Sometime in the mid-1990s, Amirtharaj Christy Williams, an Asian elephant

specialist, went to Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand as a greenhorn

research fellow. His task was to radio-collar and track several elephants in

the Siwalik hills. As he went about his work, he formed close associations

with several of these amazing pachyderms: Mallika, the matriarch who held

her herd together; Kiruba, a new mother; Shahrukh, the young shy male;

and Tipu, the Sultan of the Siwaliks, the tallest elephant ever recorded in the

national park and the gentlest of giants.

In this memoir, Christy recalls the heady years of hope and desperation as his

team struggled against encroachment and human-animal conflict to create

space for the elephant herds. Between deaths and new births, from cropraiding

elephants to kitchen-raiding ones, there emerges a story of the largeheartedness

of elephants, their quirks, their lives and their struggles. Warm,

funny, immensely readable, and often bringing to mind great nature writers

such as Gerald Durrell, this passionate personal account will inspire readers

of all ages to appreciate and understand wildlife and its immense beauty.