Author: Divyabhanusinh
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Divyabhanusinh
Publisher: Black Kite
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 267
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8178242133
Description
The Lion in India is fighting a rearguard action in its battle for survival, with a very small number of them left in the wild. In fact, outside Africa, India is the only country with a lion population. The last two hundred years or so have been particularly disastrous for the lion, though its numbers have been depleting steadily throughout the recorded past.
Lions are associated mainly with the African grasslands. Few people know that in India they once roamed the plains of Haryana and Punjab, wandered as far as Bihar in the east and above the Narmada in the south, and walked the grasslands and scrub forests around Delhi. Today, the Asiatic lion has been reduced to one tiny population in a single forest of Gujarat.
Has the Asiatic lion been so spectacularly unfortunate because it is not secretive enough to survive hunters and poachers? Is its survival the outcome of one prince’s efforts? Could a single epidemic wipe it out forever?
This book celebrates an animal whose magnificent beauty has been the cause of its tragic destiny. The earliest extract included here dates from 1884 and is about shikar; the newest, written in 2008, analyses the implications of politics for the lion’s survival. Some pieces charm and entertain with their vivid literary style and their close observation of nature; others explain population patterns and genetic reduction. The editor’s erudite Introduction provides a historical overview.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
William Rice: Lion Shooting
L.L. Fenton: The Indian Lion
S.M.Edwardes and L.G. Fraser. The Gir Forest and its Lions
Charles A. Kincaid: Indian Lion
Sir Patrick Cadell: The Preservation of Wild Life in India: The Indian Lion
Lt. Col. A.H. Mosse: The Lion of the Gir
N.B. kinnear. The Past and Present Distribution of the Lion in South Eastern Asia
R.I.Pocock: The Lions of Asia
M.A.Wynter-Blyth: The Gir Forest and its Lions
M.A. Wynter-Blyth & K.S. Dharmakumarsinhji: The Gir Forest and its Lions, Part-I
K.S. Dharmakumarsinhji & M.A. Wynter- Blyth: The Gir Forest and its Lions, Part-II
M.K. Dalvi: Gir Lion Census
S.S.Negi: Introduction of the Indian Lion in Uttar Pradesh
S.S. Negi: Transplanting of the Indian Lion in Uttar Pradesh
A.J.T. Johnsingh: Tracking the Lions of Gir
M.Y. Ghorpade: Gir
M.K. Ranjitsinh: Lion
E.P.Gee: The Lions of the Gir Forest
Paul Joslin: The Environmental Limitations and Future of the Asiatic Lion
Ravi Chellam: The Lions of Gir
Stephen J. O’ Brien: Prides and Prejudice
Mahesh Rangarajan: Region’s Honour, Nation’s Pride: Gir’s Lions on the Cusp of History
Notes on Authors
Copyright Statement