AFP/New Delhi
One of India’s foremost conservationists, who devoted his life to saving the country’s dwindling tiger population, has died aged 73 after a two-month battle with cancer.
Fateh Singh Rathore, known as the “Tiger Man” and often pictured in a safari hat with his characteristic handlebar moustache, passed away on Monday near the wildlife sanctuary in the western state of Rajasthan that he helped create.
The Ranthambore tiger reserve, set up in 1973, is his greatest legacy after more than 40 years campaigning for India’s Big Cat, whose numbers have shrunk dramatically from 40,000 in 1947 to about 1,400 today.
A vocal critic of India’s conservation policies, Rathore made enemies in the local government but earned a devoted following in wildlife circles.
“He was a visionary,” an emotional Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said yesterday.
-His determination and concern earned him visits from several dignitaries, including the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and then-US president Bill Clinton, who travelled to Ranthambore in 2000.