Honorary Tiger : The Life of Billy Arjan Singh

by Hart-Davies, Duff

• ISBN13: 9780413775535
• ISBN10: 0413775534
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-01
• Publisher: Methuen Pub Ltd

Summary

"Popularly known as India's latter-day Jim Corbett and 'tiger man', 87-year-old Billy Arjan Singh is by any standards an extraordinary man. At Tiger Haven, his home in a magical spot on the edge of the jungle in UP, Billy's experiments with bringing up three orphaned leopards, and also Tara, a tiger cub which he imported from a zoo in England - shot him into both fame and controversy. His aim was to see if Tara's instincts would make her revert to the wild when she became mature. They did - and over the years she produced four litters of cubs, thus proving his contention that it is possible to supplement dwindling wild stocks with zoo-born animals. But when it was discovered that the tigress had Siberian genes in her ancestry, he was accused of having introduced a 'genetic cocktail' into the jungle." "Undeterred, Billy remained a champion of the forest and its denizens. It was almost entirely due to his advocacy that in 1973 the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, authorized the creation of the Dudhwa National Park. Now, in his eighties, comes recognition for his efforts: In March 2005 he received the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation award - a global honour administered by the World Wildlife Fund, that serves to recognize outstanding contributions in international conservation."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	vii
FOREWORD	ix
ONE Death in the Jungle	1	(12)
TWO Born Killer	13	(21)
THREE Learning the Ropes	34	(16)
FOUR Farmer	50	(27)
FIVE Eelie and Prince	77	(18)
SIX Harriet and Juliette	95	(20)
SEVEN The Cubs are Born	115	(7)
EIGHT Enter Tara	122	(20)
NINE Tourists	142	(12)
TEN Maneaters	154	(31)
ELEVEN Rhinos and Others	185	(20)
TWELVE Fighting On	205	(9)
THIRTEEN Looking Ahead	214	(5)
GLOSSARY	219	(4)
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY	223