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Written with a personal touch, Tigers: My Life focuses on 35 years of Valmik Thapar's engagement with tigers in Ranthambhore National Park and across India. Thapar takes us on a journey of a lifetime from Ranthambhore's ancient and hallowed history and the story of the last two decades of tiger conservation in India to the questionable role of the government to more heartening stories of how local villagers took up conservation-related activities in the quest to find solutions to save the striped predator. Tigers: My Life is a tribute to the late Fateh Singh Rathore. Intertwined with the narrative is the story of a special friendship between Thapar and Rathore – a partnership that witnessed the duo fighting tooth and claw to try and turn adversity in the tiger's favour.
Tigers: My Life is unique among the annals of tiger conservation for presenting field notes on nearly 150 different tigers in one location spread over 35 years. With the inclusion of the first black and white photographs taken in the mid-1970s through the later colour transparencies of the mid-1980s to the more recent digital images from the present century, Tigers: My Life illustrates a journey of wildlife photography spread across four decades. With its lavish spread of close to 1200 photographs, Tigers: My Life will appeal to wildlife specialists and anybody wanting to know more about a man who is widely known as the conscience of a nation as far as tiger conservation is concerned.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Rich History
The Early Years: 1976 to 1981
The Best Years: 1982 to 1989
The Decline: 1990 to 1999
The Road to Nowhere: 2000 to 2011
Credits for Photographs
Valmik Thapar is an internationally celebrated tiger and wildlife conservationist. He is a member of the National Board of Wildlife chaired by the Prime Minister, and is the author of twenty-one books on tigers, wildlife, and Africa.
Fateh Singh Rathore (1938-2011) spent 40 years in the service of the tiger. Even after retiring in 1996 from the State Forest Service, he remained Ranthambhore's greatest defender creating his own NGO called Tiger Watch. In his lifetime he received the prestigious Fred M. Packard International Bravery Award; a lifetime service award from the former Prime Minister of India, Shri I.K. Gujral; the Sanctuary Lifetime Service Award; the WWF Lifetime Service Award and many others.
