Tiger has a place in India’s Constitution and ecological balance: Arjun Ram Meghwal

The tiger has a place both in the artwork of India’s original Constitution and in maintaining the country’s ecological balance, Union Minister of State for Law and Justice (Independent Charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal said on Saturday.

Meghwal was speaking at the launch of Sacred Tiger Tales: From Vedic Hymns to Tryst with Stripes, authored and photographed by senior Law Ministry official Manoj Kumar.

The 248-page coffee-table book, published by OakBridge Publishing, was unveiled by Meghwal alongside Attorney General R Venkataramani at the India International Centre in New Delhi.

The book features 82 short narratives spanning scripture, classical literature, folklore, colonial history, and modern conservation, alongside photographs taken across Indian tiger reserves.

The launch brought together figures across law, government, wildlife conservation, photography and publishing.

Meghwal referred to the artwork in the original handwritten Constitution prepared under the guidance of artist Nandalal Bose, noting that its decorative borders incorporate animal representations including a tiger motif.

“The constitutional journey of ‘We, the people of India’ is not separate from nature,” Meghwal said in Hindi.

The Minister also highlighted the artwork accompanying Part XVI of the Constitution, which depicts Rani Lakshmibai and Tipu Sultan, popularly remembered as the “Tiger of Mysore”.

These illustrations establish a direct civilisational connection between constitutional governance and nature.

“The Constitution is the principal responsibility of our Law Ministry. That is why Manoj-ji has written this book,” he said.

On the tiger’s broader environmental significance, Meghwal stressed that every species created by nature plays an essential role in preserving natural equilibrium.

“The tiger makes a very important contribution towards maintaining ecological balance,” he said.

He recalled a childhood lesson from his schoolteacher who explained that snakes should not be killed out of fear because they control rodent populations that would otherwise destroy food grains.

Attorney General R Venkataramani described the book as an exploration of justice extending beyond the human realm.

“This book is about justice in a different space. I began to talk to each one of the photographs, and that was a great discovery for me,” he said.

The Attorney General said the book offers readers an opportunity to experience wilderness and discover something within themselves.

He also recalled staying in a Mowgli hut at the Pench Tiger Reserve to understand the forest environment, concluding his address with a poem composed during that visit.

Law Secretary Rajiv Mani traced the tiger’s civilisational presence across Vedic literature, its association with Goddess Durga, Lord Shiva, and Chhatrapati Shivaji, and its formal declaration as India’s national animal in 1972 ahead of Project Tiger’s launch in 1973.