‘Megamammalomania’

‘Value bigger picture beyond Big 5.’ Says who? ‘Tiger Man’! The advice came at a litfest named after Khushwant Singh, a passionate champion of ecology long before it became fashionate. The apt venue was Kasauli, which courtesy army, is one of the few hill stations where the woods are still lovely, dark, and not neck-deep in tourism – today’s Himalayan plunder.

Ironically, the plea to stop making the tiger sole goal of the sanctuary tourist was from MK Ranjitsinhji, who ranks among the brain – and brawn – behind India’s spectacular success in saving this magnificent beast. The articulate, elegant, tweed-jacketed scion of princely Wankaner sported a tiger on tie, scarf, and enamel cufflinks. But he still despaired of the obsession that ruins the trip for those who come away without having ‘earned their stripes’.

Mea culpa, I too have remained unimpressed – even blind – to the abundance of other fauna and flora that would have made the trip as paisa vasool. Maharajas were once responsible for the decimation of the big cats, but a handful have atoned in full measure. In Ranjitsinhji’s case could it also be the ‘divine hand’ in the form of a wizened silverback gorilla in Rwanda who’d reached down to almost physically bless him, then just a teenager? The simian hag had caught his sympathetic look when a mother gorilla kept dragging away the babies which this ‘granny’ had so wanted to cuddle.

What stood out in his talk was that conservation is m.