Valmik Thapar

This book is both a celebration and a warning. With over twenty-five years of work with the tigers of Ranthambhore, the authors have observed the magnificent animal growing in number and gradually losing its fear of man. From being a shadowy, elusive, nocturnal animal, it began inching into daylight. Despite the progress, the authors warn, there is no room for self-congratulation or complacence as new threats have now begun to force the tiger back into the night. Documenting tiger watching from the seventies to the present day, the authors eloquently and passionately argue for new and more radical initiatives to protect the animal, and, by extension, wilderness itself. The book contains photographs and commentary on almost every aspect of the tiger's life, from mating, feeding, and hunting, to rearing cubs and reacting to humans. It also portrays the world around the tiger : the deer, the peacock, and the sloth bear. Visual paean to a glorious animal, impassioned plea to save the ecosystem that supports it, and a brief history of the efforts to save the tiger, this is a book for all animal lovers.