Book Review: 500 Places to see before they disappear

500 Places to See Before They Disappear by Holly Hughes and Larry West; Wiley Publishing Inc; Price: $19.99; 472 pp.

Global warming, climate change, deforestation, destruction of natural habitats, reduction of national park areas and melting glaciers etc are causing great changes in the way we have known the earth to be. When one reads the title of this book it would be tough to imagine that there could places on the earth which could disappear, but the unfortunate truth is that there are many more than 500 places which are in danger of disappearance due to various man-made reasons. 500 Places to See Before They Disappear is a compilation of the information on the world's most fragile wonders.

At the face on might get the impression that this book contains information about forests, glaciers, mountains, lakes and other natural places, but this volume has information about man-made wonders too. “Though this book was originally conceived as a handbook for eco-tourists, it soon became clear that we couldn’t separate natural and man-made attractions. After all, historical and cultural landmarks are part of the environment, too. If changes in the natural environment have threatened the piping plover, the Tasmanian devil and the mountain gorilla, so too have changes in our cultural environment threatened classic amusement parks, ballparks and movie palaces. Our planet is poorer every time we allow something to die,” writes Holly Hughes, the New York-based globally traveled editor and writer who has also written fiction and also edits the annual Best Food Writing anthology.

From Canada to Chile, Russia to Africa and India to Japan, 500 Places to See Before They Disappear has information about numerous locations which are suffering from the onslaught of modern development. This volume enables passionate travelers and eco-conscious individuals to learn about and plan a visit to see rare cultural, historic, and natural places before they are get permanently, irreversibly changed or disappear. These include exotic landscapes, fragile ecosystems, rare animal, bird and big game habitats, cityscapes, vanishing cultural kitsch, petroglyphs, and more.

500 Places to See Before They Disappear is ideal for school and university libraries where young students can access information about the changes that are taking place in locations across the world and the natural and man-made heritage we are slowly but surely losing.

When I saw the book my first interest was to check out how many places in India are listed in the volume. After reading the book I am quite shocked to note that 19 places in India are in danger of disappearing completely. These include the world heritage sites of Ajanta Caves, Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, Chilika Lake Bird Sanctuary, the Great Stupa of Sanchi, Rock shelters of Bhimbetka, Sundarbans National Park, Taj Mahal, Temples of Khajuraho and the Valley of Flowers of National park.

Each fast-disappearing location has been profiled in great detail along with pictures and accounts on its history, nature of the threat it is facing, and why it’s been included. And of course there is quite a bit of brief practical information on how to visit, and what visitors can to do protect it. The easy-to-use geographical index at the end of the book makes reading the book all the more easier. This index helps travelers locate attractions in and around the locations they are traveling to.

There is a definite US spin to the endangered places featured in the volume. The places in the US are listed as per their geographical location. There are seven endangered sites in Texas including the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Caddo Lake State Park and Houston Astrodome. 500 Places to See Before They Disappear is doing a great public service by bringing these places to the notice of everyone so that people could take steps to extend their life and prevent them from disappearing fast.

Book Review: The Modern Ark

Cover via Amazon

A Closer Look at Zoos and Conservation
Title: The MODERN ARK: The Story of Zoos: Past, Present, and Future
Author: Vicki Croke
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 272

Recently I was working on a college paper on the subject of necessity to ban captive breeding and rearing of tigers and other endangered exotic cats. In order to substantiate my paper I referred to this book as a scholarly work (secondary source). The Modern Ark by Vicki Croke is indeed an absorbing account about wildlife preservation, animal welfare, animal encounters, with the evolution of the Zoo as the central topic.

I wonder if the book, though scholarly work with several citations and reference is an easy read because of Croke's background in journalism. She writes an extremely popular "Animal Beat" column in The Boston Globe. This work of Croke is particularly important to everyone because she successfully puts across the thought that a nation's zoos are more a reflection of its culture than the animals on display. The history and evolution of zoos right from the Greek and Roman times to the present is well traced in this book. Like her other books The Lady and the Panda and Animal ER, The Modern Ark was a bestseller in its time.

Personally speaking I derived profound learning about wildlife conservation, captive breeding, zoo and related issues. The most astounding statistic I came across in this book is that since 1900 captive breeding experiments have been conducted with an intention of introducing captive bred creatures into the wild. But out of 13 million animals only a few thousand have actually succeeded. This presents an ominous warning to us, human beings, that restraining ourselves from destroying the natural habitats of wild animals is the only way to protect them and us. Because whatever some of us may argue, survival of wild animals is vital to survival of the Human race.

If you have any interest in wildlife, zoos, nature, and environment, then you must read this book.