Saving Wild Tigers, 1900-2000: The Essential Writings

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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 F.W. Champion, renowned for his pioneering writings, argues against motorcars in forests and limits on gun licences. 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 Perry, 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, M. Krishnan 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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Valmik Thapar

Valmik Thapar, one of the worldâ€™s leading tiger conservationists, earned a degree in social anthropology from Delhi University in 1972 and since then has dedicated his life to tiger research and preservation. Thapar has been associated with Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan, northern India, for nearly thirty years. He is the founder and director of the Ranthambhore Foundation, which he created in 1987, an organization devoted to maintaining the ecological balance necessary to protect the tiger and its habitats all over India. Thapar is the author of ten books on tigers, most recently Tiger: The Ultimate Guide (2004), The Cult of the Tiger (2002), Saving Wild Tigers (2001), Wild Tigers of Ranthambhore (2000), and The Land of the Tiger (1997), which accompanied a major BBC-TV series of the same name. Thapar has also written Bridge of God (2001), about the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya, and Battling for Survival (2003), an ecological history of the forests of South Asia. Thapar has appeared in and contributed to a number of documentaries. Since 1992 Thapar has been serving on several expert committees of the Indian government related to tigers and wildlife and is currently a member of the Central Empowered Committee, which was constituted by the Supreme Court of India to Monitor forests and wildlife. He lives in New Delhi.