Valmik Thapar is an
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n
natural historianNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
. He is the author of 14 books and several articles, and has produced a range of programmes for
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
. His father
Romesh ThaparRomesh Thapar was a respected journalist and political commentator. He was the founder and editor of the monthly journal Seminar, published from New Delhi, India.Romesh Thapar was the brother of Romila Thapar, a renowned historian of India....
was a highly respected journalist and political commentator. The veteran journalist,
Karan ThaparKaran Thapar , born on 5th November, 1955 in Srinagar, India, is one of India's noted television commentators and interviewers. He is the youngest child of General P.N. Thapar and Mrs. Bimla Thapar...
is his cousin and
Romila ThaparRomila Thapar is an Indian historian whose principal area of study is ancient India.-Work:After graduating from Panjab University, Thapar earned her doctorate under A. L. Basham at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London in 1958...
is his aunt.
Mr.Thapar is recognised as one of India's most famous wildlife experts and conservationists, having produced and narrated documentaries on India's natural habitat for such media as the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
,
Animal PlanetAnimal Planet is an American satellite and cable television channel , that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications...
,
DiscoveryDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
and National Geographic.
In particular he has spent decades following the fortunes of India's
tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
population.
His stewardship of the Ranthambore Foundation was recognised and he was appointed a member of the Tiger Task Force of 2005 by the
Government of IndiaThe Government of India, also known as the Union Government or the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
.
Valmik Thapar is an
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n
natural historianNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
. He is the author of 14 books and several articles, and has produced a range of programmes for
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
. His father
Romesh ThaparRomesh Thapar was a respected journalist and political commentator. He was the founder and editor of the monthly journal Seminar, published from New Delhi, India.Romesh Thapar was the brother of Romila Thapar, a renowned historian of India....
was a highly respected journalist and political commentator. The veteran journalist,
Karan ThaparKaran Thapar , born on 5th November, 1955 in Srinagar, India, is one of India's noted television commentators and interviewers. He is the youngest child of General P.N. Thapar and Mrs. Bimla Thapar...
is his cousin and
Romila ThaparRomila Thapar is an Indian historian whose principal area of study is ancient India.-Work:After graduating from Panjab University, Thapar earned her doctorate under A. L. Basham at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London in 1958...
is his aunt.
Mr.Thapar is recognised as one of India's most famous wildlife experts and conservationists, having produced and narrated documentaries on India's natural habitat for such media as the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
,
Animal PlanetAnimal Planet is an American satellite and cable television channel , that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications...
,
DiscoveryDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
and National Geographic.
In particular he has spent decades following the fortunes of India's
tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
population.
His stewardship of the Ranthambore Foundation was recognised and he was appointed a member of the Tiger Task Force of 2005 by the
Government of IndiaThe Government of India, also known as the Union Government or the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
. When it was time to finalise the report of the Task Force, Mr.Thapar expressed his strong dissent at the overall approach of the high power body. He criticised the majority Task Force view in his dissent note as excessively focussed on the prospects of co-existence of tigers and humans, which was, in his view not consistent with the objective of the panel. The Task Force has paid inadequate attention to the biggest questions that face tiger conservation today, such as
poachingPoaching is the illegal hunting, fishing, trapping, or eating of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws...
, absence of science and hurdles to research posed by bureaucracies.
Mr.Thapar's writings have analysed the perceived failure of
Project TigerProject Tiger is a wildlife conservation project initiated in India in 1972 to protect the Bengal Tigers.The project aims at tiger conservation in specially constituted tiger reserves representative of various biogeographical regions throughout India...
, a conservation apparatus created in 1973 by the Government of India and its nature-loving Prime Minister
Indira GandhiIndira Priyadarshini Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi ( Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī; née: Nehru; (19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977...
. He has critiqued Project Tiger, drawing attention to its mismanagement by a forest bureaucracy that is largely not scientifically trained. His most recent book
The Last Tiger, Oxford University Press makes this case strongly.
Among the consistent criticisms levelled by Mr.Thapar at India's Ministry of Environment and Forests relates to its unwillingness to curb poaching through armed patrols and its refusal to open forests to scholarly scientific enquiry.
His famous relationship with 'Macchli' a female tigress is documented in some of his chronicles.
He is married to
Sanjana KapoorSanjana Kapoor is an Indian theatre personality and former Indian film actress, who has been running the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai since 1993 -Biography:In her childhood, she attended the prestigious Bombay International School in Mumbai...
, actress and daughter of
Shashi KapoorShashi Kapoor , born Balbir Raj Kapoor on March 18, 1938 in Calcutta, is a Indian film actor and producer and a member of the Kapoor family, an film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema. He is the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, the son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the widower of Jennifer...
.
Selected TV works
- Tiger Crisis
- Land of the Tiger
Land of the Tiger is a BBC nature documentary series exploring the natural history of the Indian subcontinent, first transmitted in the UK on BBC Two in 1997...
- Tigers’ Fortress
- Danger in Tiger Paradise
- Search for Tigers
- Overpopulation
Further references
Also see the following for a more extensive guide on his work: