Tigers and Tigerwallahs

The four books in this omnibus chronicle the struggle to save the endangered predator, the Indian tiger, that has always ruled Indian jungles. This evocative selection focuses on both the lives of tigers, and of a few men who have struggled against overwhelming odds to save the species from extinction. In the first book Tiger Wallahs: Saving the Greatest of the Great Cats, Geoffrey and Diane Ward introduce some of India’s most remarkable tigerwallahs: Jim Corbett, the great destroyer of man-eaters, who became a still greater conservationist; Billy Arjan Singh, the spartan farmer who tried to return a tigress to the wild, and, all alone, carved out a national park; Fateh Singh Rathore, the uninhibited Rajput who cheerfully risked his life defending the jungles in his charge; and Valmik Thapar, who began as Fateh’s disciple, and who is now an authority in his own right, championing a new kind of conservation that may provide the tiger’s only hope. Jim Corbett’s books on man-eating tigers are not only established classics, but they comprise a separate literary category by themselves. Among the best known of Colonel Corbett’s books, Man-Eaters of Kumaon contains ten fascinating stories of tracking and shooting man-eaters in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of the last century. The stories also contain incidental information on flora, fauna, and village life, making this book delightful reading. Tiger Haven is an autobiographical account of the struggle of one man, Billy Arjan Singh, to protect Indian wildlife in a small area in 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 closely studied the chital, sambhar, leopard, marsh crocodile, hogdeer, and, above all, the tiger. Singh’s account of his life at Tiger Haven re-endorses the claim that perhaps no other human being has lived in closer harmony with nature than this solitary naturalist. Tigers have tended to live secret, nocturnal lives making human observation of their habits extremely difficult. However, in The Secret Life of Tigers, Valmik Thapar documents the family life of three tigresses and their cubs at every stage of the cubs’ development, from soon after birth to adulthood. He has made some extraordinary discoveries about the lives of tigers, including the role of the male tiger as a father, which has been recorded for the very first time. Written in a wonderfully lucid, story-telling style, some of these books also include outstanding colour plates and illustrations. The omnibus will enthral both wildlife lovers and those interested in wildlife conservation.