Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 5, Number 1. May 2022. ISSN: 2581-7094
When I grow up, I want to be a tiger
 |
| When I grow up, I want to be a tiger | Non-fiction/
Wildlife | Prerna Singh Bindra (Text) & Maya Rama Swamy (Illustrations) | Speaking Tiger/Talking Cub (2017/2019) | ISBN: 978-81-933141-2-8 | ISBN: 978-93-88874-78-6 | pp 40 | HB ₹ 250 | PB ₹ 299 |
This slim but sound and illumining book When I grow up, I want to be a tiger is very touching, with the tigers’ emotions & feelings effectively captured.
The
concept of Prerna Singh Bindra the author of the text coupled with the
life-like illustrations by Maya Rama Swamy is ingenious, starting by telling a
story of a tiger family. It unfolds into the maze of difficulties and threats
the tigers – especially cubs and mothers – face in their lives. Both Prerna and
Maya are wildlife activists.
This
wonderful book, published by Speaking Tiger/Talking Cub is illumining, because
of the lucid way in which the inseparable link between Forests, Tigers, Water,
and Carbon sinking is shown. There are several nuggets that many of us perhaps
don’t know, like the fact that the stripes are uniquely different from tiger to
tiger, like how our thumb-prints are different from person to person, like how
the patter of stripes differ from zebra to zebra.
The
book makes us seamlessly interested in observing Nature and not spoiling it, in
reading on Wildlife, and in making us actively consider turning into Wildlife
activists or at least supporting them.
As
the International Tiger Day, 29th July is approaching, let’s remind ourselves
that tiger is our country’s national animal. Lion is regarded as the king of
the forest. And many a valiant human hero is compared to a tiger. There are
some curious differences between the lion and the tiger. Lions are family
beings – the lion (father), the lioness (mother), and the cubs (children)
constituting the family. Both the mom and the dad take care of the cubs. In
fact, they extend their families into prides consisting of about 30 members. And
lions hunt in packs making the job rather easier for them. Whereas, the tiger
is a lone & fierce warrior. Unliked in the case of lions, the tigresses are
much more possessive and more aggressive for it is only they that take care of
their cubs. The father doesn’t take the responsibility. Tigresses have to rear
their cubs for about three years for them to be independent. And what happens
when a lion and tiger come face to face? Who will win the fight? The answer is
fifty to fifty. There are instances of either of them being triumphant. Where a lion with its bushy mane looks
nonchalant, the tiger with its brilliant stripes and eyes “burning bright”
(William Blake) is equally awesome in its majesty.
***
Now
it’s worth paying attention to what the author says in her own words.
“Tigers
need large, undisturbed forests to live, roam, hunt and bring up their cubs.
People are clearing away forests, cutting the trees and the vegetation to make
cities and fields, and also factories, buildings, roads, mines, dams and many
such things. Tigers have already lost over 90 percent of their forests!” [Tigers
can survive only if they are allowed to live far from the periphery and deep
within the forests, their natural habitat.]
“As
apex (top) predators, tigers are at the top of the food chain, their presence
indicates a healthy forest. Forests are the lungs of the earth, providing oxygen.
They provide another great service to people by storing carbon, and so are
called ‘carbon sinks.’ As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and store it in their trunks, branches, roots. This helps fight
global warming. Forests also nourish soils, which is vital for us to grow food.
Many rivers and streams originate from forests, and we all know that water is
life! Today, many cities and villages in India do not have clean water because
forests are being cut down.” Thus, “Tigers are the soul and the spirit of the
forest.”
***
Our
Indian sages recognised the importance of the tigers and the forests thousands
of years ago. For example, here is a sloka from the Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata.
It
means: Without the forest, the tiger cannot survive. Without the tiger in the
forest, the forest gets destroyed (by the people). Hence the tiger must protect
the forest; and the forest must protect the tiger (and other animals).
In
short, if we protect nature, nature protects us.
***
To
conclude, all the three – author Prerna Singh Bindra, illustrator Maya Rama
Swamy, and the publisher Speaking Tiger –
deserve rich accolades.
As
for us, the readers, let’s encourage this book by buying it and presenting it
the youth and promoting the thoughts of the importance of conservation of
nature which barometrically rests on the welfare of the tigers and their
population. We can also donate for the cause, and I have done both, my dear
friends.