Description
Sometime in the mid-1990s, Amirtharaj Christy Williams, an Asian elephant
specialist, went to Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand as a greenhorn
research fellow. His task was to radio-collar and track several elephants in
the Siwalik hills. As he went about his work, he formed close associations
with several of these amazing pachyderms: Mallika, the matriarch who held
her herd together; Kiruba, a new mother; Shahrukh, the young shy male;
and Tipu, the Sultan of the Siwaliks, the tallest elephant ever recorded in the
national park and the gentlest of giants.
In this memoir, Christy recalls the heady years of hope and desperation as his
team struggled against encroachment and human-animal conflict to create
space for the elephant herds. Between deaths and new births, from cropraiding
elephants to kitchen-raiding ones, there emerges a story of the largeheartedness
of elephants, their quirks, their lives and their struggles. Warm,
funny, immensely readable, and often bringing to mind great nature writers
such as Gerald Durrell, this passionate personal account will inspire readers
of all ages to appreciate and understand wildlife and its immense beauty.
