R. S. Dharmakumarsinhji. E. R. C. Davidar, Zafar Futehally, Ruskin Bond, A. J. T. Singh, Peter Smetacek, Irwin Allan Sealy, Rishad Naoroji. Bulbul Sharma, Aditya 'dicky' Singh, Ansar Khan, Chhotu Khan, Arpit Deomurari, Bishan Monnappa, Dhritiman Mukherjee, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj, Nirav Bhatt, and Sudhir Shivaram.
An essay by the well-known birder Ramki Sreenivasan provides a detailed account of the major species and their distribution, behaviour and habitats.
Special mention must be made of the very valuable contribution of one of India's brilliant bird photographers, Kiran Poonacha, who has contributed many of the breathtaking pictures that enhance the splendour of the book.
Contributors include luminaries like Babur, Abu'l-Fazl, Jahangir, François Pyrard, Edward Hamilton Aitken, Douglas Dewar, Jim Corbett, Colonel Kesri Singh, F. W. Champion. Salim Ali, E. P. Gee, A. Mervyn Smith, Hugh Allen, Kenneth Anderson, M. Krishnan, Khushwant Singh, R. S. Dharmakumarsinhji, E. R. C. Davidar, Zafar Futehally, Ruskin Bond, A. J. T. Singh, Peter Smetacek, Irwin Allan Sealy. Rishad Naoroji, Bulbul Sharma, Aditya 'dicky' Singh, Ankit Goyal, Ansar and Chhotu Khan, Arpit Deomurari, Bishan Monnappa, Divya Khandal, Dhritiman Mukherjee, Giriraj Singh Kushwaha, Gopi Sundar, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj, Gururaj Moorching, Mihir Godbole, Nirav Bhatt, Praveen Siddannavar, Rahul Rao, Raj Dhage, Rohan Pandit, Sachin Rai, Sachin Tapasvi, Samyak Kaninde, Santosh Saligram, Shefiq Basheer Ahammed, Shreyo Sengupta, Siva A. N., Sudhir Shivaram, Varun Thakkar and Vinod Goel.
Winged Fire is the last book in the trilogy-that also includes Wild Fire and Tiger Fire-put together by Valmik Thapar, taken together, these books give the reader an extraordinary view of India's wildlife.
Thapar has created a major non-governmental organization dedicated to conserving wildlife. the Ranthambore Foundation. He is currently a member of the Rajasthan Board for Wildlife chaired by the state's chief minister and has helped the state government formulate a holistic forest conservation scheme-the Van Dhan Yojana.
However, my first proper experience of birds in the wild took place when I visited the wetlands of Bharatpur-1 was fourteen or so. That experience remains etched on my mind. India is one of the world's richest birding habitats the country boasts nearly 1,400 species-and many of them are found in Bharatpur. The sight of tens and thousands of birds wheeling overhead, with thousands more squawking and chittering in their nests, as numberless others darkened the surfaces of lakes, ponds and other water bodies is something I have never forgotten.
In the years that followed, birds were never far away from my everyday life. I would watch white-backed vultures nesting in the silver oak trees in the garden or baya birds building their elaborate hanging nests. Parakeets, green jewels in the mild winter sun, would arrow through the air, and peafowl would wander amongst the bushes. Every so often I'd spot a grey partridge or the extraordinary grey hornbill raiding the fruit trees.
At night, spotted owlets would split the dark with hair-raising screeches. Delhi was a good place to be at the time for its green cover attracted an enormous number of birds.
During my last years in school and college I didn't have much time for birds but when I found my vocation as a wildlife enthusiast, tiger devotee and environmental conservationist in Ranthambhore in 1976, birds made a reappearance in my life.
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