Tiger 24

This intriguing documentary, which will have its North American premiere at Indianapolis' Living Room Theater, looks at the complicated conflict between humans and tigers.

It’s not unusual in documentary filmmaking to set out with one idea and mind, only to have things change around on you that turn the end product into something different than what you’d planned.

That happened to Indian-born filmmaker Warren Pereira, who was looking at the special tiger sanctuaries set up by his home country when a well-known male, known as T-24, allegedly killed one of the game wardens assigned to watch over him. T-24, otherwise known as Ustad (“the master”), was sent to a tiny holding pen where he remains to this day, grown sickly and the subject of a national outcry in India to have him set free.

Pereira’s film, “Tiger 24,” winds up being about much more than a single tiger accused of being a man-eater. It looks at the fragile relationship between man and animal, and how even well-intended efforts to save species can lead to terrible conflict. It’s also very much about modern Indian culture, which is rapidly modernizing but still very much stuck in its old ways outside of the big tech-savvy cities.

It’s also a telling document of how people — in India, the U.S. or anywhere — have grown increasingly incapable of disagreeing with each other without everything becoming a strident tempest.

The documentary follows the issue from the time of the 2015 killing to the various legal challenges and scientific debates that followed, and also goes back to 2010, when T-24 was believed to kill his first human.

Yes, you read that right: the 2015 incident was actually the fourth killing of a human that T-24 was implicated in. Your instinct may to be question why authorities waited so long to take action.

But as shown by Pereira, who trudges through these lands himself talking to everyone involved — including getting up close and personal with T-24 — things are always more complicated at the intersection between animals’ natural habitat and human expansion.

“Tiger 24” is having its North American premiere (outside of film festivals) starting June 10 at Living Room Theaters in Indianapolis. Pereira himself will be on hand Friday through Sunday for Q&As following showings. And Carole Baskin from the hit documentary series “Tiger King” will have an online Q&A at the 3:30 p.m. showing on June 12. Click here to purchase tickets.

Obviously, the death of game warden Rampal Saini in 2015 was a tragedy. But the film points out the curious and dangerous peculiarity of Ranthambhore, the sanctuary where T-24 had his domain. Such preserves are supposed to have a core area for the tigers’ habitat where they can roam wild and hunt game, surrounded by a buffer zone, with any human activity only allowed outside that.

Ranthambhore has no buffer. Indeed, a simple stone wall separates T-24’s prime hunting grounds from the village next door. People routine hop over it to cut wood, relieve themselves or even graze cattle.

What’s more, a temple to one of the prime Hindu deities is located smack dab in the middle of the preserve. A steady stream of pilgrims travel there on foot, sometimes just a few dozen feet away from the tigers. And of course there’s an active and lucrative tourist trade, with vehicles bringing in crowds of people to gawk and photograph the 600-pound beast, his mate Noor and their various litters of cubs.

A better question to ask is, given this conflicted set-up where humans invade T-24’s untamed habitat on a daily basis, how is it there weren’t more deaths?

Pereira takes an even-handed approach, talking to both pro- and anti-T-24 activists, the game wardens involved in the four deaths, the government officials who are supposed to overseeing all this, the family members of the deceased, scientists, lawyers, professors and others who have something to say about the thorny situation.

These include Chandrabhal Singh, a photographer and one of many admirers of T-24, who sued the government in an attempt to have him set free. They point out that in the 2015 attack, it is uncertain whether T-24 was the tiger who actually killed Saini, or just showed up later at the smell of blood.

“Tiger 24” is a fascinating story about a vexing social issue. Most people want to advocate for threatened species, but not if it costs them personally in treasure or inconvenience. It seems like drawing the line at human deaths is a simple thing to do — but is it really the tiger’s fault when people routinely tromp into wild hunting grounds?

Despite what you might think going in, there are no easy answers about the fate of Ustad, or how best to fight on behalf of a vanishing breed of creatures when it’s humans’ own activities that are driving them to extinction in the first place.

Still, this fine documentary never stops hunting for answers.