Butterflies in Tiger Country: A Narrative of Travels Through India & the Malay Peninsula

While cutting a swathe through the spicy heart of Asia for wild tigers, Sid Marsh is ambushed by hustlers, bureaucrats, fat snorers and shouting cellphone clods. Beyond these, he discovers a man-eater drama playing out in real time in northern India, and thereafter contacts with other striped cats slowly trickle in. Along the way an injured girlfriend is medevacked from Assam back to Australia, tattooed head-hunters are grilled on the Indo-Burma border, and everywhere he is overwhelmed by clouds of Oriental butterflies. Butterflies in Tiger Country is a celebration of the quirky safari culture found on the subcontinent and provides a 21st century snapshot-in-time of the jungle megafauna situation, from Persian lion country across to the whooping primates of the Malay Peninsula. The ongoing poaching threat is touched upon and, for historical context, a detailed account of the 19th century man-eating tiger crisis on Singapore Island is provided; the worst in history. Sid Marsh is a writer and artist, and has worked as a wildlife ranger in New Zealand Aotearoa for three decades. He has also been a labourer, house husband, scuba instructor, commercial pilot, heavy plant operator, and a freelance journalist.