The Soul of the Rhino is a book about a Nepali adventure with kings and elephant drivers, billionaires and bureaucrats, shamans and scientists, and the Indian Rhinoceros.

In early 2006, National Public Radio reported that "A promising conservation effort to save one of Nepal's signature endangered species is now in serious trouble, due primarily to poachers taking advantage of fighting between government forces and Maoist insurgents.

"[1] This was devastating news indeed to author and scientist Hemanta Mishra, who has spent the better part of his adult life struggling to save the Indian Rhino from extinction in his native Nepal.

Fresh out of university in the 1970s, Mishra embarks on his conservation work with the help of an ornery but steadfast elephant driver, the Nepalese royal family, and handfuls of like-minded scientists whose aim is to protect the animal in the foothills of the Himalayas.

To this day, Nepal is overrun by armed insurgents, political violence, and poachers who could kill off this magnificent creature for good.

Filled with candor and bittersweet humor, Mishra re-creates his journey on behalf of the rhino, an ugly yet enchanting, terrifying yet delicate creature.