Tigers are a passion of mine and when Global Tiger Day approaches my thoughts turn to India their natural habitat - as well of course in other countries in Asia, but India has my attention because of my close connection.

Jim Corbett the late great conservationist and jungle expert who died in the 1950s loved India and he did all he could in his way to publicise the importance of maintaining wild places and the denizens of the jungle therein. Because of his acclaimed dedication Corbett National Park was named after him in Uttar Pradesh, which is where I was born and his wonderful simple books of the jungle and its predators and challenges enchant readers to this day.

In fact, I met the great yet humble man whilst in my mother’s womb. My late Parents were friends of his and his sister Maggie. He warned India that the tiger would suffer greatly if stringent measures were not taken to preserve its habitat and his words ring true to this day. Poaching is the major danger and threat but also the sheer weight of population that encroaches on India’s wild places and the scrub cattle that is allowed to graze in national parks, which in time deprive the wild herbivores and then themselves become tiger prey; this of course enrages the villagers …. But in actual fact these scrub cattle are pretty unproductive yet shelter under the umbrella of ‘holy cows’.

It is the Tigers of India that we need to conserve seriously and reject all thoughts of mining and extraction, cheap tourism and any other exploitation of the great wild places of India…here is my article dedicated to tigers on India GB News.