Why are some animal species disappearing? How do we bring them back? Are we heading towards a world 'without tigers'? Are there enough initiatives to address the plight of these magnificent cats?
'Tigers Forever-Saving the World's Most Endangered Big Cat' published by a National Geographic photojournalist Steve Winter and co-authored by Sharon Guynup is a tell-all tale about the tiger's fight for survival which answers the above mentioned questions.
According to Guynup, only 3,200 (wild) tigers have been left, scattered in small pockets across Asia.
In the final words of the book, she writes, "That's a shockingly low number. The time to act is now. Once the last tigers disappear, no longer gliding on velvet paws through the jungle, we cannot bring them back."
Before he decided to collaborate with Guynup on this book, Winter spent a decade on assignments in search of wild tigers, trying to capture images of the magnificent cat in Myanmar, India, Sumatra and Thailand, hoping to reinvigorate global concern as their numbers continued to plummet.
Guynup, an environmental journalist, began reporting on issues of the big cats, seven years ago.
"In 2007, while working on a story about poaching in India's Kaziranga National Park, I glimpsed my first tiger in the wild and started writing about them. I studied the various initiatives taken across the globe and realized that together, we needed to speak louder for tigers," Guynup told PTI in an interview.
