Author: Valmik Thaper
Publisher: Permanent Black
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 411
ISBN/UPC (if available): 817824005X
Description
This book charts key moments in the fight to save the tiger, from early beginnings until now. It comprises the finest examples of tiger conservation by the greatest defenders of wild tigers.
Between 1875 and 1925 more than 80,000 tigers were slaughtered. Over the next fifty years the massacre grew so alarming that the tiger was driven to the brink of extinction. Alongside this mindless butchery, there began a crusade to protect the tiger.
The earliest essay here laments India's vanishing wilderness. By 1920 E P Stebbing, one of the first great protectors, speaks out for changes in wildlife laws. Then E W Champion, renowned for his pioneering writings, argues against motorcars in forests and limits on gun licenses. Jim Corbett is heard befriending the tiger while pointing out that hunters create man-eaters.
Later there is S H Prater, pleading for protection measures. The 1950s and 1960s are represented by E P Gee and Richard Parry, who feared the tiger was doomed. George Schaller, a guru to tigerwallahs, is seen injecting science into investigations of tiger decline. Indian voices are heard soon: Billy Arjan Singh, K Sankhala and S P Shahi. Then recent spokesmen: Peter Jackson, John Seidensticker, Ullas Karanth, Geoffrey Ward and Alan Rabinowitz, who have 'scientised' an issue which now covers Thailand, Indo-China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Siberia.
In recent times no activist has been more passionate about tiger-conservation than Valmik Thapar. The present book is part of his ongoing crusade. It is also a wonderfully readable anthology on the perils faced by tigers, and the travails of those trying to ensure it retains its regal, untamed magnificence.
THE EDITOR:
VALMIK THAPAR has spent twenty-five years working to save wild tigers. He has written eight books on tigers and presented the BBC film series 'Land of the Tiger'. He has been chairman of the Cat Specialist Group of IUCN for South Asia and a member of several committees relating to India's Ministry of Environment and Forests. He is the founder of the Ranthambhore Foundation which both works to save the tiger across India as well as networks on tiger-conservation issues across the planet.
Contents
Velmik Thapar
Introduction
CHAPTER I
Of Forests and Forests
CHAPTER II
Game Sanctuaries and Game Protection in India
CHAPTER III
Various Musings
CHAPTER IV
Preserving Wildlife in the United Provinces
CHAPTER V
Why Tigers Become Man-Eaters
CHAPTER VI
An Appeal for the Preservation of Wild Life
CHAPTER VII
The Wild Animals of the Indian Empire
CHAPTER VIII
The Wildlife of India
CHAPTER IX
The World of the Tiger
CHAPTER X
The Deer and the Tiger
CHAPTER XI
The Future of the Tiger
CHAPTER XII
The Twilight of the Animals
CHAPTER XIII
The Skin Trade
CHAPTER XIV
The Lost Cause ?
CHAPTER XV
Tigers and Man
CHAPTER XVI
Radio-tracking the Tiger
CHAPTER XVII
Battling for Wildlife in Bihar
CHAPTER XVIII
Looking Back on Project Tiger
CHAPTER XIX
Bearing Witness
CHAPTER XX
Back from the Brink
CHAPTER XXI
If All the Beasts Were Gone, Man would Die
CHAPTER XXII
Problems and Solutions
CHAPTER XXIII
Wildlife Abuse
CHAPTER XXIV
Massacre
CHAPTER XXV
Why Save Tigers ?
CHAPTER XXVI
The Brutal Encounter : Man and Tiger
CHAPTER XXVII
The Status of the Indochinese Tiger
CHAPTER XXVIII
Approaches to Tiger Conservation
CHAPTER XXIX
Roaring Back
CHAPTER XXX
Vision and Process in Securing a Future for Wild Tigers
CHAPTER XXXI
Saving Tigers in Dry Tropical Habitats
CHAPTER XXXII
The Big Cat Massacre
CHAPTER XXXIII
The Future of the Tiger in the Twenty-First Century