The Leopard of the Holy Mountain By Dorothy M. Leslie Chronicle, Adelaide, SA Thursday, 22nd January 1931 Bhim Tal lies up in the Kumaon hills in the United Provinces of India, twelve miles from a railway-station, and letters are brought by a native post-runner. He carries, as a protection against wild animals, a lance with […]
It was on 2nd of May, 1926 when ‘Jim’ Corbett finally nailed the notorious man-eating leopard that had terrorized travelers and villagers on the pilgrim road to Badrinath/ Kedarnath for 8 long years – claiming 125 victims. The leopard showed exceptional cunning in evading traps, poisoned baits and the bullets of shikaris and bounty hunters. Its […]
The never ending search for the history of Morni and Kotaha has now led to the, hand-written British records of the 19th century that have been meticulously preserved in the archives of the British Library at London. These bound volumes form a part of the India Office Records – the records of the British Rule […]
Lieutenant Proby Thomas Cautley, the famous ‘fossilwallah‘ of the Shiwalik Hills, wrote a letter in April 1835 to the Secretary Bengal Asiatic Society (it was published in the 4th Volume of the Asiatic Journal the same year) in which he described the working of the gold washers in the beds of the rivers under Nahan. Cautley talks […]
Bahera /Behada/Vibhitaka (Fearless in Sanskrit)/Beliric (Terminalia bellerica) is a large deciduous tree of South-East Asia that grows on plains and in lower hills. It has an uneven bluish or ashy-grey bark with longitudinal furrows. It grows to a height of 80-100 feet with a girth of 8-10 feet and is easily recognized from a distance by its […]
We hit the road at six and were already an hour behind schedule! The 400 km drive to Binsar through Moradabad, Rampur, Rudrapur, Kathgodam, Bhimtal, Bhowali and Almora was going to be one long haul. Musafir had insisted on driving the ‘Jazz’ as the winding hill roads make him sick unless he is at the […]
The Song of the Magpie Robin – A Memoir Rupa Publications 2014 Zafar Futehally It was the attractive cover of the book that caught my eye. I had come across passing references to Zafar Futehally in books on conservation but I was not too sure whether I wanted to buy his ‘Memoir’. It was only […]
The Wild Life of India, Collins 1964 E.P. Gee E.P. Gee was one of the earliest wildlife photographers of India together with his more famous compatriot, F.W. Champion. He led, what one may call, ‘a-dream-life’. A Cambridge educated Anglo-Indian, Edward Pritchard Gee took up employment on the tea estates of Assam in the midst of […]
Elephant – The Lady Boss; Vanasuma Prakashana; Chandrashekhar Basappanavar (1998) The Tramp chanced upon this veritable gem while sifting through a row of second hand books in the wildlife section of ‘Blossoms’ a famous bookstore on Bangalore’s Church Street. The store with its impressive collection of books, new and old, on virtually every subject under […]
Tiger -Wallahs Geoffrey C. Ward & Diane Raines Ward Oxford University Press 2002 It’s a grim account of the battle being fought to save India’s forests – and of the men at its forefront. The indefatigable Fateh Singh Rathore- the Tiger of Ranthambore made famous by his pupil – Valmik Thapar – a prolific wildlife […]
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