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Ahmedabad Show map of India Coordinates:: Country Established • in 11th century as Ashaval and later Karnavati • on 26 February 1411 as Ahmedabad Government • Type • Body • () • Pramoda Sutariya • Mukesh Kumar Area • 464.165 km 2 (179.215 sq mi) Elevation 53 m (174 ft) Population (2011) • 5,633,927 • Rank • Density 12,000/km 2 (31,000/sq mi) • 6,357,693 Ahmedabadi/Amdavadi () 380 0XX GJ-1 (west), GJ-27 (East), [ ], GJ-38 Bavla (Rural) 1.11 / Literacy rate 89.62 Source: Census of India. Ahmedabad ( ( )), also known as Amdavad or Karnavati (historically), is the largest city and former capital of, which is a state in. It is the administrative headquarters of the and the seat of the.

Ahmedabad's population of 5,633,927 makes it the in India, and the encompassing population estimated at 7,650,000 is the in India. Ahmedabad is located on the banks of the, 30 km (19 mi) from the state capital, which is its twin city. Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic and industrial hub in India. It is the second largest producer of in India, and is the country's second oldest. Is a popular sport in Ahmedabad, which houses the 54,000-seat. The effects of have energised the city's economy towards activities such as commerce, communication and construction.

Ahmedabad's increasing population has resulted in an increase in the construction and housing industries resulting in recent development of skyscrapers. In 2010, Ahmedabad was ranked third in 's list of fastest growing cities of the decade. In 2012, chose Ahmedabad as India's best city to live in. As of 2014, Ahmedabad's estimated gross domestic product was $64 billion. Ahmedabad has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a under 's flagship. In July 2017, the or Old Ahmadabad, was declared as India's first.

Main article: The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as (or Ashapalli). At that time,, the ruler of Anhilwara (modern ), waged a successful war against the king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the of. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the in the 14th century. However, by the earlier 15th century, the local governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the. This area finally came under the control of his grandson Sultan in 1411 A.D.

Who while at the banks of Sabarmati liked the forested area for a new capital city and laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after the four saints in the area by the name Ahmed. According to other sources, he named it after himself. Ahmed Shah I laid the foundation of the city on 26 February 1411 (at 1.20 pm, Thursday, the second day of, 813 ). He chose it as the new capital on 4 March 1411. City Walls of Ahmedabad, 1866 In 1487,, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall 10 km (6.2 mi) in circumference and consisting of, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing when the ruler of Gujarat,, fled to. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the emperor.

During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported as far as. The Mughal ruler spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the in. The affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarters of the Mughals until 1758, when they surrendered the city to the. During the period of governance, the city became the centre of a conflict between the of and the of.

In 1780, during the, a British force under stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The took over the city in 1818 during the. A military cantonment was established in 1824 and a municipal government in 1858.

Incorporated into the during, Ahmedabad became one of the most important cities in the Gujarat region. In 1864, a railway link between Ahmedabad and (then Bombay) was established by the (BB&CI), enabling traffic and trade between and via the city. Over time, the city established itself as the home of a developing textile industry, which earned it the nickname 'Manchester of the East'. Ahmedabad and its environs, ca 1914 The developed roots in the city when established two – the near in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now ) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917 – which would become centres of nationalist activities. During the against the in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the.

In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the. Following independence and the in 1947, the city was scarred by the intense communal violence that broke out between and in 1947, Ahmedabad was the focus for settlement by Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who expanded the city's population and transformed its demographics and economy. By 1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with a population of slightly under half a million people, with classical and colonial European-style buildings lining the city's thoroughfares. It was chosen as the capital of Gujarat state after the partition of the on 1 May 1960. During this period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a centre for, science and technology.

Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. Many countries sought to emulate India's economic planning strategy and one of them,, copied the city's second 'Five-Year Plan'. [ ] In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built, well planned city of. This marked the start of a long period of decline in the city, marked by a lack of development.

The 1974 agitation – a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the in Ahmedabad – snowballed into a movement to remove, then chief minister of Gujarat. In the 1980s, a was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various.

The city suffered some of the impact of the; up to 50 multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and causing much damage. The following year, a three-day period of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the, spread to Ahmedabad; refugee camps were set up around the city. The, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured several people.

Militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks. Geography [ ]. 19th century painted cloth map of Ahmedabad Ahmedabad lies at in at 53 metres (174 ft) above on the banks of the river, in north-central Gujarat. It covers an area of 464 km 2 (179 sq mi). The Sabarmati frequently dried up in the summer, leaving only a small stream of water, and the city is in a sandy and dry area.

However with the execution of the Project and Embankment, the waters from the river have been diverted to the Sabarmati to keep the river flowing throughout the year, thereby eliminating Ahmedabad's water problems. The steady expansion of the threatened to increase desertification around the city area and much of the state; however, the Narmada Canal network is expected to alleviate this problem. Except for the small hills of, the city is almost flat. Three lakes lie within the city's limits—, and Chandola. Kankaria, in the neighbourhood of, is an artificial lake developed by the Sultan of Gujarat, Kutb-ud-din, in 1451. According to the, the town falls under, in a scale of 2 to 5 (in order of increasing vulnerability to earthquakes). Ahmedabad is divided by the Sabarmati into two physically distinct eastern and western regions.

The eastern bank of the river houses the old city, which includes the central town of. This part of Ahmedabad is characterised by packed, the system of closely clustered buildings, and numerous places of worship. A Pol (pronounced as pole) is a housing cluster which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by,,. In the of Ahmedabad in,. Heritage of these Pols has helped Ahmedabad gain a place in Tentative Lists, in II, III and IV.

The secretary-general of quoted that if 12000 of Ahmedabad are restored they could be very helpful in promoting heritage tourism and its allied businesses. The Art Reverie in Moto Sutharvado is center.

The first pol in Ahmedabad was named Mahurat Pol. Old city also houses the main, the main, and some buildings of the Muzaffarid and British eras. The colonial period saw the expansion of the city to the western side of Sabarmati, facilitated by the construction of in 1875 and later the relatively modern. The western part of the city houses educational institutions, modern buildings, residential areas, shopping malls, multiplexes and new business districts centred around roads such as, and. There are nine bridges on the river Sabarmati that connect the eastern and western regions. Sabarmati Riverfront is a waterfront being developed along the banks of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad, India. Proposed in 1960s, the construction began in 2005 Climate [ ] Ahmedabad has a hot, semi-arid climate (: ), with marginally less rain than required for a.

There are three main seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. Aside from the monsoon season, the climate is extremely dry. The weather is hot from March to June; the average summer maximum is 43 °C (109 °F), and the average minimum is 24 °C (75 °F).

From November to February, the average maximum temperature is 30 °C (86 °F), the average minimum is 13 °C (55 °F), and the climate is extremely dry. Cold northerly winds are responsible for a mild chill in January. The southwest monsoon brings a humid climate from mid-June to mid-September. The average annual rainfall is about 800 millimetres (31 in), but infrequent heavy torrential rains cause local rivers to flood and it is not uncommon for droughts to occur when the monsoon does not extend as far west as usual.

The highest temperature in the city was recorded on 18 and 19 May 2016 which was 50 °C (122 °F). In Ahmedabad Ahmedabad is the administrative headquarters of, administered by the (AMC). The AMC was established in July 1950 under the Bombay Provincial Corporation Act of 1949. The AMC commissioner is an (IAS) officer appointed by the who reserves the administrative executive powers, whereas the corporation is headed by the Mayor. The city residents elect the 192 by popular vote, and the elected councillors select the deputy mayor and mayor of the city.

The administrative responsibilities of the AMC are: water and sewerage services, primary education, health services, fire services, public transport and the city's infrastructure. AMC was ranked 9th out of 21 cities for 'the Best governance & administrative practices in India in 2014. It scored 3.4 out of 10 compared to the national average of 3.3.' The city is divided into six zones constituting 64 wards. Ahmedabad district is divided into a number of (administrative divisions) including,,,,,,,, and. The city's urban and suburban areas are administered by the (AUDA).

The city is represented by two elected members of parliament in the (lower house of Indian Parliament) and 21 at the Gujarat. The is located in the Ahmedabad, making the city the judicial capital of Gujarat.

Law enforcement and public safety is maintained by the, headed by the, an (IPS) officer. Health services are primarily provided at, the largest civil hospital in Asia. Ahmedabad is one of the few cities in India where the power sector is privatised.

Electricity in the city is generated and distributed by, owned and operated by the Ahmedabad Electricity Company, which was previously a state-run corporation. Torrent Power thermal power station at Sabarmati, Ahmedabad The gross domestic product of Ahmedabad was estimated at US$64 billion in 2014. The RBI ranked Ahmedabad as the seventh largest deposit centre and seventh largest credit centre nationwide as of June 2012. In the 19th century, the textile and garments industry received strong capital investment. On 30 May 1861 founded the first Indian textile mill, the, followed by the establishment of a series of textile mills such as the, Bagicha Mills and.

By 1905 there were about 33 textile mills in the city. The textile industry further expanded rapidly during the, and benefited from the influence of Mahatma Gandhi's, which promoted the purchase of Indian-made goods. Ahmedabad was known as the 'Manchester of the East' for its textile industry. The city is the largest supplier of and one of the largest exporters of and in India.

The is also important to the city; after project, and are planning to establish plants near Ahmedabad while the for has already been performed. The, located in the Ambavadi area of the city, is India's second oldest stock exchange. Two of the biggest — and – are based in the city. The group of industries, which runs a large number of detergent and chemical industrial units, has its corporate headquarters in the city. The city also houses the corporate headquarters of the, a multinational trading and infrastructure development company. The of dams and canals has improved the supply of potable water and electricity for the city.

The industry has developed significantly in Ahmedabad, with companies such as opening offices in the city. A survey in 2002 on the 'Super Nine Indian Destinations' for IT-enabled services ranked Ahmedabad fifth among the top nine most competitive cities in the country. The city's educational and industrial institutions have attracted students and young skilled workers from the rest of India. Ahmedabad houses other major Indian corporates such as:,,,, and. Ahmedabad is the second largest cotton textile centre in India after Mumbai and the largest in Gujarat. Many cotton manufacturing units are currently running in and around Ahmedabad. Textiles are one of the major industries of the city.

Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation has acquired land in taluka of Ahmedabad to set up three new industrial estates. Demographics [ ] Population growth of Ahmedabad Census Pop.%± 1871 116,900. — 1911 216,800 16.6% 1921 270,000 24.5% 1931 313,800 16.2% 1941 595,200 89.7% 1951 788,300 32.4% 1961 1,149,900 45.9% 1971 1,950,000 69.6% 1981 2,515,200 29.0% 1991 3,312,200 31.7% 2001 4,525,013 36.6% 2011 5,633,927 24.5% sources: At the Ahmedabad had a population of 5,633,927, making it the in India. The centred upon Ahmedabad, then having a population of 6,357,693, now estimated at 7,650,000, is the in India. The city had a of 89.62%; 93.96% of the men and 84.81% of the women were literate.

Ahmedabad's sex ratio in 2011 was 897 women per 1000 men. According to the census for the, there are 30,737 rural families living in Ahmedabad. Of those, 5.41% (1663 families) live. Approximately 440,000 people live in within the city. 0.24% According to the 2011 census, are the predominant religious community in the city comprising 81.56% of the population followed by (13.51%), (3.62%), (0.85%) and (0.24%)., people following other religions and those who didn't state any religion make up the remainder. Ahmedabad is home to a large population of (i.e., traders), belonging to the sect of Hinduism and various sects of. Most of the residents of Ahmedabad are native.

The city is home to some 2000 and some 125 members of the community. There is also one in the city. In 2008, there were 2273 registered living in Ahmedabad. In 2010, rated Ahmedabad as the fastest-growing city in India, and listed it as third fastest-growing in the world after the Chinese cities of and. In 2011, it was rated India's best megacity to live in by leading market research firm IMRB. According to the (NCRB) report of 2003, Ahmedabad has the lowest crime rate of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million. In December 2011 market research firm declared Ahmedabad the best megacity to live in, when compared to India's other megacities.

Slightly less than half of all real estate in Ahmedabad is owned by 'community organisations' (i.e. Cooperatives), and according to Prof. Drivers Alienware M17x R3 Screen on this page.

School of Business Management, 'the spatial growth of the city is to [an] extent [a] contribution of these organisations'. Provides residential zones for officials. Celebrations in Ahmedabad Ahmedabad observes a wide range of festivals. Popular celebrations and observances include, an annual kite-flying day on 14 and 15 January. Nine nights of are celebrated with people performing, the most popular folk dance of Gujarat, at venues across the city. The festival of lights,, is celebrated with the lighting of lamps in every house, decorating the floors with, and the lighting of. The annual procession on the Ashadh-sud-bij date of the at the and the procession of Tajia during the Muslim holy month of are important events.

One of the most popular forms of meal in Ahmedabad is a typical Gujarati which was first served commercially by Chandvilas Hotel in 1900. It consists of (Chapati),, rice and shaak (cooked vegetables, sometimes with ), with accompaniments of and roasted. Sweet dishes include,, and vedhmi.

Dhoklas, theplas and dhebras are also very popular dishes in Ahmedabad. Beverages include and tea. Drinking alcohol is forbidden in Ahmedabad. There are many restaurants, which serve a wide array of Indian and international cuisines. Most of the food outlets serve only vegetarian food, as a strong tradition of vegetarianism is maintained by the city's Jain and Hindu communities. The first all-vegetarian in the world opened in Ahmedabad. KFC has a separate staff uniform for serving vegetarian items and prepares vegetarian food in a separate kitchen, as does McDonald's.

Ahmedabad has a quite a few restaurants serving typical non-vegetarian food in older areas like Bhatiyar Gali, and. Is an open square near the centre of the city that functions as a vegetable market in the morning and a jewellery market in the afternoon. However, it is better known for its food stalls in the evening, which sell local.

It is named after the Hindu saint Baba. Parts of Ahmedabad are known for their. The artisans of Rangeela pol make, while the cobbler shops of Madhupura sell traditional mojdi (also known as mojri) footwear. Idols of and other religious icons are made in huge numbers in the Gulbai Tekra area. The shops at the sell mirror work handicraft. Three main literary institutions were established in Ahmedabad for the promotion of:, and. Festival is held in the first week of the new year.

This event was inaugurated. The, one of the several buildings in Ahmedabad designed by, is a city museum depicting its history, art, culture and architecture. The and the have permanent displays of photographs, documents and other articles relating to and. The has a large collection of Indian and international fabrics, garments and textiles. The has a collection of rare original manuscripts in,,, and. [ ] There is Vechaar Utensils Museum which has of stainless steel, glass, brass, copper, bronze, zinc and German silver tools.

Shreyas Foundation has four museums on the same campus. Shreyas Folk Museum (Lokayatan Museum) has art forms and artefacts from communities of. Kalpana Mangaldas Children's Museum has a collection of toys, puppets, dance and drama costumes, coins and a repository of recorded music from traditional shows from all over the world. Kahani houses photographs of fairs and festivals of. Sangeeta Vadyakhand is a gallery of musical instruments from India and other countries.

L D Institute of Indology houses about 76,000 hand-written Jain manuscripts with 500 illustrated versions and 45,000 printed books, making it the largest collection of Jain scripts, Indian sculptures, terracottas, miniature paintings, cloth paintings, painted scrolls, bronzes, woodwork, Indian coins, textiles and decorative art, paintings of and art of Nepal and Tibet. N C Mehta Gallery of Miniature Paintings has a collection of ornate miniature paintings and manuscripts from all over India. Ahmedabad BRTS, Ahmedabad is one of six operating divisions in the. Railway lines connect the city to towns in and major Indian cities., locally known as Kalupur station is the main terminus with 11 others.

The mass-transit metro system, for the cities of Ahmedabad and is under construction since March 2015. The North-South and East-West corridors are expected to complete by 2019., linking to, passes through Ahmedabad and connects it with, Delhi and Mumbai. The also links Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar. It is connected to through, a 94 km (58 mi) long expressway with two exits. This expressway is part of the project.

In 2001, Ahmedabad was ranked as the most polluted city in India, out of 85 cities, by the Central Pollution Control Board. The gave auto rickshaw drivers an incentive of ₹10,000 to convert all 37,733 auto rickshaws in Ahmedabad to cleaner burning to reduce pollution. As a result, in 2008, Ahmedabad was ranked as 50th most polluted city in India. Is a system in the city. It is operated by Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited, a subsidiary of and others. It was inaugurated in October 2009.

The network expanded to 89 kilometres (55 mi) by December 2015 with daily ridership of 1,32,000 passengers. The (AMTS), maintained by, runs the public bus service in the city. At present, AMTS has more than 750 buses serving the city., 15 km (9.3 mi) from the city centre, provides domestic and international flights. It is the busiest airport in Gujarat and the eighth busiest in India with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day.

The is proposed near. It will be the largest airport in India with a total area of 7,500 hectares. Education [ ]. See also: Ahmedabad had a rate of 79.89% in 2001 which rose to 89.62 percent in 2011. As of 2011, literacy rate among male and female were 93.96 and 84.81 percent respectively. Among the several, is the largest and claims to be the oldest; although the was established in 1920 by - it received no charter from the, becoming a only in 1963. A large number of colleges in the city are affiliated with Gujarat University.,,, and all date from this century.

Has over 100,000 students enrolled on its distance learning courses. Established in 1947 by the scientist, the oldest of the, the is active in space science, astronomy, high-energy physics and many other areas of research. The, established in 1949 by, was listed by UNESCO as an institution active in the 'Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage'. Schools in Ahmedabad are run either by the municipal corporation, or privately by entities, trusts and corporations.

The majority of schools are affiliated with the, although some are affiliated with the,, and. Broadcasting tower of the Ahmedabad Doordarshan Newspapers in Ahmedabad include English dailies such as,,,,, and Metro. Newspapers in other languages include,,,,, and Aankhodekhi.

The city is home to the historic, which was founded in 1919 by Mahatma Gandhi. The state-owned Ahmedabad is broadcast both on the and FM bands (96.7 MHz) in the city. It competes with five private local FM stations: (91.1 MHz), (93.5 MHz), My fm (94.3 MHz), (95.0 MHz), (98.3 MHz). (104.5 MHz) is an educational FM radio station run under media co-operation model. In March 2012 started campus radio service on 90.8 MHz which was first kind of it in state and fifth in India.

There is also 104 radio station - Mirchi love The state-owned television broadcaster provides free terrestrial channels, while two — and and GTPL—provide a mix of Gujarati, Hindi, English, and other regional channels via. Telephone services are provided by landline and mobile operators such as,,,,,,,,, and. A cricket stadium with 54,000 capacity, in, Ahmedabad is one of the popular sports in the city. (also known as Stadium), built in 1982, hosts both and.

It has a seating capacity of 54,000. It hosted the 1987, 1996 and 2011. Ahmedabad also has a second cricket stadium at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's which is the home ground of the that plays in the tournament. Other popular sports are, badminton, tennis, and golf. Ahmedabad currently has three. Is being developed by the AMC to promote various indoor sports.

Recently Ahmedabad hosted national level games for and table tennis. Is gaining popularity in the city, with the introduction of a 380 metre long track based on concepts. Is organised every year in December–January since 2011 which have different categories like full and half marathon, 7 km dream run, 5 km run for visually challenged and 5 km wheelchair run. In 2007, Ahmedabad hosted the 51st national level games. The is held in Ahmedabad at (a renovated Kankaria football ground)., a five-time winner of the and a recipient of India's highest sporting award, the, was raised in Ahmedabad. International relations [ ].

Main article: Sister Cities •,, (2008) •,, (September 2014) •, •,, •,, •,, Notable citizens [ ] • – Founder of Ahmedabad. • – The first, popularly known as Sardar Patel. • – Scientist and innovator, regarded as the father of India's space program. • - Indian Classical Dancer founder of Darpana Academy • – Activist and Indian classical dancer. • – Billionaire businessman, the chairman and founder of.

• – Cooperative organizer, activist and Gandhian, founder of the Indian. • – Poet, and writer. • – Eminent jurist, the first and longest serving. • – Cricketer, wicketkeeper-batsman for the Indian national cricket team. • – Poet and professor. • – Psychotherapist and former actress. • - Founder of Nirma Group See also [ ] •.

• Muktirajsinhji Chauhan and Kamalika Bose. History of Interior Design in India Vol 1: Ahmedabad (2007) • Kenneth L. Gillion (1968).. University of California Press.

• Altekar, Anant Sadashiv. A history of important ancient towns and cities in Gujarat and Kathiawad (from the earliest times down to the Moslem conquest). ASIN B0008B2NGA. • Crook, Nigel (1993). India's Industrial Cities: Essays in Economy and Demography.

Oxford University Press.. Soundra (1989). Archaeological Survey of India. • Forrest, George William. Cities of India. Adamant Media Corporation.. • Gandhi, R (1990).

'Patel: A Life'. Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad. ASIN B0006EYQ0A.

• Michell, George (2003). Art Media Resources..

• Spodek, Howard (2011). Ahmedabad: Shock City of Twentieth-Century India. Indiana University Press..

External links [ ].

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival By John Vaillant Hardcover, 352 pages Knopf List price: $26.95 John Vaillant's The Tiger is part natural history, part Russian history and part thriller; it tells a gripping and gory story of what it's like to stalk — and be stalked by — the largest species of cat still walking the Earth. The most bio-diverse region in all of Russia lies on a chunk of land sandwiched between China and the Pacific Ocean.

There, in Russia's Far East, subarctic animals — such as caribou and wolves — mingle with tigers and other species of the subtropics. It was very nearly a perfect habitat for the tigers — until humans showed up. The tigers that populate this region are commonly referred to as Siberian tigers, but they are more accurately known as the Amur tiger. 'Imagine a creature that has the agility and appetite of the cat and the mass of an industrial refrigerator,' Vaillant tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. 'The Amur tiger can weigh over 500 pounds and can be more than 10 feet long nose to tail.' These majestic tigers can jump as far as 25 feet — vertically, they can jump over a basketball hoop. Vaillant cites a famous tiger biologist who, when asked how high a tiger can jump, responded: 'As high as it needs to.'

Author John Vaillant compares the size of his hand with the size of female tiger's paw print. John Vaillant 'This wasn't an impulsive response,' Vaillant says. 'The tiger was able to hold this idea over a period of time.'

The animal waited for 12 to 48 hours before attacking. When Markov finally appeared, the tiger killed him, dragged him into the bush and ate him. 'The eating may have been secondary,' Vaillant explains. 'I think he killed him because he had a bone to pick.' The other central character in The Tiger is Yuri Trush, the head of the local squad of an anti-poaching unit known as Inspection Tiger, an organization created by the Russian government to combat the black-market trafficking of tigers and tiger parts.

Trush was 'a guy well-suited to work in tiger country,' Vaillant says. Physically imposing and a skilled fighter, Trush was a larger-than-life figure, and a 'real warrior.' For most of his time with Inspection Tiger, Trush's job involved setting up sting operations and catching poachers. But Markov's death — which is followed later by the death of a second man — meant that Trush ended up having to hunt the same animal he had worked to protect. Trush needed to anticipate what the tiger's next move would be, and then get there before the tiger did, Vaillant explains. 'Trush was charged not just with protecting tigers, but now with saving human lives.'

Cossacks pose with a tiger they hunted in Russia's Far East, circa 1885. Courtesy of Vladimir Trofimov Vaillant's retelling is a life-and-death, moment-by-moment chase — and at times, it can be hard to remember whether you're rooting for the tiger or the humans. 'The tiger is just trying to be a tiger,' Vaillant says. 'What's so fascinating to me about that region is that there are human beings and tigers hunting for the same prey in the same territory — and they don't have conflicts.' But if you make the mistake of attacking a tiger, you will regret it, he says.

Markov certainly learned that the hard way. Vaillant says the tiger's response was 'logical' and 'understandable,' but in the case of the revenge it exacted on Markov, it was anything but typical. In writing the book, Vaillant interviewed people of all ages from families who had lived in the Russian Far East for generations. 'In living memory, there was no record of an incident like this, of a tiger hunting a human being,' he says. 'This was a highly unusual circumstance, completely driven by human behavior. If the tiger hadn't been shot, there would be no story.' The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival By John Vaillant Hardcover, 352 pages Knopf List price: $26.95 Prologue HANGING IN THE TREES, AS IF CAUGHT THERE, IS A SICKLE OF A MOON.

Its wan light scatters shadows on the snow below, only obscuring further the forest that this man negotiates now as much by feel as by sight. He is on foot and on his own save for a single dog, which runs ahead, eager to be heading home at last. All around, the black trunks of oak, pine, and poplar soar into the dark above the scrub and deadfall, and their branches form a tattered canopy overhead. Slender birches, whiter than the snow, seem to emit a light of their own, but it is like the coat of an animal in winter: cold to the touch and for itself alone.

All is quiet in this dormant, frozen world. It is so cold that spit will freeze before it lands; so cold that a tree, brittle as straw and unable to contain its expanding sap, may spontaneously explode. As they progress, man and dog alike leave behind a wake of heat, and the contrails of their breath hang in pale clouds above their tracks.

Their scent stays close in the windless dark, but their footfalls carry and so, with every step, they announce themselves to the night. Despite the bitter cold, the man wears rubber boots better suited to the rain; his clothes, too, are surprisingly light, considering that he has been out all day, searching.

His gun has grown heavy on his shoulder, as have his rucksack and cartridge belt. But he knows this route like the back of his hand, and he is almost within sight of his cabin. Now, at last, he can allow himself the possibility of relief. Perhaps he imagines the lantern he will light and the fire he will build; perhaps he imagines the burdens he will soon lay down. The water in the kettle is certainly frozen, but the stove is thinly walled and soon it will glow fiercely against the cold and dark, just as his own body is doing now. Soon enough, there will be hot tea and a cigarette, followed by rice, meat, and more cigarettes.

Maybe a shot or two of vodka, if there is any left. He savors this ritual and knows it by rote. Then, as the familiar angles take shape across the clearing, the dog collides with a scent as with a wall and stops short, growling. They are hunting partners and the man understands: someone is there by the cabin.

The hackles on the dog's back and on his own neck rise together. Together, they hear a rumble in the dark that seems to come from everywhere at once. PART ONE MARKOV 1 There are many people who don't believe this actually happened. They think it's some phantasm of my imagination. But it was real.

There are the facts. — Yuri Anatolievich Trush Shortly after dark on the afternoon of December 5, 1997, an urgent message was relayed to a man named Yuri Trush at his home in Luchegorsk, a mid-sized mining town in Primorye Territory in Russia's Far East, not far from the Chinese border. Primorye (Pri-mor-ya) is, among other things, the last stronghold of the Siberian tiger, and the official on the line had some disturbing news: a man had been attacked near Sobolonye, a small logging community located in the deep forest, sixty miles northeast of Luchegorsk. Yuri Trush was the squad leader of an Inspection Tiger unit, one of six in the territory whose purpose was to investigate forest crimes, specifically those involving tigers. Because poachers were often involved, these included tiger attacks. As a result, this situation — whatever it might entail — was now Trush's problem and, right away, he began preparing for the trip to Sobolonye.

——— Early the following morning — Saturday — Yuri Trush, along with his squadmates Alexander Gorborukov and Sasha Lazurenko, piled into a surplus army truck and rumbled north. Dressed in insulated fatigues and camouflage, and armed with knives, pistols, and semiautomatic rifles, the Tigers, as these inspectors are sometimes called, looked less like game wardens than like some kind of wilderness SWAT team. Their twenty-year-old truck was nicknamed a Kung, and it was the Russian army's four-ton equivalent to the Unimog and the Humvee. Gasoline-powered, with a winch, four-wheel-drive, and wide waist-high tires, it is a popular vehicle in Primorye's hinterlands. Along with a gun rack and brackets for extra fuel cans, this one had been modified to accommodate makeshift bunks, and was stocked with enough food to last four men a week. It was also equipped with a woodstove so that, even in the face of total mechanical failure, the crew could survive no matter where in the wilderness they happened to be.

After passing through the police checkpoint on the edge of town, the Tigers continued on up to a dirt road turnoff that led eastward along the Bikin River (be-keen), a large and meandering waterway that flows through some of the most isolated country in northern Primorye. The temperature was well below freezing and the snow was deep, and this slowed the heavy truck's progress. It also allowed these men, all of whom were experienced hunters and former soldiers, many hours to ponder and discuss what might be awaiting them.

It is safe to say that nothing in their experience could have prepared them for what they found there. Primorye, which is also known as the Maritime Territory, is about the size of Washington state. Tucked into the southeast corner of Russia by the Sea of Japan, it is a thickly forested and mountainous region that combines the backwoods claustrophobia of Appalachia with the frontier roughness of the Yukon. Industry here is of the crudest kind: logging, mining, fishing, and hunting, all of which are complicated by poor wages, corrupt officials, thriving black markets — and some of the world's largest cats. ——— One of the many negative effects of perestroika and the reopening of the border between Russia and China has been a surge in tiger poaching. As the economy disintegrated and unemployment spread throughout the 1990s, professional poachers, businessmen, and ordinary citizens alike began taking advantage of the forest's wealth in all its forms.

The tigers, because they are so rare and so valuable, have been particularly hard hit: their organs, blood, and bone are much sought after for use in traditional Chinese medicine. Some believe the tiger's whiskers will make them bulletproof and that its powdered bones will soothe their aches and pains. Others believe its penis will make them virile, and there are many — from Tokyo to Moscow — who will pay thousands of dollars for a tiger's skin. Between 1992 and 1994, approximately one hundred tigers — roughly one quarter of the country's wild population — were killed. Most of them ended up in China. Sound Drivers For Hp Pavilion Zd8000.

With financial assistance (and pressure) from international conservation agencies, the territorial government created Inspection Tiger in the hope of restoring some semblance of law and order to the forests of Primorye. Armed with guns, cameras, and broad police powers, these teams were charged with intercepting poachers and resolving a steadily increasing number of conflicts between tigers and human beings. In many ways, Inspection Tiger's mandate resembles that of detectives on a narcotics detail, and so does the risk: the money is big, and the players are often desperate and dangerous individuals. Tigers are similar to drugs in that they are sold by the gram and the kilo, and their value increases according to the refinement of both product and seller. But there are some key differences: tigers can weigh six hundred pounds; they have been hunting large prey, including humans, for two million years; and they have a memory. For these reasons, tigers can be as dangerous to the people trying to protect them as they are to those who would profit from them. The territory covered by Yuri Trush's Inspection Tiger unit in the mid-1990s was centered around the Bikin (be-keen) River.

You can drive a truck on the Bikin in winter, but in summer it has a languid bayou feel. For many of the valley's jobless inhabitants, the laws imposed by the river and the forest are more relevant than those of the local government. While most residents here poach game simply to survive, there are those among them who are in it for the money. ——- In 1997, Inspection Tiger had been in existence for only three years; given the state of the Russian economy in the 1990s, its members were lucky to have jobs, particularly because they were paid in dollars by foreign conservation groups. Four hundred dollars a month was an enviable wage at that time, but a lot was expected in return. Whether they were doing routine checks of hunters' documents in the forest, searching suspect cars en route to the Chinese border, or setting up sting operations, most of the people Inspection Tiger dealt with were armed. As often as not, these encounters took place in remote areas where backup was simply not available, and they never knew what they were going to find.

Following perestroika, virtually everything in Russia went on sale, and vast quantities of military ordnance disappeared from local armories. In the course of their raids on the many anonymous hunting cabins that dot the forest here, Trush and his men confiscated plastic explosives, TNT, and 12mm (.50 caliber) machine guns, robbed from armored vehicles.

Trush could not imagine what one would do with guns that size in the forest, but the explosives were easier to explain: they were used in creeks to kill fish en masse, or to blow bears out of their dens. The Asian market is less interested in the intact skins or carcasses of bears than it is in their paws and gall bladders; the paws go into soup, and the gall bladders are used for medicinal purposes. In Primorye, in the mid-1990s, life, for man and animal alike, was cheap, and corruption was widespread at every level of government. During these years, Trush made busts involving high-ranking police officers and members of parliament, and these were dangerous enemies for a person to have. Trush, however, was well suited to this work because he is a formidable adversary, too. Trush stands about six-foot-two with long arms and legs and a broad chest. His eyes are colored, coincidentally, like the semiprecious stone tiger's eye, with black rings around the irises.

They peer out from a frank and homely face framed by great, drooping brows. Though frail and sickly as a boy, Trush had grown into a talented athlete with a commanding presence, a deep resonant voice, and an ability to remain composed under highly stressful circumstances.

He is also immensely strong. As a young soldier in Kazakhstan, in the 1970s, Trush won a dozen regional kayaking championships for which he earned the Soviet rank Master of Sports, a distinction that meant he was eligible to compete at the national level.

It was a serious undertaking: he wasn't just racing against Bulgarians and East Germans. 'I was,' he said, 'defending the honor of the Military Forces of the USSR.' In his mid-forties, when he joined Inspection Tiger, Trush won a territory-wide weightlifting competition three years running. This was not the kind of weightlifting one is likely to see in the Olympics; what Trush was doing looks more like a contest devised by bored artillerymen during the Napoleonic Wars. It consists of hefting a kettlebell — essentially a large cannonball with a handle — from the ground over your head as many times as you can, first with one hand, and then the other. Kettlebells are a Russian invention; they have been around for centuries and their use clearly favors the short and the stocky. So it is surprising to see someone as attenuated as Trush, who has the Law of the Lever weighted so heavily against him, heave these seventy-pound spheres around with such apparent ease.

Trush learned to shoot, first, from his father and, later, in the army. He also studied karate, aikido, and knife handling; in these, his rangy build works to his advantage because his long reach makes it nearly impossible to get at him. He is so talented at hand-to-hand fighting that he was hired to teach these skills to the military police. Trush's physicality is intense and often barely suppressed. He is a grabber, a hugger, and a roughhouser, but the hands initiating — and controlling — these games are thinly disguised weapons.

His fists are knuckled mallets, and he can break bricks with them. As he runs through the motions of an immobilizing hold, or lines up an imaginary strike, one has the sense that his body hungers for opportunities to do these things in earnest. Referring to a former colleague who went bad and whom he tried for years to catch red-handed, Trush said, 'He knows very well that I am capable of beheading him with my bare hands.' This tension — between the kind and playful neighbor, friend and husband, and the Alpha male wilderness cop ready to throw down at a moment's notice — energizes almost every interaction. It is under the latter circumstances that Trush seems most alive.

——- The deeper Trush and his men drove into the forest, the rougher the road became. Once past Verkhny Pereval, their route took them through the snowbound village of Yasenovie, a sister logging community of the same size and vintage as Sobolonye. Here, they picked up a young deputy sheriff named Bush, but his presence on this mission was more formal than practical. Bush was a cop, and tiger attacks were beyond his purview; however, if there was a body, he was required to witness it. With Bush onboard, they trundled on upriver. It was already afternoon by the time they reached Sobolonye, an impoverished village of unpainted log houses, that at first glance seemed barely inhabited. Gorborukov was behind the wheel, and here he steered the truck off the main road, such as it was, and plunged into the forest on a track wide enough for only a single vehicle.

Several inches of new snow had fallen earlier in the week and, as they drove, Trush scanned the roadside for fresh tracks. They were about fifty miles from the nearest paved road and a couple of hard-won miles east of Sobolonye when they crossed a wide and improbably located gravel highway.

This road had been conceived during Soviet times as an alternative to Primorye's only existing north-south throughway, which follows the Ussuri River north to Khabarovsk (the same route used by the Trans-Siberian Railway). Despite handling every kind of traffic, including transcontinental freight trucks, the Ussuri road is poorly maintained and only as wide as a residential street; it was also considered vulnerable to Chinese attack. This new highway, though safer, wider, and ruler-straight, was never finished and so it is essentially a highway to nowhere — in the middle of nowhere. The only people who benefit from it now are loggers, poachers, and smugglers — pretty much the only people around who can afford a vehicle. But sometimes tigers use this highway, too. There is an unintended courtesy in the winter forest that occurs around pathways of any kind. It takes a lot of energy to break a trail through the snow, especially when it's crusty or deep, so whoever goes first, whether animal, human, or machine, is performing a valuable service for those following behind.

Because energy — i.e., food — is at a premium in the winter, labor-saving gifts of this kind are rarely refused. As long as the footpath, logging road, frozen river — or highway — is going more or less in the desired direction, other forest creatures will use it, too, regardless of who made it.

In this way, paths have a funneling, riverlike effect on the tributary creatures around them, and they can make for some strange encounters. The last three miles of the journey were on a logging track so tortuous and convoluted that even a veteran Russian backcountry driver is moved to shout, in a torrent of fricatives and rolling Rs, 'Paris-Dakar! Camel Trophy!' It contoured east through the rolling woods, crossing creeks on bridges made of log piles stacked at right angles to the road. Two miles short of a privately owned logging camp, Gorborukov took an unmarked turn and headed north. After a few minutes, he pulled up at a clearing, on the far side of which stood a cabin.

The cabin belonged to Vladimir Markov, a resident of Sobolonye, and a man best known for keeping bees. The crude structure stood by itself on the high side of a gentle south-facing slope, surrounded by a thick forest of birch, pine, and alder. It was a lonely spot but a lovely one and, under different circumstances, Trush might have seen its appeal. Now there was no time; it was three o'clock in the afternoon and the sun was already in the southwest, level with the treetops. Any warmth generated during this brief, bright day was quickly dissipating. The first sign of trouble was the crows. Carrion crows will follow a tiger the same way seagulls follow a fishing boat: by sticking with a proven winner, they conserve energy and shift the odds of getting fed from If to When.

When Trush and his men climbed down from the Kung, they heard the crows' raucous kvetching concentrated just west of the entrance road. Trush noted the way their dark bodies swirled and flickered above the trees and, even if he hadn't been warned ahead of time, this would have told him all he needed to know: something big was dead, or dying, and it was being guarded. Parked in front of Markov's cabin was a heavy truck belonging to Markov's good friend and beekeeping partner, Danila Zaitsev, a reserved and industrious man in his early forties. Zaitsev was a skilled mechanic and his truck, another cast-off from the military, was one of the few vehicles still functioning in Sobolonye. With Zaitsev were Sasha Dvornik and Andrei Onofrecuk, both family men in their early thirties who often hunted and fished with Markov.

It was evident from their haggard appearance that they had barely slept the night before. Judging from the density of tracks, there had clearly been a lot of activity around the cabin. Several different species were represented and their trails overlaid each other so that, at first, it was hard to sort them out. Trush approached this tangled skein of information like a detective: somewhere in here was a beginning and an end, and somewhere, too, was a motive — perhaps several. Downhill from the cabin, closer to the entrance road, two tracks in particular caught his attention.

One set traveled northward up the entrance road at a walking pace; the other traveled south from the cabin. They approached each other directly, as if the meeting had been intentional — like an appointment of some kind. The southbound tracks were noteworthy, not just because they were made by a tiger, but because there were large gaps — ten feet or more — between each set of impressions. At the point where they met, the northbound tracks disappeared, as if the person who made them had simply ceased to exist.

Here the large paw prints veered off to the west, crossing the entrance road at right angles. Their regular spacing indicated a walking pace; they led into the forest, directly toward the crows. Trush had a video camera with him and its unblinking eye recorded the scene in excruciating detail.

Only in retrospect does it strike one how steady Trush's hand and voice are as he films the site, narrating as he goes: the rough cabin and the scrubby clearing in which it stands; the path of the attack and the point of impact, and then the long trail of horrific evidence. The camera doesn't waver as it pans across the pink and trampled snow, taking in the hind foot of a dog, a single glove, and then a bloodstained jacket cuff before halting at a patch of bare ground about a hundred yards into the forest. At this point the audio picks up a sudden, retching gasp. It is as if he has entered Grendel's den. The temperature is thirty below zero and yet, here, the snow has been completely melted away.

In the middle of this dark circle, presented like some kind of sacrificial offering, is a hand without an arm and a head without a face. Nearby is a long bone, a femur probably, that has been gnawed to a bloodless white. Beyond this, the trail continues deeper into the woods. Trush follows it, squinting through his camera while his squad and Markov's friends trail closely behind.

The only sounds are the icy creak of Trush's boots and the distant barking of his dog. Seven men have been stunned to silence. Not a sob; not a curse. Trush's hunting dog, a little Laika, is further down the trail, growing increasingly shrill and agitated. Her nose is tingling with blood scent and tiger musk, and she alone feels free to express her deepest fear: the tiger is there, somewhere up ahead.

Trush's men have their rifles off their shoulders, and they cover him as he films. They arrive at another melted spot; this time, a large oval. Here, amid the twigs and leaf litter, is all that remains of Vladimir Ilyich Markov. It looks at first like a heap of laundry until one sees the boots, luminous stubs of broken bone protruding from the tops, the tattered shirt with an arm still fitted to one of the sleeves. Trush had never seen a fellow human so thoroughly and gruesomely annihilated and, even as he filmed, his mind fled to the edges of the scene, taking refuge in peripheral details. He was struck by the poverty of this man — that he would be wearing thin rubber boots in such bitter weather. He reflected on the cartridge belt — loaded but for three shells — and wondered where the gun had gone.

Meanwhile, Trush's dog, Gitta, is racing back and forth, hackles raised and barking in alarm. The tiger is somewhere close by — invisible to the men, but to the dog it is palpably, almost unbearably, present. The men, too, can sense a potency around them — something larger than their own fear, and they glance about, unsure where to look.

They are so overwhelmed by the wreckage before them that it is hard to distinguish imminent danger from the present horror. Save for the movements of the dog and the men, the forest has gone absolutely still; even the crows have withdrawn, waiting for this latest disturbance to pass. And so, it seems, has the tiger. Then, there is a sound: a brief, rushing exhale — the kind one would use to extinguish a candle.

But there is something different about the volume of air being moved, and the force behind it — something bigger and deeper: this is not a human sound. At the same moment, perhaps ten yards ahead, the tip of a low fir branch spontaneously sheds its load of snow.

The flakes powder down to the forest floor; the men freeze in mid-breath and, once again, all is still. Since well before the Kung's engine noise first penetrated the forest, a conversation of sorts has been unfolding in this lonesome hollow. It is not in a language like Russian or Chinese, but it is a language nonetheless, and it is older than the forest. The crows speak it; the dog speaks it; the tiger speaks it, and so do the men — some more fluently than others.

That single blast of breath contained a message lethal in its eloquence. But what does one do with such information so far from one's home ground?

Gitta tightens the psychic leash connecting her to her master. Markov's friends, already shaken to the core, pull in closer, too. The tiger's latest communication serves not only to undo these men still further, but to deepen the invisible chasm between them — poachers to a man — and the armed officials on whom their liberty and safety now depend.

Markov's friends are known to Trush because he has busted them before — for possessing illegal firearms and hunting without a license. Of the three of them, only Zaitsev's gun is legal, but it is too light to stop a tiger. As for the others, their weapons are now hidden in the forest, leaving them more helpless than Trush's dog. Trush is unarmed, too. There had been some back-and-forth at the entrance road about who was going to follow that grisly trail, and comments were made implying that Trush and his men didn't have what it took. Fear is not a sin in the taiga, but cowardice is, and Trush returned the challenge with a crisp invitation: 'Poshli' — 'Let's go.'

One of Markov's friends — Sasha Dvornik, as Trush recalled — then suggested that Trush's team could handle it themselves. Besides, he said, they had no weapons. Trush called his bluff by urging him to fetch his unregistered gun from hiding. 'This is no time to be confiscating guns,' he said.

'What's important now is to protect ourselves.' Still, Dvornik hesitated, and this is when Trush offered him his rifle.

It was a bold gesture on several levels: not only did it imply an expectation of trust and cooperation, but Trush's semiautomatic was a far better weapon than Dvornik's battered smoothbore. It also short-circuited the argument: now, there was no excuse, and no way that Dvornik — with six men watching — could honorably refuse. It was this same mix of shame, fear, and loyalty that compelled Zaitsev and Onofrecuk to go along, too. Besides, there was safety in numbers. But it had been a long time since Dvornik was in the army, and Trush's weapon felt strangely heavy in his hands; Trush, meanwhile, was feeling the absence of its reassuring weight, and that was strange, too.

He still had his pistol, but it was holstered and, in any case, it would have been virtually useless against a tiger. His faith rested with his squad mates because he had put himself in an extremely vulnerable position: even though he was leading the way, he did so at an electronic remove — in this drama but not of it, exploring this dreadful surreality through the camera's narrow, cyclopean lens.

Because Zaitsev and Dvornik couldn't be counted on, and Deputy Bush had only a pistol, the Tigers were Trush's only reliable proxies. Those with guns had them at the ready, but the forest was dense and visibility was poor. Were the tiger to attack, they could end up shooting one another.

So they held their fire, eyes darting back and forth to that single, bare branch, wondering where the next sign would come from. Behind the camera, Trush remained strangely calm. 'We clearly see the tiger's tracks going away from the remains,' he continued in his understated official drone, while Gitta barked incessantly, stiff-legged and staring.

The dog clearly indicates that the tiger went this way.' Up ahead, the tiger's tracks showed plainly in the snow, brought into sharp relief by the shadows now pooling within them. The animal was maneuvering northward to higher ground, the place every cat prefers to be. 'It looks like the tiger's not too far,' Trush intoned to future viewers, 'around forty yards.' The snow wasn't deep and, under those conditions, a tiger could cover forty yards in about four seconds. This may have been why Trush chose that moment to shut off his camera, reclaim his gun, and step back into real time. But once there, he was going to have to make a difficult decision.

In his professional capacity as senior inspector for Inspection Tiger, Trush acted as a medium between the Law of the Jungle and the Law of the State; one is instinctive and often spontaneous while the other is contrived and always cumbersome. The two are, by their very natures, incompatible. When he was in the field, Trush usually had no means of contacting his superiors, or anyone else for that matter; his walkie-talkies had limited range (when they worked at all) so he and his squad mates were profoundly on their own. Because of this, Trush's job required a lot of judgment calls, and he was going to have to make one now: the tiger is a 'Red Book' species — protected in Russia — so permission to kill had to come from Moscow. Trush did not yet have this permission, but it was Saturday, Moscow might as well have been the moon, and they had an opportunity to end this now. Trush decided to track it. This had not been part of the plan; he had been sent to investigate an attack, not to hunt a tiger.

Furthermore, his team was short a man, dusk was coming on, and Markov's friends were a liability; they were still in shock and so, for that matter, was Trush. But at that moment, he was poised — equidistant between the tiger and the harrowing evidence of what it had done. The two would never be so close again. Signaling Lazurenko to follow, Trush set off up the trail, knowing that every step would take him deeper into the tiger's comfort zone. Excerpted from The Tiger by John Vaillant Copyright 2010 by John Vaillant. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House Inc.