BOOK 01 · DEBUT MEMOIR
IN THE
SHADOWSOF THEFOREST
A WILDLIFE MEMOIR FROM THE TEA GARDENS OF DOOARS & TERAI
From the
shadows
The tea gardens of northeast India are all mammoth enterprises, carved out of virgin forests. The wildlife that originally inhabited these areas more or less acquiesced – but that didn't mean that it disappeared. Numbers perhaps dwindled, yet it was all there – shy, surviving in the shadows, hidden from view – seen mostly on occasions when one chanced upon it, taking the animal by surprise, or when one actually went looking. In the Shadows of the Forest is a collection of such moments – vivid, personal and utterly unforgettable.
About the book
A fully grown leopard leaping across a windshield at touching distance. An elephant herd standing silent vigil through the night for a calf that had fallen into a reservoir. A young planter travelling sixty miles through dense forest on elephant back—because his elephant had gone into labour and he simply would not leave her.
Kiran K Mehra spent the better part of four decades among the tea plantations of the Dooars and Terai, and these are his memories—of wild creatures encountered fleetingly in the darkness, of extraordinary bonds forged between man and beast, and of a landscape and way of life that belong to a bygone era.
Told with warmth, quiet wonder and deep respect for the natural world, In the Shadows of the Forest is a memoir unlike any other.
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