- Caracal, known as ‘siyah gosh’ (black ear) in many parts of the world, including India, is one of the wild cat species found in India.
- In a new book “Caracal: An intimate history of a mysterious cat”, authors Dharmendra Khandal and Ishan Dhar talk about the cat’s biology, ecology, human history, status in India, habitat and distribution in detail.
- The writers have gone beyond journals and archives and chronicled information from various other sources such as colonial records, historical texts, wall art and trophy rooms of old palaces to give shape to this book.
In western Madhya Pradesh, I grew up in a town near India’s only wildlife sanctuary dedicated to the lesser florican, a charismatic bird of the bustard family known for its love display. Though I never spotted the bird, when I was trying to find out more about the habitat and the bird, I came across a name, siyah gosh, which was apparently found in this area years ago. Since then, I have never missed a chance to read about this enigmatic cat species.
The caracal, locally known as siyah gosh (black ear) in many parts of the world, including India, is one of the cat species found in India. Since its population is small and limited to just three states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, a lot needs to be documented about its behaviour.
A new book, Caracal: An Intimate History of a Mysterious Cat, has attempted to document quite a lot about this cat. Written by Dharmendra Khandal and Ishan Dhar, the book talks about the cat’s biology, ecology, human history, status in India, habitat, and distribution in detail. The writers have also used many global references to contextualise the life of the caracal as a genus.
Khandal and Dhar, both conservationists with Tiger Watch in Rajasthan’s Ranthambore, have gone beyond journals and archives and chronicled information from various other sources, such as colonial records, historical texts, wall art, and trophy rooms of old palaces, to give shape to this book, which starts with the phylogeny and evolution of caracals and ends with the records of the latest sightings.
The writers have also used photos and illustrations of the species and the habitat to explain almost every piece of information. The meticulous efforts involved in sourcing these images from the global archives, verifying them, and compiling them into a 300-plus-page piece can be seen throughout the book.
What’s in the name
The book delves into the caracal’s nomenclature and the confusion surrounding it. It also underlines how an erroneous attribution led to the species’ discovery being credited to the wrong naturalist. Apart from this confusion, the Indian connection behind the generic name is also mentioned. British naturalist John Edward Gray was credited with giving the cat the generic name — caracal — which means black ear in Turkish.
“‘Caracal’ as a generic name was introduced by the British naturalist John Edward Gray in 1843 after he collected a type specimen near the Cape of Good Hope and a second specimen potentially from India, although he was not certain of its origins. This was when the genus changed from Felis to Caracal, as it has remained henceforth,” the book notes.
From Bengal to British press celebrity
The writers have magnificently illustrated the historic part of the rarely sighted cat with information from Sanskrit literature and classical texts like Jahangirnama and Akbarnama.
Caracal stories from colonial times are quite interesting. They describe the animal’s contribution to India’s royal life and its proximity to the rulers. The anecdote of a ‘well-traveled’ caracal of Mir Jafar, the Nawab of Bengal, describes how this small cat became a media celebrity in London before dying of the English cold.
Another story about the Nawab of Jaora trying to please the British army’s Field Marshal Henry Evelyn Wood with the display of a caracal killing a sheep, leaving the officer somewhat disdainful, shows how royals used the animal for games and entertainment. Jaora is an erstwhile riyasat in Madhya Pradesh’s Malwa plateau, which is now a part of my hometown, Ratlam district.
“While waiting for dinner, some horrid exhibitions were given, amongst others a sheep being killed by a lynx (caracal), and we were shown the Nawab’s menagerie, which was varied, though not extensive,” the book quotes from Wood’s memoirs.
The book’s initial part is a bit academic for general readers. However, that is just a limited part of the zoology exercise, and once you read past those parts, you will understand why they are given such prominence over the juicy stories from the history that come in the later part.
Overall, this book can be considered one of the largest collections of information on caracal, if not an encyclopaedia.
Banner image: A painting of a caracal by an unknown Indian artist, part of amateur botanist Richard Cresswell’s (1815-1882) collection. It is one of 86 Indian paintings (mostly botanical) and dates to the early 1800s. Image by Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (CC0 1.0).
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