The Dance of the Sarus : Essays of a Wandering Naturalist/S. Theodore
Baskaran. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, xvii, 240 p., ISBN
019-564-9664.
The Dance of the Sarus : Essays of a Wandering Naturalist/S. Theodore
Baskaran. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, xvii, 240 p., ISBN
019-564-9664.
Contents: Introduction. 1. The birds. 2.The Mammals. 3. The habitats. 4. The issues. 5. The domestic. Index.
"The Dance of the Sarus is a collection of short essays on little known aspects of India's wildlife and natural history. They are the result of Baskaran's wanderings through diverse Indian terrain: from the alpine landscape of Arunachal Pradesh to the Scrub jungles of Madurai, from the deserts of Kachch to the Wetlands of Manipur.
Written in a style that combines the fleeting glimpse with the transcendental vision, the poetic spirit with scientific inquiry, Baskaran's sparkling prose captures the sights and sounds of the Indian wilderness. His cameos introduce us to such varied species as the fiercely monogamous sarus and the purple-rumped sunbird, the lion-tailed macaque and the immaculate white tiger, the mysterious haflong, the common canine.
Baskaran's is the voice of the concerned environmentalist. In interviews with experts including legendary ornithologist Salim Ali and celebrated wildlife biologists George Schaller and the younger Ravi Chellam, he discusses conservation issues like captive breeding and ecological fragmentation.
Interspersed with pictures, this is a book that will appeal to the specialist and the amateur, naturalists, conservationists, and in fact anyone keenly interested in and concerned about India's abundantly rich but ebbing natural heritage." (jacket)