Big cats between state & science

Panna is a dry forest, which at the time wildlife biologist Raghu Chundawat did his most intensive research, 1996 to 2004, saw a substantial recovery of the prey and predator populations

The Rise and Fall of the Emerald Tigers

Ten Years of Research in Panna National Park

Raghu Chundawat

Speaking Tiger Books

356 pages; Rs 899

There are few large vertebrates as magnetic and as beleaguered as the tiger in its Asian homelands. In 1972, fresh from the glory of the Bangladesh war, it was under Indira Gandhi that India took a major step towards its preservation. The country’s foresters were asked to count tigers. On the lines of fingerprinting perfected by a member of the Imperial Police Service, each tiger was presumed to have a distinctive paw print. The count began.

The results