Our Tigers Return – Peeyush Sekhsaria and Rangaiah Sreenivasa Murthy

Description

Our Tigers Return – A delightful storybook for children and adult nature lovers. “The crux of the book— Panna’s revival — is explained in the title. After a brief overview of Panna Tiger Reserve, and the shameful extinction of tigers here in 2009, the book centres on the tremendous task of reintroducing tigers to Panna. In an unprecedented exercise, tigers were translocated from reserves in Madhya Pradesh. The next task was to keep the tigers safe, and the Panna team worked tirelessly to protect and monitor the tigers. They were rewarded when tigers bred, raising cubs, and the next generation of Panna’s ‘new’ tigers. There are 32 tigers in Panna now. There is no such parallel in the world, of tigers being reintroduced-and successfully establishing and breeding. The book invokes the old-fashioned art of story-telling through a sutradhar, in this case “Murthy Uncle’ or Rangaiah Sreenivasaa Murthy, who was the park director, and the architect of Panna’s revival. He narrates the story to an inquisitive school going girl, Megha, who besieges Murthy Uncle with her many questions:”What does perennial mean?” (in context of the river Ken) to “Do radio-tigers bother tigers?” and “how do tigers communicate?” Within the story of Panna’s tigers are embedded other jungle tales. How hyaenas are scavengers , the leopard and its spots, why bears climb trees, and more.

It explains how eco-systems work and how ‘just’ a school girl can help tigers.” -Prerna Singh Bindra in Sanctuary Asia

• Publisher : Last Wilderness; First edition (1 January 2016)
• Paperback : 48 pages
• Reading age : 8 years and up