TIGER FIRE
500 Years of the Tiger in India
Valmik Thapar
Aleph; 581 pages; Rs 2,995
In the late 1990s and the early noughties, I remember watching Land of the Tiger, a BBC series anchored by Valmik Thapar. A decade and a half later, Mr Thapar is back, as burly as he was back then, although his hair and beard have many more flecks of grey. He continues to do what he does best: chronicle the Indian subcontinent's native tiger species, the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), in obsessive detail. He is also much more bitter now than he was when I first watched him years ago, disappointed with the system that does nothing to protect the creature he loves most - an almost broken-hearted man, it would be fair to say.
Which is what brings us to why this book was written in the first place. When he started writing Tiger Fire some three years ago, Mr Thapar had already written 20-odd books and taken thousands of photographs, as well as made many documentaries and films on the tiger. As he admits in the introduction, the objective of Tiger Fire was "to bring together the very best work and writing of those who had engaged the tiger over the centuries to produce a book that would be a lasting testimonial to one of nature's supreme creations".
These lofty words and an equally Herculean effort by Mr Thapar and his team mean that Tiger Fire is one of the best works on the tiger so far, particularly the Bengal subspecies. To start with, the book is a tome and must weigh a few kilos. On the front jacket, there is an imposing photograph of an adult male tiger in his prime from Ranthambore, Mr Thapar's favourite reserve. The back cover features two tigers sparring with and clawing at each other. The inside jacket flaps are a burnished gold and the endpapers a handsome rich mahogany.
If the layout, design and size are impressively rich, so is the content. As Mr Thapar explains, the book is actually many books in one. The full title of the book is Tiger Fire: 500 Years of the Tiger in India. True to its title, the book attempts to chronicle the entire history of the Bengal tiger in the subcontinent in the last half a millennium - in order to to introduce readers to this magnificent animal through the writings and work of several people who have studied it down the centuries. It succeeds.
The book is divided into five parts. The first part, titled "Origins", deals with the natural history and ancestry of the tiger, and describes how the tiger and the other three felids of the Panthera genus (called "big cats", or felines who can roar) descended many, many years ago from a common ancestor to later become the modern-day tiger, lion, leopard and jaguar. There is also interesting information about the tiger's anatomy, and how its superbly evolved body makes it the perfect "killing machine".
For those interested in the tiger's impact on human art and culture, Mr Thapar puts in a few words about how the cat superstar has influenced cultures across Asia - from the Udege of the Russian Far East to the Hindus of India to the Malays of Southeast Asia.
But it is the second section that is truly interesting. Titled "The tiger in time", it consists of essays by an array of people - Mughal emperors (Babur, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan), French Jesuits (Francois Bernier), British officers of Company Bahadur (Sir Thomas Roe), officials of the Raj, sportsmen (Jim Corbett, F W Champion), naturalists (George Schaller), photographers and tiger enthusiasts. These essays contain a huge trove of information about the tiger - how it hunts its prey; how humans hunt the tiger; how it hunts humans sometimes; the inter-specific rivalry between the tiger and other animals like the leopard, bear, boar, dhole, crocodile; how it finds mates; how it rears cubs; and how it even forms bonds with humans.
"The tiger in time" is a mammoth section; reading it requires plenty of patience - not least because some of the essays, such as those written in Persian by Mughal historians and translated into English, sometimes do not immediately make sense. Then there are the essays written by Elizabethan-era Englishmen like Roe in Old English, which, again, take time to discern.
The third part, "Secret life of the tiger", primarily deals with the species' ethology. It is based on experiences that Mr Thapar had in his early days at Ranthambore with his guru, Fateh Singh Rathore.
Section four, titled "Tiger fire", is a "pictorial essay", a beautiful ensemble of photos capturing the tiger in minute detail. Although the book uses other art like Indus Valley seals, Mughal miniatures, pencil drawings and oil paintings, photographs are by far the best gift that Mr Thapar gives through this book to both tiger lovers and scientists.
The last part, "The last tigers", captures the lives of "Tigerwallahs", or men and women who have given everything to the animal since the last century and their counterparts today.
Tiger Fire is a treat for the senses. It is vintage Valmik Thapar. It has something to offer to the established tiger lover as well as to those who may be beginning their education about the animal. It is a must-read for someone who wants to know more about this great beast, which could very well vanish in our lifetimes. Only, be prepared; at Rs 2,995, it could burn a deep hole in your pocket.
