Valmik Thapar, tiger conservationist and author, dies at 73
Thapar was involved with efforts to protect wild tigers, particularly in Rajasthan's Ranthambore National Park, for nearly five decades.
In 1987, he co-founded the Ranthambhore Foundation to integrate local communities into conservation efforts and later collaborated with the non-profit Dastkar to help displaced villagers earn a livelihood.
Thapar also served as a member of more than 150 government panels and task forces, including the National Board for Wildlife and the Tiger Task Force, which was set up in the face of tigers disappearing from Rajasthan's Sariska. In a dissenting note, he had warned the task force against the coexistence of humans and tigers.
In his 2012 book, Tiger My Life, Ranthambhore and Beyond, Thapar had described his mission as one that involved creating 'inviolate spaces' for tigers, where they could 'live free, away from noise, away from humans'.
He was a vocal advocate for stricter anti-poaching laws.
Thapar was also an author and filmmaker. He wrote and edited more than 30 books, including Land of the Tiger and Tiger Fire, and co-produced a BBC documentary series titled Land of the Tiger.
Expressing condolences to Thapar's family, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said he was 'deeply saddened to learn about the passing of noted conservationist'.
Deeply saddened to learn about the passing of noted conservationist, author and naturalist, Valmik Thapar.
A leading authority on Tiger conservation, he was as one of India's most respected wildlife experts and was appointed a member of the Tiger Task Force of 2005.
My deepest… pic.twitter.com/xwRfezwCv1
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) May 31, 2025
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Thapar's death was a 'great loss'.
'Today's Ranthambore, particularly, is a testimony to his deep commitment and indefatigable zeal,' said Ramesh. 'He was uncommonly knowledgeable on a variety of issues relating to biodiversity and not a day passed during my Ministerial tenure without our talking to each other – with me almost always at the receiving end.'
Valmik Thapar, a legendary figure in the world of conservation over the past four decades - especially tigers - has just passed away. It is a great loss.
Today's Ranthambore, particularly, is a testimony to his deep commitment and indefatigable zeal. He was uncommonly… pic.twitter.com/6TP60wMleo
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 31, 2025
Conservation biologist Neha Sinha called him 'the international voice of Indian tigers for many many years'.
Rest in Peace, Valmik Thapar, the international voice of Indian tigers for many many years.
As a tribute to him, do read the many books he penned on tigers: 'Tiger Fire', 'Living with Tigers' and others. pic.twitter.com/SJJzZeELYn
— Neha Sinha (@nehaa_sinha) May 31, 2025
Author and wildlife conservationist Nirmal Ghosh said that Thapar has left 'a lasting legacy as a global spokesman for the tiger'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
10 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Federal agents will be out 24/7 on patrol in Washington, the White House says
As a wary Washington waited, the White House promised a ramp-up of National Guard troops and federal officers on the streets of the nation's capital around the clock this week after President Donald Trump's unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the city's police department for at least a month. The city's Democratic mayor walked a political tightrope, referring to the takeover as an "authoritarian push" at one point and later framing the infusion of officers as boost to public safety, though one with few specific barometers for success. The Republican president has said crime in the city was at emergency levels that only such federal intervention could fix - even as District of Columbia leaders pointed to statistics showing violent crime at a 30-year low after a sharp rise two years ago. For two days, small groups of federal officers have been visible in scattered areas of the city. But a significant increase was expected Wednesday at the Guard's armory and troops were expected to start doing more missions in Washington on Thursday, according to a Guard spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the planning process. On Wednesday, agents from Homeland Security Investigations patrolled the popular U Street corridor. Drug Enforcement Administration officers were seen on the National Mall, while National Guard members were parked nearby. DEA agents also joined Metropolitan Police Department officers on patrol in the Navy Yard neighborhood. Hundreds of federal law enforcement and city police officers who patrolled the streets Tuesday night made 43 arrests, compared with about two dozen the night before. D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson downplayed the arrest reports as "a bunch of traffic stops" and said the administration was seeking to disguise how unnecessary this federal intervention is. "I'm looking at this list of arrests and they sound like a normal Saturday night in any big city," said Henderson. Unlike in other U.S. states and cities, the law gives Trump the power to take over Washington's police for up to 30 days. Extending his power over the city for longer would require approval from Congress, and that could be tough in the face of Democratic resistance. Trump suggested that he could seek a longer period of control or decide to call on Congress to exercise authority over city laws his administration sees as lax on crime. "We're gonna do this very quickly. But we're gonna want extensions. I don't want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will," he said. Later, on his Truth Social site, Trump reiterated his claims about the city, writing, "D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs." Henderson, who worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York before running for the D.C. Council, said she was already in touch with "friends on the Hill" to rally opposition for any Trump extension request. She added, "It's Day Three and he's already saying he's going to need more time?" Targeting a variety of infractions The arrests made by 1,450 federal and local officers across the city included those for suspicion of driving under the influence and unlawful entry, as well as a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon, according to the White House. Seven illegal firearms were seized. There have now been more than 100 arrests since Trump began beefing up the federal law enforcement presence in Washington last week, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said. "President Trump is delivering on his campaign promise to clean up this city and restore American Greatness to our cherished capital," she said. The president has full command of the National Guard and has activated up to 800 troops to support law enforcement, though exactly what form remains to be determined. Neither Army nor District of Columbia National Guard officials have been able to describe the training backgrounds of the troops who have so far reported for duty. While some members are military police, others likely hold jobs that would have offered them little training in dealing with civilians or law enforcement. The federalization push also includes clearing out encampments for people who are homeless, Trump has said. U.S. Park Police have removed dozens of tents since March, and plan to take out two more this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said. People are offered the chance to go to shelters and get addiction treatment, if needed, but those who refuse could be fined or jailed, she said. City officials said they are making more shelter space available and increasing their outreach. Violent crime has dropped in the district The federal effort comes even after a drop in violent crime in the nation's capital, a trend that experts have seen in cities across the U.S. since an increase during the coronavirus pandemic. On average, the level of violence Washington remains mostly higher than averages in three dozen cities analyzed by the nonprofit Council on Criminal Justice, said the group's president and CEO, Adam Gelb. Police Chief Pamela Smith said during an interview with the local Fox affiliate that the city's Metro Police Department has been down nearly 800 officers. She said the increased number of federal agents on the streets would help fill that gap, at least for now. Mayor Muriel Bowser said city officials did not get any specific goals for the surge during a meeting with Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, and other top federal law enforcement officials Tuesday. But, she said, "I think they regard it as a success to have more presence and take more guns off the street, and we do too." She had previously called Trump's moves "unsettling and unprecedented" while pointing out he was within a president's legal rights regarding the district, which is the seat of American government but is not a state. For some residents, the increased presence of law enforcement and National Guard troops is nerve-racking. "I've seen them right here at the subway ... they had my street where I live at blocked off yesterday, actually," Washington native Sheina Taylor said. "It's more fearful now because even though you're a law-abiding citizen, here in D.C., you don't know, especially because I'm African American." ___ Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Will Weissert, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist River Zhang contributed to this report.
Hans India
12 minutes ago
- Hans India
CJI's intervention on stray dogs will delight animal lovers
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai's recent assurance that he would examine the Supreme Court's directive concerning stray dogs must be a welcome relief to animal lovers across the country. The directive, issued on August 11 by a bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, called for the removal of stray dogs from the streets of Delhi-NCR region, with instructions to relocate them to designated shelters. The order was framed to make all localities free from stray dogs, ostensibly to address growing public concerns about safety, hygiene, and civic order. However, the issue is far from one-dimensional. The debate over stray dog management in India has always been complex, drawing strong views from multiple stakeholders, including residents' associations, animal welfare activists, municipal authorities, legal experts and the citizens. While some view the large stray dog population as a pressing public health and safety problem, others see these animals as sentient beings deserving protection, compassion, and a dignified life. In recent years, there has been a rise in reported incidents of dog bites, often amplified by media coverage, which has intensified public calls for stricter action. On the other hand, animal rights groups argue that the abrupt removal of strays from their familiar environments can cause distress to the animals and may even be counterproductive if not supported by long-term, humane solutions. For them, sterilisation, vaccination, and community feeding under supervised conditions are proven, sustainable strategies to control stray populations while safeguarding public health. Gavai's intervention signals an awareness of this delicate balance. He has opened the doors for a more measured approach that considers both public safety and animal welfare. Such a stance could pave the way for a policy that is practical yet humane, and for judicial orders that encourages cooperation rather than confrontation between authorities and animal lovers. The responsibility for managing stray animals does not lie solely with the judiciary or the municipal authorities. Civil society organisations, residents' welfare associations, and all other individuals have a role to play. Humane stray management is resource-intensive and requires consistent funding, trained personnel, adequate shelter facilities, and active monitoring. Without these, relocation orders may end up being implemented haphazardly, potentially leading to overcrowded shelters, disease outbreaks among animals, or even clandestine culling—practices that would invite public outrage and legal challenges. Moreover, the issue extends beyond Delhi-NCR. Many Indian cities face similar challenges, where the stray dog population is the unintended consequence of inadequate waste management, urban sprawl, and a lack of robust sterilisation programs. Any decision made in the capital region could set a precedent—positive or negative—for the rest of the country. This makes it even more crucial that the path chosen balances compassion with pragmatism, and law with empathy. The way forward should ideally involve structured consultations between the judiciary, local bodies, veterinarians, NGOs, and community representatives. Such discussions could lead to a comprehensive framework that addresses root causes—uncontrolled breeding, lack of waste disposal systems, and insufficient public awareness—rather than simply dealing with the visible symptom of stray dogs on the streets. The CJI's statement offers a chance to transform what could have been a polarising order into a collaborative effort for humane and effective stray dog management. It is now up to all stakeholders to seize this opportunity and help achieve the intended purpose.
Scroll.in
12 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Why India's plans to counter China's mega dam in Tibet may falter
The Yarlung Tsangpo river originates in the mountains of western Tibet, and flows eastwards through the Tibet Autonomous Region. It then enters Arunachal Pradesh, where it is known as the Siang. Then, it flows further downstream to Assam, from when it is widely known as the Brahmaputra. This river is currently the site of an intensifying conflict between India and China over the control, ownership and use of its waters. While the threat of competition for this water has always loomed large, it began to take firmer shape in July, when China began construction of a 60-gigawatt hydropower project in Medog, just 30 km north of Arunachal Pradesh. The dam is set to be the world's largest in terms of hydropower capacity – the current largest one, the Three Gorges Dam, also in China, has a capacity of 22.5 gigawatts. These plans have alarmed India. Ministers have described the dam as a 'water bomb' that China can weaponise – either by withholding water to India, or suddenly releasing it in large volumes, which can wreak destruction downstream. In response, India has been pushing forward with plans to build the 11-gigawatt Siang upper multipurpose project in Arunachal Pradesh's Siang district. The dam at Siang could help mitigate some of these probable risks of the Chinese dam, Indian authorities have argued. The government had been considering the project since 2017, when the Niti Ayog proposed it. In February 2022, the Ministry of Jal Shakti formed a technical group to finalise the dam's height. A month later, they recorded their findings in a report, asserting that the Siang Upper dam 'will act as a flood cushion in case of sudden release of flood due to breach in natural and man made storages' in China's proposed dam at Medog. The document noted that the dam would also help regulate glacial floods on the river, and thus minimise losses to local livelihoods. But experts warn that the Indian dam will be of limited use in these respects. Rather than offer any protection from China, India's dam will only serve as a marker of its claims over the river, experts argued. As India sees it, 'if they do not construct a dam on the Brahmaputra, then we will not have water rights over the river', said Sumit Vij, assistant professor at Netherlands-based Wageningen University, who has worked extensively on the Brahmaputra basin. The dam has also raised fears of damage to the local environment and destruction of livelihoods. Thirteen villages in Arunachal Pradesh are to be completely submerged, including agricultural fields where the Adi community grows ginger, cardamom, and paddy. Locals are also concerned that the dam will restrict sediment flow in the river. Communities in the region have been protesting against the project since 2024, noting that the government was pushing it through without adequately consulting them, and by deploying armed forces and police to quell objections. Such conflict is regrettable, particularly since, to achieve the tangible results of the kind the government seeks, 'there has to be a diplomatic solution, a dialogue solution, and not a dam solution', Vij noted. He added, 'If they get into this dam race, India will harm its own environment much more than what is expected to be harmed by China.' Scroll emailed the Ministry of Jal Shakti, seeking responses to questions about the rationale behind the construction of the dam and its planned functions. This story will be updated if it responds. Flood moderation or hydropower generation? The government intends for the Upper Siang dam to perform more than one function. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said the dam 'is not just about generating power, but also about maintaining the natural flow of the Siang river and mitigating potential flood risks from water releases by China'. But experts argue that such a goal is unrealistic. If the Siang dam's main function is to mitigate against the risk of floods, they said, other functions, such as hydropower generation, would have to take a back seat. A key reason for this is that since the Siang dam is a hydropower project, water levels of its reservoir would typically be kept high. Soumya Dutta, a visiting senior fellow at Impact and Policy Research Institute who works on energy and climate, noted that 'for creating electricity, dam officials keep the reservoir levels at full capacity to maximise the energy potential'. If China withheld water or released excess water, the Siang dam would allow India to 'moderate these daily cycles of peaks and troughs of water for a few days'. But because it would have a limited buffer capacity, 'beyond that, if there is a heavy rainfall or a sudden release, the dam will not be able to hold it back', Dutta explained. This risk is exacerbated by the geographical limitations the Siang dam will face. Dutta noted that a crucial feature of a dam designed for flood control is a large reservoir. The government is proposing to build a reservoir in Siang – but the geography of the region will only allow for a narrow and deep reservoir, as opposed to the wide ones found in some dams elsewhere in India, like the Nagarjuna Sagar dam, jointly operated by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to control floods. In such broad reservoirs, flood control can be carried out even by keeping water levels 'just a little low', Dutta said. In deep reservoirs, however, maintaining a buffer capacity to guard against floods would mean necessarily keeping water levels much lower, which would impinge on hydropower generation capacity. Dams that prioritise hydropower generation are, in fact, generally prone to causing flooding when there is a sudden inflow of water into their reservoirs – Dutta noted that many independent experts argued that is what happened in the 2018 floods in Kerala. Indeed, concerns about the construction of the Siang dam do not only revolve around its efficacy – but also about the effects that it might have downstream in Assam, if the dam releases large volumes of water to prevent flooding around it. 'Unfortunately, there is no bioregional understanding of rivers,' in India, said Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, visiting associate fellow at Delhi-based Institute of Chinese Studies. Such an approach takes into account the fact that 'if you create something upstream of the river basin, it will have an impact downstream, and also vice-versa', he added. More deliberation needed The canyon where the Medog dam will be built is one of the deepest in the world, and plunges to depths of more than 5,000 metres. The river's fall over this canyon generates massive amounts of energy, making it an ideal site for a large hydropower plant. China has spent decades studying the site and drawing up plans for the dam's construction. Experts fear that if India now rushes to catch up with its neighbour, its own dam will not be built in the most optimal way. 'China has spent years studying the geomorphology and understanding the advantage of gradient that it has to build the dam there,' said Rahman. In this regard, India is '15-20 years behind China', Rahman said. At the moment, the government is attempting to conduct a survey, based on which it would draw up a 'pre-feasibility report' of the dam in Siang. This is only one of the first steps of the process, Rahman explained. 'You need to have a long-term research analysis in order to back up your structural interventions,' he said. This work would have helped India understand the area's hydrology more precisely, and identify potential sites for the dam. He further explained that such research could have helped minimise the likelihood of protests among local communities, since information about the project could have been communicated to people on the ground in a timely way. At present, he argued, sufficient hard data about the project has not been shared with local communities, which is leading to increased speculation among them. 'If India would have invested time and money in understanding the river basin in the last 20 years, India could have been in a much better position to design a dam that could perhaps counter the Medog dam,' Rahman said. No treaty India and China both feel a strong need to demonstrate ownership over the river in this region, experts noted, because there is no international law, transboundary institution, or treaty for the Brahmaputra basin that inscribes how its water should be shared. All the four countries that use the basin – China, Bhutan, India, and Bangladesh – have diverse interests, ranging from hydropower generation to flood management and economic development. But so far, discussions between them on cooperating over the river have been limited. In 1997, more than one hundred countries came together to adopt the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, which sets out a framework for countries that have to share waters. It mandates that signatories have to share hydrological, meteorological, hydrogeological and ecological data with each other, and that conflicts be resolved 'with special regard being given to the requirements of vital human needs'. But other than Bangladesh, none of the other countries in the Brahmaputra basin signed to be party to it. 'That made it very clear that India and China did not want to engage in a multilateral diplomatic negotiation where there could be a third-party mediation,' said Vij. 'It could have allowed for a more just, equal playing field for all actors, but the downside is that it would take longer time to negotiate between the countries.' Instead, India and China signed a memorandum of understanding in 2002 aimed at helping India take steps towards flood control and mitigate the risks of disasters. Under this memorandum, China would provide hydrological information of the river to India in both the flood and non-flood season. This memorandum was renewed in 2008 and 2013 – China temporarily paused it in 2017 after the two countries clashed in Doklam, and renewed it again in 2018. But the memorandum expired in June 2023 and has not been renewed since. In any case, Vij noted that as a mechanism, a memorandum of understanding 'can be a weak institutional mechanism for water-sharing'. Rahman added that while agreements act as 'bricks of confidence building', they are not as strongly backed by international law, and can be withdrawn more easily. In contrast, under international law, treaties are typically far more comprehensive, and carry more weight. Thus, they usually 'lead to cooperation and better understanding between the riparian states', said Vij. Indeed, though India and China signed the memorandum, the process of sharing data has been fraught, Vij wrote in a 2017 paper. Such sharing is typically a means of building trust between countries, but 'in the specific case of the Brahmaputra the lack of a data sharing procedure at the basin level has fostered mistrust between the riparian countries and hindered regional cooperation', he wrote. Further, he noted, 'The power asymmetry between the countries and the broader political context, which currently considers all hydrological data relating to international borders as classified, make the process of sharing data complex.' That has left the two countries in a race to create large infrastructure in the Himalaya, which can be disastrous not just to the topography, but also to local indigenous populations. 'In the way the dam construction is going on, it probably will not have an impact on what the Chinese are doing as much as it will have on their own population, people, nature and ecology,' said Vij.
