Book review : SPELL OF THE TIGER- The Man-eaters of Sundarbans
Just finished reading "SPELL OF THE TIGER--- The Man-eaters of
Sundarbans" a 1995 non-fiction book by Sy Montgomery(wikipedia link)-
an american writer praised for her previous book "walking with the
great Apes" (goodreads link) by The Chicago Tribune as a 'sensitive
and revealing contribution to the legend of unique scientific
sisterhood.'
.
The book (isbn/link) a 230 pages paperback, chronicles the author's 3
trips into the Sundarbans, where unlike any other place on the Earth,
the Tigers hunt Humans. While trying to study the interaction between
the Man, the Tiger and the Nature, the author also came face to face
with the harsh reality of the socio-cultural situation of those people
living in the fringes of the mangrove forests, trying to earn their
livelyhood from the various gifts strewn in the lap of mother nature.
She has managed, and I would say praisefully managed, to take the
reader into a virtual tour to one of the strangest places in the
world. Where fishes climb trees, and trees grow their roots upwards
towards the sky.
.
The first impression of any book, when one has just located it in the
'non-fiction' section, is that of a boring academic tome full of
Zoological terms and scientific lingo, sprinkled with undecipherible
statistics tables and undigestable Maps. But, this book is different.
As I started leafing through the pages, the book opened up its chest,
the treasure started to reveal itself, and compelled me to add it to
my buying list.
.
Written in a simple first person narrative, the book is a gem in its
Genre. The descriptions, the vocabulary, the fluidity of
language....... Never had I had the thrill in any other non-fiction
work which I felt reading this book. The format is almost paralleling
the Thriller genre. With its sharp twists-in-the-tales combined with
the author's playing-with-the-words the 'spell' has itself cast a
spell on me. It has proved beyond doubt what a successful academic
travel tale ought to be.
.
Opening with an almost apologetic introduction of the vanishing tribe
of the Great Striped Cats, showing the impact of poaching and
deforestation with dwindling of tiger population.
Take a sneak peak, with the exact words.
.
'At the turn of the century, tigers occupied vast areas of Asia, from
the Russian Far East to Java. Turkey's Mount Ararat, near the border
with Iran, was said to be 'infested' with them upto the snowline.
Tigers hunted 'wapiti' (link to wikipedia) in the dwarf oak forests
west of Mongolia's Gobi Desert; gigantic long-furred tigers stalked
mountain sheep through Russian blizzards; tigers padded through the
steaming rain forests of Bali. An estimated 40,000 Royal Bengal Tigers
inhabited India's jungles and grasslands'
.
The tigers ( Panthera Tigris) , as Ms. Montgomery notes, can be
divided into 8 sub species of which, 3 are now unfortunately extinct.
The Siberian Tiger, The Royal Bengal Tiger, The Indo-chinese Tiger,
The Sumatran Tiger, and The South China Tiger, still roam the Earth.
Or were thought so till the publication of this book. The three
unfortunate sub-species being, The Bali Tiger, The Caspian Tiger and
The Javan Tiger.
.
.
The whole book- a series of anecdotes- is divided into chapters. Each
with a specific Theme, mostly centred around a single incident.
Merging the experiences of three trips indistinguishly.
.
The content, though being a non-fiction is never dry or boring. The
author has penned her anecdotes so wisely and carved them so
beautifully with words, that the reader fails to realise the boundery
between the Prose and The Poetry. Some paragraphs, have been treated
so magically, that the aroma of their formation makes the reader
hungry for more. The trance the author creates is so hard to break
that when the tiger is mentioned to pounce in an Incident, I actually
felt the shivers down the spine. As if I too was there, watching from
some distance. As, being too near that ferocious animal would
definitely have been lethal.
.
Apart from the jungle and the Tigers, the author has tried to peek
into the social and the religious lives of the people dwelling in the
Sundarbans. The Story of Bonobibi and Daksin Ray try to tell the
universally proclaimed fact of the need of protection of our
environment. And, with equally relatable instances and folk-lores try
to show the punishment given to those who disobey the commands,and try
to harm the mother mature.
.
.
All in all, the book is a gem of its genre. And I would highly
recommend it to anyone who is interested. I hoped, before typing this
review, that I would try to include a few of the most touching lines
and para s from this book. But as I skim through the pages, I find
hordes of them. I'm afraid, I would have to just COPY-PASTE the whole
book in the effort.
.
5 out of 5 stars.
* * * * *
Sundarbans" a 1995 non-fiction book by Sy Montgomery(wikipedia link)-
an american writer praised for her previous book "walking with the
great Apes" (goodreads link) by The Chicago Tribune as a 'sensitive
and revealing contribution to the legend of unique scientific
sisterhood.'
.
The book (isbn/link) a 230 pages paperback, chronicles the author's 3
trips into the Sundarbans, where unlike any other place on the Earth,
the Tigers hunt Humans. While trying to study the interaction between
the Man, the Tiger and the Nature, the author also came face to face
with the harsh reality of the socio-cultural situation of those people
living in the fringes of the mangrove forests, trying to earn their
livelyhood from the various gifts strewn in the lap of mother nature.
She has managed, and I would say praisefully managed, to take the
reader into a virtual tour to one of the strangest places in the
world. Where fishes climb trees, and trees grow their roots upwards
towards the sky.
.
The first impression of any book, when one has just located it in the
'non-fiction' section, is that of a boring academic tome full of
Zoological terms and scientific lingo, sprinkled with undecipherible
statistics tables and undigestable Maps. But, this book is different.
As I started leafing through the pages, the book opened up its chest,
the treasure started to reveal itself, and compelled me to add it to
my buying list.
.
Written in a simple first person narrative, the book is a gem in its
Genre. The descriptions, the vocabulary, the fluidity of
language....... Never had I had the thrill in any other non-fiction
work which I felt reading this book. The format is almost paralleling
the Thriller genre. With its sharp twists-in-the-tales combined with
the author's playing-with-the-words the 'spell' has itself cast a
spell on me. It has proved beyond doubt what a successful academic
travel tale ought to be.
.
Opening with an almost apologetic introduction of the vanishing tribe
of the Great Striped Cats, showing the impact of poaching and
deforestation with dwindling of tiger population.
Take a sneak peak, with the exact words.
.
'At the turn of the century, tigers occupied vast areas of Asia, from
the Russian Far East to Java. Turkey's Mount Ararat, near the border
with Iran, was said to be 'infested' with them upto the snowline.
Tigers hunted 'wapiti' (link to wikipedia) in the dwarf oak forests
west of Mongolia's Gobi Desert; gigantic long-furred tigers stalked
mountain sheep through Russian blizzards; tigers padded through the
steaming rain forests of Bali. An estimated 40,000 Royal Bengal Tigers
inhabited India's jungles and grasslands'
.
The tigers ( Panthera Tigris) , as Ms. Montgomery notes, can be
divided into 8 sub species of which, 3 are now unfortunately extinct.
The Siberian Tiger, The Royal Bengal Tiger, The Indo-chinese Tiger,
The Sumatran Tiger, and The South China Tiger, still roam the Earth.
Or were thought so till the publication of this book. The three
unfortunate sub-species being, The Bali Tiger, The Caspian Tiger and
The Javan Tiger.
.
.
The whole book- a series of anecdotes- is divided into chapters. Each
with a specific Theme, mostly centred around a single incident.
Merging the experiences of three trips indistinguishly.
.
The content, though being a non-fiction is never dry or boring. The
author has penned her anecdotes so wisely and carved them so
beautifully with words, that the reader fails to realise the boundery
between the Prose and The Poetry. Some paragraphs, have been treated
so magically, that the aroma of their formation makes the reader
hungry for more. The trance the author creates is so hard to break
that when the tiger is mentioned to pounce in an Incident, I actually
felt the shivers down the spine. As if I too was there, watching from
some distance. As, being too near that ferocious animal would
definitely have been lethal.
.
Apart from the jungle and the Tigers, the author has tried to peek
into the social and the religious lives of the people dwelling in the
Sundarbans. The Story of Bonobibi and Daksin Ray try to tell the
universally proclaimed fact of the need of protection of our
environment. And, with equally relatable instances and folk-lores try
to show the punishment given to those who disobey the commands,and try
to harm the mother mature.
.
.
All in all, the book is a gem of its genre. And I would highly
recommend it to anyone who is interested. I hoped, before typing this
review, that I would try to include a few of the most touching lines
and para s from this book. But as I skim through the pages, I find
hordes of them. I'm afraid, I would have to just COPY-PASTE the whole
book in the effort.
.
5 out of 5 stars.
* * * * *
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