One way to connect with tigers when the national parks are closed is to read about them. It's my own list of the best books about tigers, but it isn't complete or even close to complete. To help us better understand the majestic cat, I have tried to include both essays and fiction. Both genres play a big role in shaping our understanding.

BEST BOOKS ABOUT TIGERS: NON FICTION

THE GREAT SOUL OF SIBERIA by Sooyong Park

This book is about a Korean researcher who spent 20 years studying the Amur tiger, one of the world's most elusive big cats. The Great Soul of Siberia is poetic, heartbreaking and moving.

Many hours were spent waiting in hides in the Siberian winter, in the hope that a striped cat would show up. He spent months or even years alone.

To keep the smart cat from thinking there was an alien in the house, Sooyong Park eats balls of frozen rice in temperatures as low as -30°. This is the ideal example of social isolation.

He doesn't let the harshness of the environment get in the way of his focus, and he very poignantly talks about how he is affected by being alone. Every three months, his assistant used to hike to one of the hides to bring him food. Sooyong talks about how painful it is to interact with people at that point, and how the only way to avoid longing and despair is to not look at them.

But his sacrifice didn't go to waste, because he was able to film and photograph a family of tigers, whose matriarch he named "Bloody Mary," for more than three decades.

Some people think Bloody Mary was one of the best-known tiger characters in literature. She was an intelligent cat that could hunt well, and she was a good mother.

In the Russian Far East there has been poaching, habitat loss, and a very harsh environment with a low prey base.

If you want to know how well Bloody Mary and her family have done in their fight to stay alive, follow Sooyong Park's trail.

Great Soul of Siberia also has some of the most beautiful pictures of Siberian tigers that have ever been taken in their natural setting. The footage has been put together in a documentary.

There will be tears. This is not for the faint of heart.

THE JIM CORBETT OMNIBUS by Jim Corbett

Everyone knows about Jim Corbett's stories about tigers and leopards that ate people.

Is it worth reading about one of the best hunters of all time now?

Yes, that's correct.

A natural storyteller has written gripping and compelling adventure stories that will make you want to read them again and again!

If you look at this shikaar turned conservationist, you can't help but admire his honesty and courage.

He went alone, on foot, and looked for pug marks, blood trails, pieces of torn cloth, or body parts of people who had been killed by the animal. He wanted to confront the animal that had a taste for human flesh.

His knowledge of how tigers act is still very up to date. He doesn't think the tiger is a blood-thirsty animal. Instead, he explains with intelligence and compassion why it turned into a man-eater.

Even though he cares about animals who are stressed, it's not just about them. Humanity and empathy are also present in Corbett's description of the rural communities that were affected by the problem animal. But he also talks about the risks of animal-human conflict.

The Jim Corbett Omnibus has some of Corbett's best-known stories in it. The Man-Eaters of Kumaon, the Temple Tigers, and the Man-Eating Leopards of Rudraprayag are just some of them.

A quote by Corbett that is both very old and very relevant today can be found in this book's preface:

"A tiger is a big-hearted man who has a lot of courage, and when he's killed, India will be poorer because she'll have lost the best of her animals. If public opinion doesn't change, he'll be killed."

LIVING WITH TIGERS by Valmik Thapar

To get away from the boredom of your current situation, you can daydream, travel in your mind, and think about the people who have shaped the history of tiger tourism in India. You don't need to look any further. To do this, and a lot more, read "Living with Tigers."

Valmik Thapar remembers fondly the years he spent in Ranthambhore with the park's wildlife warden, Fateh Singh Rathore, from the late 1970s to the present. They lived in the park together. In this book, he talks about how they came up with the same vision for the park, and he tells the stories of his favorite tigers.

The first chapter of the book is very interesting because it talks about the history of Ranthambhore and the fierce Mughal emperors who lived there. It's possible to imagine yourself walking to the lake palace at Rajbagh, looking up at the Ranthambhore fort, and dreaming of a striped cat. Thapar's writing will make you feel like you're there.

It was rare to see tigers in those days because the cats were mostly active at night. The animals were very afraid and elusive, and they didn't get used to people at all. Fateh Singh Rathore's work on this is one of the most interesting parts of the book.

There are a lot of interesting things about how tigers act, as well as a lot of love for this amazing animal, in the work of the author. "Living with Tigers" is a great book to read.

The stories of the cats that have helped shape Ranthambhore's long history are a great way to get out of today's bad mood. Padmini the tigress, Genghis, the clever hunter who came up with his own way to kill deer in the water, the gentle-hearted big male Broken Tooth, and the world-famous tigress Machli are some of the main characters in Thapar's work.

It's like this:

What you'll read about in this book are the tigers who taught me everything I know about tigers, and who let me into their lives to make my own life worth living.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE EMERALD TIGERS by Raghu Chundawat

You can learn a lot from this book, which is about how the author spent years studying tigers in Panna Tiger Reserve and how it helped him write the book.

In his more than 10 years of collecting data, a well-known conservation biologist has learned a lot about tiger behavior, like how they move, reproduce, and eat.

But the story of the Panna tigers has a history of blood, so that's why it's so scary. There were changes in the management of the park in 2002 and 2003, and all the tigers died. Poachers got their hands on the cats. Some of them had been radio-tagged for research.

In this book, there are a lot of ideas about why conservation efforts didn't work so well and what that could mean for the politics of the world.

An important message is being sent to people who work in conservation: this could happen again! Even though some people might think his ideas are controversial and hurt their feelings, he isn't afraid to say them. Because of this, his book about tigers in Central India hasn't always been well-received. It's still one of the best books about tigers in the area.

The Sarai at Toria is now run by Raghu and his wife, Joanna. It is an eco-resort with a strong focus on conservation and the people who live there.

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