The End of a Trail: The Cheetah in India (Oxford India paperbacks)

This is a pictorial history of the cheetah in India from the pre-historic period to the present. It provides a comprehensive account of the animal's interaction with man through the ages, reconstructing the life of the cheetah in captivity and its use by Indian royalty as an aid to hunting. Divyabhanusinh examines anew the process of the Indian cheetah's decline in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, charting its path to extinction and analysing the causes of its disappearance. In this impression, the 'Epilogue 2001' provides a complete update on the information in the book, including detailed new findings on the evolution of cheetahs from Africa and Asia. It also gives fresh evidence about the sadly declining numbers of cheetah in Iran, and the existence, albeit not very optimistic, of the animal in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The epilogue also documents cases of the killing of the cheetah for rewards, a practice performed in British India, leading to its extermination. Finally, the author proposes a reintroduction of the cheetah in a select part of India. But if the cheetah is to survive at all on the Indian subcontinent, it will require the unconditional support of the governments of India, Iran, and Pakistan. The author mines a wide range of sources -- from prehistoric cave paintings, Sanskrit, Classical Greek and Roman literature to Mughal miniature paintings, rare photographs, shikar literature of the British Raj, and interviews. Containing several illustrated book is an indispensable reference work and has led to a renewed interest in the cheetah's reintroduction in India.