The authors of this neatly-packaged guidebook to Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) remind us at the outset that this Reserve is among the few, and diminishing, ‘primary forests’ or ‘virgin forests’ left on earth. Primary forests are described as natural forests that have not been significantly influenced by human action since their origin thousands, or even millions, of years ago. As a rich depository of biodiversity, possibly harbouring ancient species that are yet to be discovered, CTR is a landscape that existed long before humans; indeed, it watched us arrive.
As all life becomes precarious in the Anthropocene, unspoilt natural environments become all the more precious. In the words of Robert Macfarlane, well-known explorer and writer, we need ‘wild places’, especially those that have remained largely unchanged from times immemorial, to ‘remind us of a world beyond the human’. Appropriately, the authors of this guidebook exhort visitors—albeit in a highlight tucked away at the back of the book—to leave their urban accessories behind and to imbibe their surroundings in silence, awe and empathy.