India: The Tiger’s Roar, is Aline Dobbie’s personal account of her pilgrimage to her native India in search of that most magnificent and elusive of beasts, the tiger.

In India: The Tiger’s Roar, Aline Dobbie examines many of India’s most famous wildlife parks and tiger sanctuaries and provides a comprehensive study of Ranthambhore, Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Corbett Tiger Reserves as well as detailed backgrounds to Nagarahole, Kaziranga, Pench, Bharatpur and Gir National Park, home of the rare Asiatic Lion.Anyone considering a trip to watch India’s wildlife and tigers in particular will fi nd this book an indispensable and entertaining source of information. In addition, the author explores the continuing threat to India’s tigers and the on-going efforts to protect them.

Any westerner who has visited this country will find Dobbie’s India familiar. But it is the author’s ability to see the country through the eyes of an outsider as well as that of a native that gives her writing a unique perspective. She is able to get close to her subject in a way that would be difficult for the casual traveller to do. Indeed, Dobbie is a Hindi speaker and uses her many contacts and childhood reminiscences to great effect throughout this book.

The reader will also find valuable information on some of India’s historical gems such as Gwalior, Orchha, Sonagiri, Mandu, Sanchi and Bhimbetka as well as the hill station of Nainital. India: The Tiger’s Roar is certainly not a travel guide, nor a guide to the wildlife of India, although it is an excellent source of information on both subjects. Instead it is a heady blend of travelogue and personal insight, cultural and political philosophy, anecdotes, cautionary tales, historical and religious references and a thesis on the state of Indian wildlife conservation.

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Pavan K. Varma, director of the Nehru Centre giving the introduction to Aline Dobbie at her book launch	Aline Dobbie giving the incredible India Lecture: India: Responsible Tourism and conservation at the Nehru Centre London
Aline sitting with the chairperson - the Baroness Flather of Windsor and Maidenhead at the Nehru Centre London	Baroness Flather launching Aline Dobbie's second book India: the Tigers Roar at the Nehru Centre London
Smiling Aline Dobbie with her book India: The Tigers Roar and Baroness Shreela Flather at the launch

Sally Gillespie talks to the Peeblesshire author about her life, her passions, her new book and India.

Meeting Mrs Dobbie is an invigorating experience.

Seems if she doesn’t like something, she sets about changing it. Imagine.

Her latest project is to save India’s tigers, a creature for which she’s felt a lifelong affinity. Along the way, she hopes her country of birth will take more care of it’s wildlife generally, blossom into a economic powerhouse and clean up on it’s treatment of women.

Taking responsibility and thinking of others is big with Aline – right alongside standing up for the underdog and a palpable distaste for injustice.

What’s so invigorating is there’s not a whiff of the sentimental about Mrs Dobbie, this self confessed child of India’s Independence. I’m not sure what the stats are on colonels’ daughters and products of the English public school system tackling, head on, South Africa’s apartheid system… She did, aged 20-something. Listening back to the tape recorder I’d given her to hold, it kept cutting out at vital bits. Turned out it was where she was gesticulating, passionate about one of her causes – wildlife, discrimination, India, people, the environment or those tigers...

Full article is available in Spring 2005 issue of Border Life

Published in Scottish Field: 17 February, 2005

‘There is nothing quite like the joy and thrill of seeing tigers in the wild,’ enthuses Aline Dobbie. ‘It was for me a culmination of a dream and I just felt hugely privileged to be able to watch these wonderful animals. I defy anyone to be blasé about such an experience.’

Aline has been fascinated by that most magnificent and elusive of beasts, the tiger, since she was a child born and brought up in India. Her father, Colonel Frank Rose, was an officer in the Indian Army and as he was posted to various parts of the country, Aline was lucky to experience everything from cities such as Delhi and Calcutta to the wild jungles of Northern India and the untouched, tranquil waterways of Kerala in the south.

‘My childhood in India was remarkable,’ Aline says. ‘It was a great privilege growing up in such a lovely country and as I am bilingual and speak Hindi/Urdu, it gives me a further understanding of the nuances and sensitivities, allowing me the chance to have a rapport with various sides of society. I was brought up to respect different cultures and had a whale of a time travelling extensively.’

Although Aline returned to her native Scotland at the age of 16 after India was granted her independence, her affection for the land of her birth has not diminished. Now married to Graham, a PDSA vet, with two grown-up sons – Hamish and Stewart – and two grandchildren, they have lived in various parts of the world such as South Africa, but have happily settled in Biggar in the Borders.

Bridget McGrouther Senior Features Editor The Scottish Field

Aline with Consul General for India in Scotland Mr P S Randhawa at the launch of her book in November 13th 2004 in Peebles.

I had always had a soft spot for tigers and I picked up this book initially because of the wonderful photography on the jacket. Now I have made up my mind to visit India's wildlife parks for myself to see tigers in the wild. The author, Aline Dobbie, visits many of India's well known and lesser known wildlife parks, giving the reader much practical information on where to stay, what to do and most importantly, where to see tigers. However, this is hardly a travel guide, and the information is imparted in more of a personal journey around the author's homeland (Dobbie was brought up in India). Also here are her thoughts on conservation, poverty and Indian tourism. She treats her subjects in an even-handed and sensitive manner, but by the same token does not pull her punches where criticism is due. Most refreshing! Also, the chapter dealing with the inimitable Jim Corbett is well worth the cover price alone. Overall, an inspirational read that is bound to get you packing your suitcase!

October 2004

My second book dedicated to the Tiger and the conservation of the Sub-Continent's great cats and wonderful wildlife parks, which resulted from my research trip in November 2002, is to be published later this year. As well as concentrating on the country's wildlife I have told of our experiences whilst visiting the very heart of India and less well known travellers' trail. This will be a book for all who are genuinely interested in India, not only those devoted to wildlife conservation and the very wonderful experiences that understandably offers.

Aline Dobbie
April 2004

A Tigress at Kanha - my most wonderful visual memory.

December 2002