Queen Of The Elephants - Softcover

Shand, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099592010 ISBN 13: 9780099592013

Publisher: Vintage, 1996

Synopsis

Mark Shand trekked 300 miles across East Benghal and Assam on the back of an elephant with Parbato Barua, the foremost and only female elephant trainer in all India. This book describes the experiences shared during this remarkable journey - joining a government 'elephant squad' together with local villagers to chase a band of wild elephants off a tea estate, and making a stop at Parbati's ancestral home, now a virtual shrine to her father's lifelong work with elephants. The importance of this ancient knowledge becomes clear: if not preserved, the Asian elephant stands an even greater chance of disappearing altogether.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

WINNER OF THE 1992
'TRAVEL WRITER OF THE YEAR' AWARD

The bestselling sequel to Travels On My Elephant, which Eric Newby described as 'a pachydermic triumph' and which became a No.1 bestseller.

'A ripping yarn, told with wit and affection...he is wonderfully evocative. But there is a dark shadow which dominates the story. The Asian elephant is in trouble. Shand's plea for these giant creatures is a cry from the heart of a continent whose last wilderness is being lost, and it is all the more powerful because of his rare understanding of India and her people'
Brian Jackman, The Times

'A rare travel book combining humour, danger, a unique journey with a lovely woman, and an eloquent plea for the pathetically diminished Asian elephant herds'
Mavis Ross, Daily Mail

'So well does Mark Shand write that the account invokes the feelings of any enjoyable quest, anticipation at the outset and a deep regret as the journey's end approaches'
Ian Redmond, Literary Review

Synopsis:

In the tiny aristocratic figure of Parbati Barua, known as "queen of the elephants", Mark Shand finds his ultimate guru. He had already learned about the ways of elephants after riding his beloved Tara across India, a journey which he described in "Travels on My Elephant", for which he won the 1992 Travel Writer of the Year Award. But he is no match for the daughter of India's greatest expert on the Asian elephant, the late Prince of Gauripur, who taught her everything. She lassoed her first wild elephant before she was 20. Once he has earned her trust, Shand rides with Parbati the elephants' ancient migratory route through the tea gardens of West Bengal and along the rarely visited Himalayan corridor to her ancestral home in Assam. They were accompanied by Aditya Patankar, whose photographs in this book accompany Shand's account of his quest for a solution to the problem of conserving the Asian elephant.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0099592010
• ISBN 13: 9780099592013
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208