Jungle Adventures: From the Forests of India
Jungle Adventures: From the Forests of India

Author: Rini Basu

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-01-15

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1387512730

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'Jungle Adventures; From the Forests of India', as the name suggests, is an interesting book of short stories based on true jungle adventures in Indian forests. The Sunderbans National Park in India is home to the majestic Royal Bengal tiger and the high altitude Himalayan conifer forests like Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary are the favourite hunting grounds of the ferocious snow leopards. Before independence, tiger hunting was a popular sport among the British colonizers as well as the royal Indian maharajahs. Shortly after independence, the Indian government lawfully prohibited the ruthless killing of wild animals and hunting became a serious and punishable offence.Adventure in the jungle is the main theme, though there are elements of love, humour and humanity to enhance the colour of the stories. The stories will interest readers of all ages.

Environment and Empire
Environment and Empire

Author: William Beinart

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2007-10-11

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 0191566284

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European imperialism was extraordinarily far-reaching: a key global historical process of the last 500 years. It locked disparate human societies together over a wider area than any previous imperial expansion; it underpinned the repopulation of the Americas and Australasia; it was the precursor of globalization as we now understand it. Imperialism was inseparable from the history of global environmental change. Metropolitan countries sought raw materials of all kinds, from timber and furs to rubber and oil. They established sugar plantations that transformed island ecologies. Settlers introduced new methods of farming and displaced indigenous peoples. Colonial cities, many of which became great conurbations, fundamentally changed relationships between people and nature. Consumer cultures, the internal combustion engine, and pollution are now ubiquitous. Environmental history deals with the reciprocal interaction between people and other elements in the natural world, and this book illustrates the diverse environmental themes in the history of empire. Initially concentrating on the material factors that shaped empire and environmental change, Environment and Empire discusses the way in which British consumers and manufacturers sucked in resources that were gathered, hunted, fished, mined, and farmed. Yet it is also clear that British settler and colonial states sought to regulate the use of natural resources as well as commodify them. Conservation aimed to preserve resources by exclusion, as in wildlife parks and forests, and to guarantee efficient use of soil and water. Exploring these linked themes of exploitation and conservation, this study concludes with a focus on political reassertions by colonised peoples over natural resources. In a post-imperial age, they have found a new voice, reformulating ideas about nature, landscape, and heritage and challenging, at a local and global level, views of who has the right to regulate nature.

Running Away from Elephants
Running Away from Elephants

Author: Rauf Ali

Publisher:

Published: 2018-03-10

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9789387693074

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'The memoirs of a self-confessed maverick wildlife biologist, full of fascinating information, and stories told with Rauf's inimitable caustic humour. A must for wildlife lovers and all who enjoy a unique read.'--Mark Tully Beginning with his interactions with Dr Salim Ali, the legendary ornithologist--who was also his grand-uncle--wildlife biologist Rauf Ali takes the reader on a journey through India's natural history and the beginning of ecological studies in India. Rauf was one of the first Indians to complete a PhD in wildlife biology--he researched the social behaviour of bonnet macaques in the forests of Mundanthurai region in Tamil Nadu. In the late 1980s, he was instrumental in setting up one of India's first Masters programmes in ecology, and later, as an ecologist, Rauf undertook the task of delineating Protected Areas in the Palani Hills of the Western Ghats. He was also among the first to conduct environmental research in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and in this book, he provides eye-opening information on the environmental damage caused by the introduction of chital and other species alien to the region. Enlivening the narrative are anecdotes drawn from a career spanning over three decades: of encountering wild elephants; dealing with red tape; and whiskey-laced brainstorming sessions with students and Nobel laureates alike. Through these personal accounts, Rauf reveals the state of environmental conservation in India, and the complex relationship between locals, wildlife researchers and forest officials. He also emerges as a person who was influential in creating policies for the conservation of the environment and who had little patience for the corruption and bureaucratic processes that came in the way. Quirky, candid and informative, Running Away from Elephants is an invaluable addition to writings on natural history in India.

Road to Nowhere
Road to Nowhere

Author: H. S. Pabla

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-09-12

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9781517097776

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This book is about a question that bothers no one in India: Why preserve wild animals despite the danger they pose to human life and property? While the whole world is conserving wildlife as a natural resource to support national economies, India preserves dangerous animals just for the heck of it. While the world feeds millions and makes billions from wildlife, an impoverished India says we want none of it. As a result, both, the animals and people, are just struggling to survive. HS Pabla, of the Indian Forest Service, spent 35 years trying to preserve India's wildlife, wondering: why? When he found an answer, that wildlife can be the backbone of the rural economy, rather than just being a menace, he found himself pitted against his own Government and peers. Here he bares his heart about how the Indian conservation paradigm is, surprisingly, neither rooted in its cultural and religious traditions, nor has any vision for the future. India will be poorer if she is able to save wild animals which have no use either for the tourist or for the hunter, he argues. Millions of acres of wilderness have been saved worldwide because the public wants to see or hunt wild animals on those lands. Wildlife tourism works both for people and for animals. This book, the first in a trilogy, shows how and where.