Wild Fire

Developed and edited by Valmik Thapar, one of our foremost wildlife experts, the book is divided into three sections. The first section, ‘Thoughts from Elsewhere’, written by Thapar, takes the reader on a quick tour of the country’s natural heritage in the twenty-first century. It provides an overview of mammalian distribution, the characteristics of individual species, the evolution of the country’s wildlife habitats, threats to the environment and much else besides. The second section, ‘The Wildlife Chronicles’collects the finest accounts of India’s animals from the first century onwards. It has stories about the great predators—tigers, leopards, snow leopards, lions, golden cats and others; magnificent herbivores like the elephant, rhino, wild ox and the various species of deer and antelope; evocative accounts of some of the most striking animals in the country including monkeys, squirrels and other arboreal creatures; as well as reports of rare sightings of river dolphins, bats, shrews and other lesser-known members of the animal kingdom. Contributors to this section include travellers, hunters, writers, photographers and naturalists such as Pliny the Elder, Ibn Battuta, Babur, Akbar, François Bernier, Isabel Savory, Jim Corbett, George Schaller, Kenneth Anderson, M. Krishnan, E.R.C. Davidar, Peter Jackson and Ruskin Bond.