Valmik Thapar

Valmik Thapar (1952 – 31 May 2025) was an Indian naturalist, conservationist and writer. He was the author of 14 books and several articles, and was the producer of a range of programmes for television. He was one of India's most respected wildlife experts and conservationists, having produced and narrated documentaries on India's natural habitat for such media as the BBC, Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geographic.

Early life Valmik Thapar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) to Raj Thapar, who founded the political journal Seminar in 1959, and Romesh Thapar, a noted journalist and political commentator. Noted Indian historian Romila Thapar is his aunt.

He married theatre personality Sanjana Kapoor and the couple had a son, Hamir. Valmik Thapar and his family lived in Delhi.

Career Valmik Thapar spent decades following the fortunes of India's tiger population. He was influenced by Fateh Singh Rathore.

His stewardship of the Ranthambore Foundation was recognised and he was appointed a member of the Tiger Task Force of 2005 by the Government of India. He criticised the majority Task Force view in his dissent note as excessively focussed on the prospects of co-existence of tigers and humans, which was, in his view not consistent with the objective of the panel.

His writings have analysed the perceived failure of Project Tiger, a conservation apparatus created in 1973 by the Government of India. He critiqued Project Tiger, drawing attention to its mismanagement by a forest bureaucracy that is largely not scientifically trained. His last book The Last Tiger (Oxford University Press) makes this case strongly.

Among the consistent criticisms levelled by Thapar at India's Ministry of Environment and Forests one relating to its unwillingness to curb poaching through armed patrols and its refusal to open forests to scholarly scientific enquiry.

His famous relationship with 'Macchli', a tigress, is documented in some of his chronicles. Thapar's most cherished tigers are highlighted in the BBC documentary film My Tiger Family.

In 2015, he joined the debate on the fate of T-24, who was identified as the tiger that killed four people, and was transferred from the wild to a zoo. Thapar considered the relocation to be the best option and made the area safer for forest guards and pilgrims.

Death Thapar was diagnosed with cancer in 2024, and died at his home in New Delhi, on 31 May 2025, at the age of 73.

Selected television works Tiger Crisis (1994) Land of the Tiger (1997) Tigers' Fortress (2000) Danger in Tiger Paradise (2002) Search for Tigers (2003) My Tiger Family (2024) Legendary Tigers of India (2026; dedicated to Thapar's memory)