India's Wild Wonders

"India's Wild Wonders captures the essence of the life and work of two India's most celebrated wildlife photographers. It is an anthology that offers a priceless selection of pictures taken over twenty-two years by Rajesh Bedi, accompanied by a first-hand account of life in India's many-splendoured forests by his brother Naresh Bedi, who has an international reputation as India's leading wildlife film maker.

"This book reflects a lifetime's study of animals, birds and reptiles in their natural habitat. It offers rare glimpses of animal behaviour and records the life-cycle of several animals for the very first time. The hatching of gharial (long snouted crocodile) eggs on the sandy banks of the Chambal River, in the bandit-infested ravines of central India; the rearing of the young by the elusive, rarely-seen whistling wild dogs; an overly dependant six-month old tiger cub suckling at his mother's teats with her newly bron cubs; a tigress eating the flesh of a panther that it killed in a ferocious encounter; these are some of the many extraordinary photographs that make 'India's Wild Wonders' a unique volume.

"The Bedi brothers began to study and photograph wildlife at professional levels while still in their teens. They were inspired by the remarkable work done by their father, Ramesh Bedi, who has been one of the pioneers of the wildlife conservation movement in India and is one of the first-generation writers on conservation in India. The authors of 'India's Wild Wonders' grew up in the foothills of the Himalayan range and developed an interest in animal-life at a very early age. It may be said that they grew up in the shadow of the jungle, living in close proximity to the habitats of trumpeting elephants, roaring tigers, cunning panthers, deer-devouring pythons and a myriad other beings.

"The book incorporates photographic studies of the elephant in musth, the man-eating tigers of the Sunderbans; the breeding cycle of bar-headed geese in the remote vastness of the Tibetan plateau; the infrequently photographed species of Ladakh, the trans-Himalayan cold desert--the snow leopard, the Tibetan wild ass (kiang), the wild dog and wolf.

"The text by Naresh Bedi focuses on the problems of conservation and the endangered species, the problems posed by poaching and on the inter-action of the author and the photographer with the many animals they have studied. Woven into the personal account, of a life spent in the forests and jungles, is a detailed study of India's wildlife." (jacket)