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Time of India
a day ago
- General
- Time of India
Valmik Thapar walked with tigers, now he rests
JAIPUR: Valmik Thapar was 24 - fresh out of St Stephen's with a gold medal in sociology and an old boy from The Doon School. He stood at a crossroads. Life had questions, but no answers. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Then the jungle found him. In Ranthambhore, 1976, he met Fateh Singh Rathore - the national park's legendary field director. "Once you've looked into the eyes of a wild tiger," Thapar would later write, "you're never the same." That encounter didn't just chart a career spanning 50 years, it ignited a cause that would redefine tiger conservation in India. On Saturday morning, a pall of silence fell across Ranthambhore's forests. Thapar, 73, died at his Delhi home after a prolonged battle with cancer. More than just a conservationist, Thapar was a man who walked with tigers - and also an author, documentarian, policy adviser and activist. Valmik Thapar was tiger's most tireless advocate But to many, Valmik Thapar was the tiger's most tireless advocate. His relationship with Rathore, bloomed into a decades-long partnership that not only saved Ranthambhore's tigers from vanishing but also seeded a national movement for big cat protection. "I met Valmik as a 10-year-old in 1976," said Goverdhan Singh Rathore, son of Fateh Singh. "He was going through a difficult time and came to Ranthambhore seeking peace." "That meeting with my father led to a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Both led a long-running crusade to save Ranthambhore and its tigers," he added. In 1987, Thapar founded Ranthambhore Foundation - one of the first efforts in India to integrate conservation with community uplift. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Villages ringing the park became part of the mission. Healthcare, education, women's employment and traditional crafts were woven into a model that linked forest protection to human well-being. NGOs like Dastkar joined the effort, showing conservation didn't need to be a choice between people and animals. Dharmendra Khandal, a close associate and conservation biologist, recalled time in the field with reverence. "With Valmik sir, it was not just a safari; it was a masterclass in the wild. His energy at 70 was unmatched. Even between safaris, he wouldn't rest - he would invite me home for long, intense conversations about Ranthambhore's future." Thapar authored nearly 50 books, narrated documentaries including Land of the Tiger for BBC, and served on over 150 committees, including National Board for Wildlife. He was unafraid to call out missteps in govt policy, yet managed to win trust across political and bureaucratic divides. "He was fearless. Today, he has laid down his armour and gone to eternal rest," said Balendu Singh, former honorary warden of Ranthambhore. To those who worked with him, Thapar was a visionary mentor - sharp, driven, and unyielding. "His booming voice will echo through the valleys of Ranthambhore forever," said Goverdhan Singh. Even in his final days, Thapar was deep into writing a two-volume chronicle marking 50 years of Ranthambhore. Wildlife filmmaker Subbiah Nallamuthu, who chronicled India's tigers for global audiences, perhaps captured Thapar's impact best. "He was the voice through which India's tigers first spoke to the world. Long before streaming platforms and social media, he gave the tiger a language that was poetic, political and proudly Indian. The tiger may have lost a voice, but for those who read his words, watched his films, and walked the trails he once did, that voice still echoes. " Thapar leaves behind his wife Sanjana Kapoor, daughter of actor Shashi Kapoor, and a life spent tracking pawprints through history.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Valmik Thapar: Tiger Man who gave his everything to wildlife
Tigers burned bright for Valmik Thapar, who passed away after losing his fight against cancer at the age of 73 on Saturday. For many people of a certain vintage, Thapar arrived in their drawing rooms near the end of the 20th century with his infectious energy and a rich drawl promising a "journey you will never forget". Mellifluous Ta da ri na played as the title rolled up — Land of the Tiger. The six-part BBC series would go on to transmit his passion for these "superb animals" to the world. It was a passion that had been ignited in the 1970s at the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Thapar had gone there, on a whim, at the age of "23-24". But when the "romantic" chanced upon tigers in that setting, the flames of love were lit. Fateh Singh Rathore, the legendary former field director of the reserve, played a big role in nursing the affair along in the early days. Such was the magic that young Thapar, who had no experience with tigers or wildlife, never really came back from the place he would call "home" later. In fact, on my frequent visits to the place, I used to encounter him — either alone or in the company of Fateh Singh Rathore. Thapar would go on to succeed magnificently where it mattered: he made tigers popular among the masses. Through numerous books and films on wildlife, he helped the big cat to regain its lost glory. In a way, through them, he mobilised public support for the tigers. Even the titles of Thapar's books reflect his undying love for tigers. The Secret Life of Tigers, The Tiger's Destiny, Living With Tigers, and many more. In all, he wrote over twenty-five books — Tiger Fire: 500 Years of the Tigers in India was another — and made many documentary films, all of which will remain as vivid testaments. Famous dissenter The 'Tiger Man' of India, as he was often hailed, never shied away from taking pointed, non-conformist stands on issues concerning India's wildlife management. It did not matter whether the final analysis proved him right or wrong, he would not budge from his stated position. Recently, Thapar was among the first to put his foot down on the Central Government's ambitious programme to bring African cheetahs to India. "The project is doomed to fail; take it from me, cheetahs will not survive on Indian soil," he stressed repeatedly. Till the end, he remained a man of strong beliefs and did not mind crossing swords with authorities and fellow wildlife experts. Another interesting case in point was the Tiger Task Force, set up by the UPA Government in 2005, in the aftermath of Sariska Tiger Reserve losing all of its tigers to poachers. It was the first national park in India to attain this dubious distinction. One of the briefs of the taskforce was to suggest effective wildlife management in India's reserves to prevent a Sariska-like fiasco. Chaired by well-known environmentalist Sunita Narain, the committee in its final report suggested forging a stronger rapport between humans and wildlife in the forest areas. Thapar famously struck a dissenting note, scoffing at the taskforce's suggestion and dismissing it as "too optimistic". He instead advocated making certain areas of the forest sacrosanct for tigers and other wildlife, with no human interference. Be that as it may, even the most strident critics of Valmik Thapar swore by his undying passion for the Tigers. In that respect, he reminds me of another Tiger Man, and one no less important: Billy Arjan Singh. Billy's legendary association with Uttar Pradesh's Dudhwa Tiger Reserve finds an echo in Thapar's fascination with Ranthambore. The two of them had several things in common. Neither had any field experience, nor scientific training of any kind. Both courted controversies gleefully, but their imagination was fired by their passion for forests and wildlife. Both gave their everything to wildlife. It will always remain their abiding legacy. (Ajay Suri is a writer, photographer, documentary film-maker. He is also a journalist who won the Ramnath Goenka award for excellence in environment reporting.)
The Print
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
‘Tiger man' Valmik Thapar took train to Ranthambore in his 20s on a whim. It changed his life
Condolences poured in from all quarters for the 'Tiger Man'—a name he rightfully earned. His fight to protect India's big cats continued till the end. Thapar breathed his last at the age of 73 early Saturday. He passed away at his house on Kautilya Marg in Delhi after a battle with cancer. New Delhi: From tying a buffalo to a tree to observe the hunting behaviour of Ranthambore National Park's famous resident tigress Padmini and her cubs, to taking on his own colleague in the Tiger Task Force in the pursuit of prevention of poaching in Sariska, conservationist and author Valmik Thapar dedicated over four decades of his life to shaping India's tiger conservation programme. Senior 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. 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,' Ramesh wrote in an X post. The former environment minister said that during his tenure as chairman of the standing committee, Thapar was a constant source of valuable suggestions and advice. 'We had arguments, but it was always an education to listen to him, full of passion and concern. He was truly an unforgettable one-of-a-kind,' he added. Also Read: MR Srinivasan led India's nuclear energy programme, but wanted a world free of nuclear weapons Thapar's life and work In the early 1970s, hunting tigers was a popular sport at Ranthambore. It was around then that Thapar, who was then in his 20s battling personal crises, decided to leave everything behind. He caught a train to Ranthambore, and this whim, he said, 'changed his life'. 'I didn't know anything about tigers then. But I fell in love with the beauty of the place,' Thapar said in the opening of a BBC documentary in 2024. He said that upon his arrival at Ranthambore, with the help of the park director and another pioneer in tiger conservation, Fateh Singh Rathore, he spotted his first tiger in the park. They named her Padmini. And that is how his journey began. Apart from being an astute conservationist, Thapar was also a celebrated filmmaker and author, who penned around 32 books, including Land of the Tigers—A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent, Living with Tigers and The Secret Life of Tigers. He also served in over 150 committees for tiger conservation at both the Centre and state levels. In 2005, Thapar was appointed as a member of the Tiger Task Force to look into the poaching of tigers at the Sariska Tiger Reserve. After the committee, led by environmentalist Sunita Narain, presented its report, Thapar wrote a dissent note, claiming that the task force was misrepresenting the ground realities. He asserted that tiger reserves needed dedicated zones, where human interference would not be allowed. While he was known mainly for his work around tiger conservation, he also extensively worked on wildlife conservation at large. He was very vocally critical of the Narendra Modi government's Project Cheetah, stressing that India's weather, prey-base and terrain were not cheetah-friendly. According to conservation biologist Neha Singh, Thapar was a 'fearless advocate for the tigers'. 'He was the international voice of Indian tigers for many many years,' she said. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: Indian astrophysics giant Jayant Vishnu Narlikar reshaped our relationship with the sky
Indian Express
2 days ago
- General
- Indian Express
The one-man army who secured the tiger — with love and awe: Valmik Thapar (1952-2025)
Conservationist and tiger chronicler Valmik Thapar passed away early this morning after a brave and tough fight with cancer at his Kautilya Marg residence in New Delhi, his family said. He was diagnosed with cancer in his digestive tract. Considered one of the world's foremost authorities on tigers, Valmik Thapar inspired generations to rally for the cause of wildlife conservation. A veritable one-man army, he authored over two dozen books mostly on big cats, presented several wildlife documentaries, including the seminal BBC series Land of the Tiger (1997), and remained the loudest – and most articulate – voice for conservation in India since the 1990s. With no formal training in wildlife biology or conservation, Thapar developed a deep understanding of tiger behaviour, as he put it, by watching wild tigers in Ranthambhore over five decades. In 1976, it was a chance encounter with Fateh Singh Rathore, then director of Ranthambhore tiger reserve, that had him hooked for life. Both outspoken and often contrarian, Rathore and Thapar formed an indefatigable partnership — until Rathore's demise in 2011 — that influenced and, often, shaped India's conservation efforts and policies over the decades. Thapar served in multiple apex bodies of the government, including the National Board for Wildlife and the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court. He was also a member of the Tiger Task Force set up to prescribe reforms in the aftermath of the disappearance of tigers from Rajasthan's Sariska in 2005. That was also the year I started learning the mercurial ways of India's Tigerman. Thapar was warmly supportive of my work in The Indian Express from the day I first reported the total loss of tigers in Rajasthan's Sariska tiger reserve in January 2005. He offered me encouragement, insights and contacts, as the investigative series took me to parks across the country: Ranthambhore (Rajasthan), Panna, Kanha (Madhya Pradesh), Indrawati (Chhattisgarh), Valmiki (Bihar) and Palamu (Jharkhand) over the next three months. In May 2005, I reported how Ranthambhore was in shambles despite attracting more money than all other tiger reserves combined. Non-profits, including Thapar's NGO Ranthambhore Foundation, had received a sizeable chunk of those funds. The report appeared in the morning then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Ranthambhore. Thapar was livid over what he said would be his last phone call to me. It was a we-told-you-so moment for a couple of young conservationists who had flagged how often Thapar used to grandly bemoan how he failed to save 'his' tigers. 'Valmik is in love with his ego,' his critics would carp. Two months later, it was Thapar himself, back at what he loved doing, who would alert me to what he perceived as a 'pro-people bias' in the Tiger Task Force report which observed that the tiger 'issue is not about the tiger per se… but about rebuilding forest economies.'' Thapar's legendary stubbornness – a key shield for his activism – did not come in the way of changing his mind. Inviolate areas are often impractical, he would eventually concede, and 'conservation is impossible without community support.' Thapar had set up his Ranthambhore Foundation back in 1987 to work towards integrating local communities into conservation efforts, and also partnered with another non-profit, Dastkar, to create livelihoods for displaced villagers. But Thapar's fight, as he wrote in his 2012 book Tiger My Life, Ranthambhore and Beyond, 'was always for inviolate spaces—where the tiger could live free, away from noise, away from humans.' Post-Sariska, though, reform was in the air and prompted him to look beyond the model of exclusionary conservation. Around 2006, Thapar's 'tiger guru' Fateh Singh Rathore was also warming up to 'soft strategies' — such as educating children from traditional hunter communities — pushed by biologist Dharmendra Khandal, who had recently joined Rathore's non-profit TigerWatch. From mostly-stick, the Rathore-Thapar conservation scale started leaning decisively towards mostly-carrot in a matter of years. What did not change was Thapar's inbuilt distrust of the government system, even though he remained an insider most of his life. Perhaps that intimate knowledge led him to observe that 'bureaucracy killed more tigers than bullets ever did.' Yet, even Rajesh Gopal, who took heavy flak as then head of Project Tiger from Thapar during the Sariska years, is quick to assert that his adversary was not self-serving. 'All said and done, Valmik really helped the tiger's cause,' Gopal told The Indian Express. Until his last days, Thapar was involved in conservation work, guiding Khandal on various TigerWatch projects, and curating a defining collection of photos of Ranthambhore. Thapar was born in 1952 in Mumbai to Romesh and Raj Thapar, journalists and co-founders of the political journal Seminar. He is survived by his wife, actor and director Sanjana Kapoor, and son Hamir Thapar. Days before his death, I had called Thapar for a comment about a story I was working on related to the use of live bait to lure tigers. He never mentioned he was admitted to a hospital, but readily agreed to weigh in on the 'stupid thing they are doing, feeding tigers and risking lives.' The promised quote arrived on WhatsApp within minutes. Later, I learnt he was in considerable discomfort and 'fussed all day in an irritable mood.' On his first tiger sighting, Thapar once wrote: 'It was like shedding one layer of skin and putting on another… The transformation was total.' Until his last days, the mere mention of tigers would have the same impact on the man. Not always William Blake's tiger with its 'fearful symmetry' but something softer, more magical.
NDTV
2 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Wildlife Conservationist Valmik Thapar Dies At 73
New Delhi: Valmik Thapar, one of India's most eminent wildlife conservationists and authors, died at his residence Saturday morning. He was 73. Born in New Delhi in 1952, Thapar dedicated his life to the study and conservation of wild tigers, especially in Rajasthan's Ranthambore National Park. He co-founded the Ranthambhore Foundation in 1988, a non-governmental organisation focused on community-based conservation efforts. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh termed his death a great loss. "Today's Ranthambore, particularly, is a testimony to his deep commitment and indefatigable zeal. 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," Ramesh posted on X. He said that during his tenure as chairman of the Standing Committee, Thapar was a constant source of valuable suggestions and advice. Thapar's father, Romesh Thapar, was a well-known journalist. His aunt is historian Romila Thapar, and his cousin, journalist Karan Thapar. He studied at The Doon School and later graduated with a gold medal in sociology from St Stephen's College, Delhi University. Thapar married theatre artist Sanjana Kapoor, daughter of actor Shashi Kapoor, and they have a son. Thapar was mentored by Fateh Singh Rathore, a legendary figure in Indian conservation and a key member of the original Project Tiger team. Over his five-decade-long career, Thapar strongly lobbied for tougher anti-poaching rules and efforts to protect tiger habitats. He was part of more than 150 government panels and task forces, including the National Board for Wildlife, which is led by the prime minister. In 2005, Thapar was appointed a member of the Tiger Task Force, set up by the UPA government to review the management of tiger reserves following the disappearance of tigers from Sariska Tiger Reserve. When the task force, chaired by environmentalist Sunita Narain, concluded its report, Thapar submitted a dissent note. He expressed concern that the report was overly optimistic about the coexistence of tigers and humans. Thapar argued that for tigers to survive in the long run, certain areas needed to be kept free from human interference. He said that a minimum area should be managed exclusively in its natural form for a tiger. Thapar wrote or edited more than 30 books on wildlife, including Land of the Tiger: A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent (1997), and Tiger Fire: 500 Years of the Tiger in India. He also presented and co-produced several well-known films for channels like the BBC. One of his more famous works was a six-part series "Land of the Tiger" (1997), which explored the nature and wildlife of the Indian subcontinent. In 2024, he appeared in the documentary "My Tiger Family," which showcased his 50 years of observing wild tigers in Ranthambore National Park. Thapar had strong reservations about Project Cheetah, India's initiative to reintroduce African cheetahs into the wild. He argued that India does not have the necessary habitat or prey base to support free-ranging cheetahs and that the authorities lacked experience in managing spotted felines in the wild. Paying her tributes, conservation biologist Neha Sinha called him "the international voice of Indian tigers for many many years" and urged people to read his influential books such as "Tiger Fire" and "Living with Tigers" as a tribute. Wildlife conservationist Nirmal Ghosh remembered him as "a giant of tiger conservation" who leaves behind "a lasting legacy as a global spokesman for the tiger."
