For years I followed Krishnan's nature column in The Statesman and often tried, without success, to copy his most readable style. His column was widely read and you would often find letters to the editor, discussing the merits of a blackbuck or a python which had recently featured in the column. His fine writing skills and formidable knowledge about Indian wildlife made Krishnan a rare find but despite that there were not many publications to his credit.
His vast body of work covers a range of subjects and includes informative texts on tigers, elephants, reptiles, wetlands, dogs, and butterflies, but it has remained buried in old newspapers and magazines. For nearly 60 years, Krishnan wrote essays and columns on the ecology, culture and wildlife of our country and has left a valuable record of habitats which have since disappeared. His keen observation skills, lucid prose, and acid wit made his writing very different and very readable.
This timely volume of fine writing by a pioneering environmentalist will reintroduce Krishnan to many new readers and also earn the gratitude of his older fan club. Though this is just the kind of soppy, sentimental remark Krishnan would have hated, I still want to say it and thank him for showing us the wonders of the natural world.
