Watching India's Wildlife: The Anthology of a Lifetime

of a life spent in a uniquely single-minded championing of the cause of conservation.A scion of a princely house, Billy Arjan Singh took to hunting at a very young age, but circumstances and his own character led him to a different path altogether. He has been based since 1959 in Tiger Haven, his farm in Uttar Pradesh close to the border of Nepal. Surrounding his land on three sides is Dudhwa National Park, this wildlife sanctuary he almost single-handedly established, which is among the few remaining refuges for swampdeer. Here he has extensively studied the varied wildlife of the area, especially the tiger. His experiments of re-introducing in the wild captive-bred carnivores, especially the zoo-born tigress Tara, have no parallel in Asia; and his degree of success with the leopard is unique.The book highlights the problems afflicting efforts to create a national park in a developing country and implement conservation measures in general. Billy Arjan Singh's writings on the subject closest to this heart, the tiger, point to the need for constant vigilance and effort to protect this majestic animal being brought to the brink of extinction, as it once was before the tide began to turn with Project Tiger in the 1970s. Especially enthralling are his writings on his extraordinary experiments to rear big cats and teach them the ways of the wild so that they could return to their natural habitat. Arjan Singh also writes authoritatively on the phenomenon of the man-eater, and on the swampdeer, in whose conservation he played a major role.Billy Arjan Singh believes wildlife can only be saved now by a crusade, and like all crusades, this one must be embraced with emotion and passion. This volume of the writings of a crusading conservationist is a collector's' item for wildlife enthusiasts.