Noted wildlife and tiger conservationist, Valmik Thapar, 73, died in Delhi on Saturday (May 31, 2025). He was ailing from cancer. Thapar was well-known for his evocative photographs and scholarly ouvré of nearly 50 books on the tiger, particularly those in Ranthambore, Rajasthan, for nearly four decades.
He served on several government committees, was member of the National Board for Wildlife, and a Supreme Court empowered committee on wildlife. Thapar was one of the founders of the Ranthambhore Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that worked in almost 100 villages around the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. He was, at various points, critical of the execution of Project Tiger, instituted by the Centre in 1972, to restore India’s dwindling tiger population by demarcating forest reserves and establishing tiger corridors.
His impassioned advocacy of the cause of the tiger often put him at odds with proponents of the Forest Rights Act, a significant piece of legislation brought by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which recognises the historic rights of tribals and traditional forest dwellers in their native forests. The simmering tension around displacing forest dwellers from their land to expand tiger reserves has never gone away.
“Thapar was no arm-chair conservationist, he spent as much time as possible in the field. Be it in the searing heat or an icy cold winter morning, rain or shine, he would be ideating with community elders and officers managing India’s Tiger Reserves and National Parks to find solutions to complex, sensitive issues. Of course, he enjoyed his time in the jungle with his camera and binoculars, not just in the Indian wilderness but also in Africa. But what gave him the most pleasure was spending time with tigers in Ranthambhore, ” a note from his family said.
Thapar is survived by his wife Sanjana Kapoor, and son Hamir Thapar.
“Thapar has also been vocal in eschewing the dogmatic view that all tourism is bad tourism, and is a leading proponent of innovative tourism that can benefit both parks and people. All this, he firmly believes, is only possible by knitting together a cross-sectoral group of like-minded people including scientists, activists, village leaders, forest officials, bureaucrats, politicians and the free press,” a statement from Sanctuary Asia, a wildlife magazine that conferred a lifetime achievement award on him in 2017, said.
However, his criticism was bipartisan. Thapar has spoken against the introduction of cheetahs at Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, terming the big cat as unsuited to the existing forest landscape, and having a history of being a largely imported species that, in the past, has adorned the courts of medieval royals, rather than leading an unbroken, wild existence in India, in the way lions and tigers do.
“Valmik Thapar 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,” Congress spokesperson and former Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, in a post on social media platform X. “During my tenure as Chairman of the Standing Committee also he was a constant source of many 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,” Mr. Ramesh said.
File picture of Thapar interacting with the audience at The Hindu Lit For Life
| Photo Credit:
R. Ragu
“Valmik did not mince his words, nor shy away from giving his suggestions and opinions without fear or favour, he spoke with the same amount of passion about wildlife and conservation to a Prime Minister or Chief Minister as he did to a Forest Guard in a far flung chowki, treating them with equal respect,” the family’s note said.
Watch Valmik Thapar talking about his book ‘Tiger Fire – Five Hundred Years of the Tiger in India’ and conservation of the species at The Hindu Lit for Life 2014:
Books and films
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.
Tributes
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.”
(With inputs from PTI)
Published – May 31, 2025 11:11 am IST