Book excerpt: Billy Arjan Singh is the only person in the world known to have hand-reared a tiger cub and returned it to the wild. This pictorial biography is a tribute to this enigmatic character who was one of the first people to put the spotlight on tiger conservation in India. It chronicles his controversial life and times, and tells the story of his pioneering experiments in bringing up leopard and tiger cubs, along with his pet dog, in harmony. The book is a timely publication following a year after Billy's demise on 1 January 2010. In a world dominated by lab-coat conservationists, his voice remains a disturbing reminder of the heartfelt and uncompromising conservation values, unblemished by realpolitik, that are forgotten today.