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Title: The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists and the Indian Rhinoceros
ISBN: 1599211467
Author:
Hemanta Mishra
Publicate Date: 2008-01-01
Publish: 2008-01-01
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.67
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.49
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.47
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The subtitle is not hype; this book mesmerizes
I was skeptical about the title of this book, but enchanted with the picture on the cover. In my hands, there was absolutely no marketing hype. This book will capture your heart with Hemanta Mishra's clarity, humanity and commitment.
Mishra has worked in Asia on a number of conservation projects for over 30 years. This book tells the story of efforts to save the greater one-horned Asian rhino from extinction. He calls it "a mystical beast legendary for its power, its sexual energy, its unpredictable temperament, and its prodigious strength." He describes the political violence in Nepal beginning with the massacre of the king's family in 2001 by the eldest son and ending with the Maoist insurgency.
Kings play a key role in the conservation efforts. The murder of the recent king led to its now uncertain future. In the Tarpan ceremony a Nepalese king must hunt and kill a male rhino and offer the beast's blood in a prayer for peace and prosperity.
Mishra's book puts humanity into the Smithsonian's summary of the status of these rhinos: "Greater one-horned Asian rhinoceroses once ranged from Pakistan across northern India to Nepal, Bhutan, and the border with Myanmar (Burma), and perhaps ranged even further, into southern China. Today, they are confined to a few small, protected populations totaling about 2,000 animals. Most live in several parks in India and in Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park."
Hemanta Mishra worked in the Nepalese wildlife office in the early 1970s and ran the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation. He was awarded the J. Paul Getty Prize for Natural Protection in 1987 for "for his ground breaking biotic studies on Mt. Everest, his development of Nepal's park systems, and his work on implementation of "Operation Tiger," the largest conservation project in Asia."
I agree completely with "Scientific American": "Mishra, a Nepalese wildlife biologist trained in the West, is not a professional writer, but his intelligence and wit make this a mesmerizing account that intertwines politics, conservation and tensions between the traditions of East and West."
You can hear Mishra discuss his book and his conservation efforts on Leonard Lopat Show on the WNYC website. You'll hear his voice for a long time after you read his book.
Robert C. Ross 2007 2008
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