Top 20 Must-Reads by Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan
This must-read series by Wildlife Trust of India features 10 eminent wildlife experts who share their list of top 20 wildlife titles. We start with Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan.
Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan is an environmental historian with a special interest in human-wildlife relations in colonial and contemporary India. He chaired the Elephant Task Force in 2010. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford and formerly taught at the Universities of Cornell, Delhi and Jadavpur. He joins Ashoka University from 1 July 2022 as Professor of History and Environmental Studies.
He has been Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and also Vice Chancellor of Krea University, AP. He is author and editor of several books, from his 1996 work Fencing the Forest (1996) and the most recent At Nature’s Edge in 2018.
We asked Dr. Mahesh to list the top 20 books he would recommend for anyone interested. Here’s his list of top 10 titles about wildlife in India and another 10 on global topics.
His pick of the top reads on wildlife of India:
- The Wildlife of India by EP Gee
- The Jungle in sunlight and shadow by FW Champion
- Wild animals in central India by Dunbar Brander
- My India by Jim Corbett
- Man eating wolves of Ashta by Ajay Singh Yadav
- Jungle and Backyard by M Krishnan
- Tigers: The Secret Life by Thapar and Fatheh Singh Rathore
- Snake man by Zai Whitaker
- End of a Trail: Cheetah in India by Divyabhanusinh
- Illustrated Trees of Delhi by Pradeep Kishen
His pick of the top reads on global wildlife topics:
- Never cry wolf by Farley Mowat
- Year of the gorilla by George Schaller
- Jaguar by Alan Rabinowtiz
- Elephant Memories by Cynthia Moss
- Encounters with animals by Gerald Durell
- In the shadow of man by Jane Goodall
- Almost Human by Shirley strum
- In search of the red ape by Birure Galdikass
- Way of the wolf by David Mech
- A certain curve of horn: The Hundred-Year quest for the giant sable antelope of Angola by Campbell Walker
Also read the curated lists by:
