Valmik Thapar first went to Ranthambhore, in 1976, at the age of twenty-three. He was a city boy, unsure of what lay ahead. When he entered the forest, which would go on to become one of the last strongholds of wild tigers, it had a profound effect on him, changing his life forever.
For the next forty years, he studied nearly 200 Ranthambhore tigers, spending every waking moment in close proximity to these magnificent animals. Of the various tigers he observed a handful became extra special, and it is these which come to glorious life in this book. They include Padmini, the Queen Mother, the first tiger the author got to know well; Genghis, the master predator, who invented a way of killing prey in water, the first time this had been observed anywhere in the world; Noon, one of his all-time favourites, who received her name because she was most active in the middle of the day; Broken Tooth, an exceptionally gentle male; Laxmi, a devoted mother, whose methods of raising her cubs revolutionized tiger studies; Machli, the most famous tigress in Ranthambhore, and several more.
Valmik Thapar has spent four decades serving the cause of wild India. During this time, he has authored, co-authored and edited more than twenty-five books and made or presented nearly a dozen films for the BBC and several other television networks on the tiger and Indian flora and fauna. His latest book Saving Wild India: A Blueprint for Change is all about finding real solutions to protect India’s wildlife. Other recent books include Winged Fire, the concluding book in the trilogy that features Wild Fire and Tiger Fire.
Thapar has created a major non-governmental organization dedicated to conserving wildlife, the Ranthambore Foundation. He is currently a member of the Rajasthan Board for Wildlife chaired by the state’s chief minister and has helped the state government formulate a holistic forest conservation scheme—the Van Dhan Yojana.
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