several animals within the gardens. One day, the tiger managed to escape from its confines and then taken to the streets! The Englishman had then taken to his gun, attempting to hunt down the tiger, and in which attempt he succeeded.

Image above is not of the escapee tiger from Lalbagh, but one that was hunted in Mysore State in the early 1900s. Image of photograph by the writer, courtesy of the British Library.

A few years after I was told this story, I came across an article in an archival Times of India – Bombay edition, which had reported the incident. The story could now be supplemented with more details.

The tiger escape from Lalbagh had occurred in 1889 during cleaning operations, when the keeper had mishandled the sliding door of the animal’s enclosure. The tiger first roamed around the menagerie and after witnessing people gathering around, it then leapt into wild growth and disappeared. It was later found and killed by one Col. Grant.

Some stories that are passed down to children from generation to generation may sound bizarre, but not all of them are make believe to pacify an unruly child or scare a mischief maker. Most stories, I’ve come to find, are rooted in facts, and this story was one such.

As for the tiger, the poor beast spent its life in captivity, only escaping due to human error, and then finally killed for no fault of its own. During princely rule, the Mysore State was symbolised through the powerful and regal tiger, but still hunted by State guests as game for pleasure, and it continues to be threatened today, as more recently seen through petitions to lift the night ban in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, which had been placed to reduce roadkill in the ecological zone.