The Cult of The TigerBy Valmik ThaparOUP; price: Rs 295Writing yet again on his pet subject, Thapar traces the tiger’s route on the road to survival and the cult which grew around it. The Big Cat was deified in all the regions it traversed in search for safer environs — the freezing cold of Siberia to Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia and finally India. Thapar has thrown in some interesting nuggets; forest-dwellers in the Indo-China region believed the tiger loses a part of its ear on killing its victim and the Worli tribes near Thane worship it as the Tiger God. But for the aura surrounding it, the animal would have met with a worse fate. Thapar touches upon the problems this animal faces, but only just about. Add to this some beautiful pictures, and the book compels one to pause and join Thapar in ‘‘worshipping the ground on which the tiger walks’’. Smriti DiljunWalks in the WildBy Prosenjit Das GuptaPenguin India; price: Rs 250Das Gupta takes the reader on a long walk across the jungles of India. As they move on from Palamau in Bihar to Simlipal in Orissa, from Kaziranga in Assam to the ‘‘Abode of the Clouds’’ or Meghalaya as is known to us, every stride throws up new surprises, each unveiling one of the deepest secrets of the forest. The author introduces the reader to the denizens of the woods which, by their antics, never fail to startle them. A long walk transforms into an adventurous journey but a pleasant one nonetheless. The book, despite being host to 308 pages mainly devoted to the bison and sambhar, the chital and python, would make a good companion for those who are intrigued by the wild forests and want to know more about ‘‘pintails, coots and all that’’.— Miranda Yambem
