Interview | ‘Tiger man’ K. Ullas Karanth on protecting India’s wildlife habitats
Tiger expert K. Ullas Karanth discusses his new book, 'Tiger Memories,' and his philosophy on wildlife conservation in India. He argues for strict habitat protection and law enforcement over community-based co-existence models.
Why it matters
The debate between community-led conservation and strict state-enforced protection is central to environmental policy in high-density countries like India.
The walls of K. Ullas Karanth’s office in Bengaluru are lined with striking photographs of tigers, unsurprising for a man who has spent decades studying the striped phantom of the forest. One shows his younger self in camouflage gear, posing with a tranquillised tiger. It was taken in January 1990, when he had captured and collared the tigress labelled as T-02, nicknamed Sundari.
This picture, and the incident behind it, are both part of Tiger Memories: My Life in Wildlife Conservation , Karanth’s latest book, co-authored with Bengaluru-based writer Joshua Mathew. It traces the tiger expert’s lifelong passion for the natural world, his pioneering contributions to tiger research and conservation in India, and the successes, challenges, regrets, and disappointments he encountered along the way.
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