Author: Valmik Thapar
Publisher: Rupa Publications
ISBN: 9789384067243
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 430
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Book Description
The tiger has captured the imagination of human beings from the beginning of recorded history. It has been feared, worshipped, admired, hunted, studied, photographed, written about, immortalized in art and poetry, and has enthralled king and commoner alike. Tiger Fire celebrates this magnificent predator by bringing together the very best non-fiction writing, photography and art on the Indian tiger from the first written description of a real-life encounter with the animal by the Mughal Emperor Babur in the sixteenth century to photographs and studies of the last of the species surviving in the wild today. Conceived and edited by the world's foremost authority on the Indian tiger, Valmik Thapar (who has also contributed many pieces and photographs to this volume), the book's contributors are drawn from an array of renowned naturalists, writers, photographers, and tiger enthusiasts down the centuries including Babur, Akbar, François Bernier, Thomas Roe, R.G. Burton, Walter Campbell, Thomas Williamson, F.W. Champion, Kesri Singh, Jim Corbett, Hugh Allen, Richard Perry, Arjan Singh, George Schaller, Kenneth Anderson, M. Krishnan, Peter Jackson, Fateh Singh Rathore, Kim Sullivan, Tejbir Singh, Jaisal and Anjali Singh, Aditya 'Dicky' Singh, K. Ullas Karanth, Dharmendra Khandal, and Dhritiman Mukherjee. Culled from over a million words (both published and unpublished) on the animal, and several thousand photographs, the accounts and pictures assembled in this book show us the tiger in extraordinary and compelling detail.
Author: Richard Ellis
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1597269530
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
In parts of Korea and China, moon bears, black but for the crescent-shaped patch of white on their chests, are captured in the wild and brought to "bear farms" where they are imprisoned in squeeze cages, and a steel catheter is inserted into their gall bladders. The dripping bile is collected as a cure for ailments ranging from an upset stomach to skin burns. The bear may live as long as fifteen years in this state. Rhinos are being illegally poached for their horns, as are tigers for their bones, thought to improve virility. Booming economies and growing wealth in parts of Asia are increasing demand for these precious medicinals. Already endangered species are being sacrificed for temporary treatments for nausea and erectile dysfunction. Richard Ellis, one of the world's foremost experts in wildlife extinction, brings his alarm to the pages of Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn, in the hope that through an exposure of this drug trade, something can be done to save the animals most direly threatened. Trade in animal parts for traditional Chinese medicine is a leading cause of species endangerment in Asia, and poaching is increasing at an alarming rate. Most of traditional Chinese medicine relies on herbs and other plants, and is not a cause for concern. Ellis illuminates those aspects of traditional medicine, but as wildlife habitats are shrinking for the hunted large species, the situation is becoming ever more critical. One hundred years ago, there were probably 100,000 tigers in India, South China, Sumatra, Bali, Java, and the Russian Far East. The South Chinese, Caspian, Balinese, and Javan species are extinct. There are now fewer than 5,000 tigers in all of India, and the numbers are dropping fast. There are five species of rhinoceros--three in Asia and two in Africa--and all have been hunted to near extinction so their horns can be ground into powder, not for aphrodisiacs, as commonly thought, but for ailments ranging from arthritis to depression. In 1930, there were 80,000 black rhinos in Africa. Now there are fewer than 2,500. Tigers, bears, and rhinos are not the only animals pursued for the sake of alleviating human ills--the list includes musk deer, sharks, saiga antelope, seahorses, porcupines, monkeys, beavers, and sea lions--but the dwindling numbers of those rare species call us to attention. Ellis tells us what has been done successfully, and contemplates what can and must be done to save these animals or, sadly, our children will witness the extinction of tigers, rhinos, and moon bears in their lifetime.
Author: Raghu Chundawat
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789354474040
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Despite the systemic opposition, Chundawat continued the fight to save Panna's tigers, collecting data and petitioning the government to intervene.
Author: Valmik Thapar
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520214705
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
Showcases the diversity and beauty of the animals sharing the tiger's domain and documents the strain that modern and urban values place on India's ecosystems
Author: Valmik Thapar
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
ISBN: 9789384067502
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
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.
Author: Valmik Thapar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789383064687
Category : Animal diversity
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author: Valmik Thapar
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195691702
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 114
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Book Description
Once respected, feared, and revered across the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent where it roamed in majestic arrogance, the tiger in India is today an endangered species with its numbers dwindling alarmingly. In this situation the efforts of Valmik Thapar, one of India's foremost tiger conservationists, and others like him are isolated voices in the wilderness. The first section 'Introducing the Tiger', apart from discussing the origins of the tiger, provides interesting sidelights on tiger subspecies and global distribution. It sets the stage for the next chapter, 'Tiger Facts', a two-page visual representation of the unique physical attributes of the tiger which make it one of the most efficient hunters. The core of the book, 'The Life of the Tiger', explores the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of the Indian tiger as lived in the wild and also includes excerpts from writings by other tiger experts, past and present. the section 'The Future of the Tiger', while discussing the crisis of the tiger today links this to the cult of the tiger. Apart from the photos and line drawings of tigers and other animals interspersing the narrative, the 8 pp. colour section depicting the lifecycle of the tiger will be a special attraction for readers. Discussing the future of the tiger, Thapar makes an impassioned appeal for drastic measures to save this precious heritage of ours from disappearing through apathy.
Author: Shibani Bose
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199099871
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 462
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Book Description
Since antiquity, big mammals have inspired fear as well as fantasy among humans. Not only do megafauna pervade the domains of religion, art, literature, and folklore, it is also now widely acknowledged that they can serve as important, if not always adequate, indices of environmental quality. In this book, Shibani Bose looks into eras bygone in order to chronicle the journeys of three mega mammals, the rhinoceros, elephant, and tiger, across millennia in early north India. Carefully sifting through archaeological evidence and literary records in Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and classical Western accounts, Bose documents the presence of these big mammals in diverse cultural contexts, from hunter-gatherer societies to the first urban civilization of India and beyond. This work aims to reconstruct human interactions with these mega species through time while trying to understand the larger ecology of ancient India. This book is especially well-timed as the conservation of our megafaunal heritage is a major concern for biologists, ecologists, and conservationists. It underlines the need to historicize human interactions with these mega mammals with the contention that awareness regarding their past is critical for their future.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Resources. Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife, and Oceans
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Author: Yowann Byghan
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476679509
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 446
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Book Description
From the household cat to horses that can fly, a surprisingly wide range of animals feature in religions and mythologies all across the world. The same animal can take on different roles: the raven can be a symbol of evil, a harbinger of death, a wise messenger or a shape-changing trickster. In Norse mythology, Odin's magical ravens perch on his shoulders and bring him news. This compendium draws upon religious texts and myths to explore the ways sacred traditions use animal images, themes and associations in rituals, ceremonies, texts, myths, literature and folklore across the world. Sections are organized by the main animal classifications such as mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians and insects. Each chapter covers one significant grouping (such as dogs, cats or horses), first describing an animal scientifically and then detailing the mythological attributes. Numerous examples cite texts or myths. A final section covers animal hybrids, animal monsters and mythical animals as well as stars, constellations and Zodiac symbols. An appendix describes basic details of the religions and mythologies covered. A glossary defines uncommon religious terms and explains scientific animal names.
