TIGER’S DESTINY by Valmik Thapar, photographs...

TIGER’S DESTINY by Valmik Thapar, photographs by Fateh Singh Rathore and Mahipal Singh (Trafalgar Square: $22.95; 176 pp.). Thapar traces the spread of the tiger through Asia at the end of the last Ice Age, and the hunting and environmental degradation that have decimated the elegant felines. A shrinking population is now largely restricted to small, isolated preserves, including Ranthambhore National Park in north-central India, where the arresting photographs of tigers hunting, resting, rearing cubs, etc. were taken. Although the recent CITES meeting produced a ban on the traffic in tiger parts, Thapar’s unhappy conclusion is that the tiger may soon cease to burn bright in the forest of the night.