Valmik Thapar, Indian Wildlife Conservationist dies at 73

Valmik Thapar, a prominent personality advocating for wildlife conservation in India especially for tiger conservation, passed away at his residence at Kautilya Marg in New Delhi on Saturday morning. 

Aged 73, Valmik Thapar was diagnosed with cancer in 2024. A name synonymous with India’s tiger conservation conversation for over five decades, Valmik Thapar is also a successful author of two dozen books on wildlife conservation. He has also been an initiative of landmark documentaries including the seminal BBC series “Land of the Tiger” (1997). 

Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore, the then director of the Ranthambhore tiger reserve in Rajasthan, unanimously worked towards partnering to change the attention towards tiger conservation and wildlife conservation, even initiating policies for over four decades. 

Through TigerWatch, a non-profit established by Rathode in Sawai Madhopur was a recent work of Thapar. As a part of multiple apex bodies of the government, Thapar set up effective policies and task forces. He was even a part of the National Board for Wildlife and also a part of the special Tiger Task Force set up to prescribe reforms in the aftermath of the disappearance of tigers in parts of Rajasthan. 

Outspoken and blunt, Valmik Thapar famously criticised the government’s initiatives saying, “lethargic government system” and even said “bureaucracy killed more tigers than bullets ever did.” Thapar’s book ‘Tiger My Life, Ranthambhore and Beyond’, that was out in 2012, reflected his mission: “My fight was always for inviolate spaces—where the tiger could live free, away from noise, away from humans.”

यह भी पढ़ें:

Kannada Literature left with a Void: Poet HS Venkatesha Murthy passes away at 80