Fateh Singh Rathore the tiger man.

Legendary Fateh Singh Rathore is no more. The Tigers will miss someone who championed their cause for decades. Rest in peace Fateh Sahib.

Fateh Singh Rathore, one of the last of the mighty men who fought all odds to protect the tiger, was conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) here on Feb 17th 2011

Fateh Singh Rathore will be a familiar name to anyone who knows anything about Ranthambhore National Park. The first Director of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve,one meeting with the man makes you feel the personality that has been written about in many a book. He worked with the wildlife department and spent most of his life looking after and caring for Ranthambhore and it's wild inhabitants. He was given the status of Honorary warden of the park till date.

Shri Fateh Singh Rathore, or Fathji, as he was fondly called by tiger lovers, was born in 1938 in Rajasthan in a Rajput family. After joining the Rajasthan Forest Department, Fathji worked in many field areas, including Ranthambhore and Sariska and went to the Wildlife Institute of India to do a diploma course in Wildlife Management under the legendary Saroj Raj Choudhury. He spent many years as Field Director of Ranthambhore and was one of the few handpicked by Kailash Sankhala, the then director of Project Tiger, to be part of the first Project Tiger team. Widely acknowledged for his field knowledge, passion and a no nonsense attitude towards field conservation, Fathji was a role model to tiger lovers .