In Search of the Perfect Meal

What makes the perfect meal? Is it the taste, the flavors that linger in your mind long after the last bite is finished? Is it the quantity of the food and the nutritional value that keeps you energized? Or is it the convenience of the meal, the optimal McDonald's equilibrium between time and effort? My goal is to answer this question - from the perspective of a tiger.

Motivated by my own obsession with food, I've become fascinated by the choices carnivores make when selecting prey. Dare this sound like an esoteric topic to the non-ecologist, the question becomes more urgent when applied to landscapes such as India, where large rural populations live adjacent to forests. Imagine you are a tiger, crouched low in the dry grass, debating between a quick-footed chittal deer or a slow-paced bullock. Which would you prefer? When the cat chooses cattle, conflict arises and can result in death or injury to the livestock, cattle herder and the carnivore. Compounded by drought or other harsh climate events, human-wildlife conflict may become exacerbated, increasing the risk to both wildlife and people.

Personally, I don't eat meat. I'll take a juicy handful of palak paneer to a steak any day. As I travel through central India in pursuit of these ecological answers, I'll also be searching for the ultimate Indian dish, relative, of course, to my testy foreign stomach biota.


This summer, I'll make two trips to India. In May, I'll travel through central India, visiting five tiger reserves to observe their wildlife populations and assess the level of conflict in the area. I'll visit Melghat and Tadoba in the state of Maharashtra and Pench, Kanha and Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh. From June-August, I'll be based in Jaipur, Rajasthan to study Hindi through the American Institute for Indian Studies.

I hope you'll continue to check in on me as I travel this summer as I search India for the perfect meal. I'd love to hear your comments or tips on everything from optimal foraging theory to the best dhaba (restaurant) in town. This research is not only for the academic world and my own palette, but aims to benefit the people and wildlife that struggle to coexist - not only in India, but in every country.

Bon appetit, or as they say in Hindi, svadist khana (delicious food)!