One hundred years ago India was a sportsman’s paradise. Now, almost unnoticed by the world, Indian wildlife has faded away under the pressure of people and cultivation; the tiger population has been reduced to less than 2,000, and the deer and antelope, which were once so numerous, have, in many places, been harried out of existence. This book is the story of the work of one man, Billy Arjan Singh, to protect Indian wildlife in one small area. Tiger Haven stands at the north of the Indian plains, five miles from the Nepal border, where the seemingly limitless plains of Uttar Pradesh give way to terai forests and then to the Himalayan foothills. Tiger Haven shelters one of the last remaining large herds of swampdeer in the world, and it is here that Billy Arjan Singh has studied the chital, sambhar, leopard, Marsh crocodile, hogdeer, and, above all, the tiger. His observations, made over a long period at Tiger Haven, make fascinating reading, as does his account of his development from sportsman and farmer to conservationist and photographer–a transition which he sees, extended throughout society, as the only hope for Indian wildlife.
There are no reviews yet.