Salim Ali: The grand old man of ornithology
Dr Salim Ali 87, the grand old man of Indian ornithology and one of the world's leading birdwatchers resembles nothing more than the feathered creatures he has spent a lifetime watching.
Dr Salim Ali 87, the grand old man of Indian ornithology and one of the world's leading birdwatchers resembles nothing more than the feathered creatures he has spent a lifetime watching. Crowning an emaciated, wrinkled frame is a beak of a nose and alert beady eyes that observe you like a hawk from behind black-rimmed spectacles. A craggy snow-white goatee beard adorns his rabbit chin like a plumage.
A friend of his once described him as a white-haired bulbul. Ali thinks the description is apt. In his high-pitched, squawky voice he quips: "I think it's because I sing so beautifully. But I would prefer to be called a vulture."
In many ways Ali is in a league by himself. Nobody else has contributed as much to the conservation of wildlife in India as the bearded octogenarian. Last month, at the centenary celebrations of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) which has become synonymous with Salim Ali, his latest book A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, co-authord by his close friend Dillon Ripley, secretary, Smithsonian Institution, US, was released by the Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, in her capacity as chairman of the Indian Board for Wildlife (IBW).
Mrs Gandhi also announced that the first raw gold medal for conservation had been awarded unanimously to Salim Ali. Making the announcement Mrs Gandhi said: "For 50 years Salim Ali has been the doyen of conservationists in the country. He is responsible for the new consciousness sweeping the country. He may be the oldest member in the society but there are very few younger in heart or as energetic."
Ali waves away the adulation with his characteristic modesty and wit. Sitting outside his house in Pali Hill,which is one of the few single-storeyed houses with a large garden in Bombay, a relaxed Ali said: "It's a good thing to be recognised but I don't sort of begin to jump or dance. I feel all this talk about world-wide renown and so on is fictitious. In the context of world ornithology, the work we have done here is nothing. I feel like a frog in the well or a one-eyed man in the land of the blind."
That is an understatement, if anything. No other Indian ornithologist, or for that matter ecologist, has travelled so extensively in the subcontinent and studied birds and other wildlife as Ali has done. Ali has written eight books on birds, his opus being The Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan published in 10 volumes over a period of six years from 1968 to 1974 by the Oxford University Press and co-authored by Ripley.
Ali's books are a result of a tremendous amount of field work that has set a new trend in ornithology. Previously scientific ornithology meant the systematic classification of birds as was done in museums. Bird-watching in contrast was just "a way of killing time mostly by the idle rich who because they had nothing better to do went about looking at birds". Ali can take credit tor having lifted bird-watching from an idle pastime to the realm of a science by his systematic observations. He was more interested in the ecology of birds which is the study of its habits, its habitat, its food and its breeding biology.
Systematic Studies: It was Ali who introduced systematic ornithological surveys at a time when nobody knew the overall pattern of bird distribution in the country although it was a well-known fact that India harboured as much as 1,200 species of the total of 8,580 listed in the world.
Scouring the length and breadth of the country, braving bad weather and rugged terrain, Ali's bird-watching odyssey spanning seven decades has resulted in him becoming a walking encyclopaedia on the birds of the Indian subcontinent. Says Ali; "you forget about most things when you are concentrating on birds. You enjoy it. Its like looking at a beautiful women".
At his age anyone else would have wanted plenty of peace and quiet but Ali seems to have an inexhaustible source of energy. He has not cut down on field work. Next month he is off on an arduous expedition in the Eastern Ghats in Orissa.
Hardly three years ago he was in Ladakh, walking through swamps and braving the chill winds to see the elusive black-necked crane. He has also once spent 10 hours on camel back in the Rann of Kutch in a vain effort to reach a flamingo nesting colony.
On the field trips Ali is full of verve and his team-mates grudgingly concede that he is the most energetic of them all. He wears a khaki safari suit with a haversack slung over his back and an olive green peak-cap which, according to Ali, "has been on my head as long as it has been there." His only tools are a pair of powerful field glasses and a dog-eared notebook.
Ali is a strict disciplinarian to the point of being cranky on tours. He insists on frugality or what he calls "living off the land" and takes pride in the fact that his field trips are inexpensive - he shows his wrath on anyone who violates his orders but edge of his biting tongue is always blunted by his quick humour.
Says Robert Grubb, 40, who has worked with Ali for the past 20 years: "Ali is amazing. Even if he sees the most common bird he becomes absolutely rapturous. He insists on accuracy and not even the smallest flaw is acceptable. Nor does he have any hypocrisy and is blunt and honest when he speaks. Although he is so old he is the most active of the team and even insists on climbing mountains or riding camels." Adds well-known naturalist Zafar Futehally, who is related to Ali: "As I got to know Salim better I discovered his untiring thoroughness was part of his nature and what he expected of others was only what he demanded of himself."
His close involvement with the BNHS has resulted in several important ecological studies being undertaken. Under Ali's guidance the BNHS has taken up a study of the bird hazard at Indian airports that is resulting in the loss crores of rupees to airlines.
Ali feels that instead of having modern gadgetry to control the problem it is better to study the habits of the birds and find out why they fly around airports. The study indicates that it may be because of nearby slaughter houses which could be easily shifted. In Bharatpur a systematic survey is being done on the mammals, reptiles and birds that flock to the sanctuary.
In Point Calimere the BNHS has undertaken a comprehensive survey of the birds found in the area and their migratory habits. Apart from these they have also undertaken studies on the habitats and ecology of endangered species like the elephant and the great Indian bustard.
Ali has personally been involved in the fight to preserve Silent Valley, the virgin tropical forest in Kerela where the Government decided to put up a hydroelectric project. Says eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil: "He has certainly contributed as one man, more than anyone else to conservation in India in the 20th century."
But Ali is an ecologist with a difference. He does not belong to the ultra-conservationist group that believes in preserving everything in its entirety and is not against hunting wildlife if it is kept under strict supervision. Ali's radical views have resulted in him being called an "ecologist with a gun". Ali himself is an avid shikari and is unabashed about the fact that he eats meat. He proudly says that he has drunk elephant's milk, which he found "chalky" and eaten tiger's meat along with Ripley.
Nobody, however, can question Ali's credentials as a conservationist. He has contributed phenomenally towards the conservation of wildlife in India. In 1953 when villagers in Bharatpur wanted the swamps to be used for agriculture, Ali approached Jawaharlal Nehru who promptly declared it as a sanctuary.
Today it has become the world-famous Keolada Ghana National Park, the home of nesting storks, herons, spoonbills and ibises as well as hordes of migrant bird species like the magnificent Siberian crane which flies 3,000 miles in winter to reach the sanctuary and is an endangered species. Ali was the first to spot the Siberian crane in 1936 - he promptly shot one and ate it!
Like many others, Ali jumped many professions before he found his chosen metier. He even spent some time in Burma helping his brother to manage a wolfram mine. But he quickly tired of business and returned to Bombay where he became a guide at the BNHS to make both ends meet.
Ali worked for two years, got "bored" and because no Indian university had a course in ornithology wrote to Professor Erwin Stresemann of the Berlin University ecological museum who promptly called him over at the museum's expense and trained him in systematic ornithology. When Ah came back to India he found that his post of guide had been abolished for lack of finance leaving him jobless.
At this point his wife Tehmina came to his rescue. She had an ancestral house on a beach front in Kihim, about 100 km from Bombay, where they both went to stay when Ali was unemployed. It was here that Ali stumbled upon a flock of baya weaver-birds whose intricately woven nests shaped like if large pendant are a common sight in India.
It was breeding season and Ali began what he calls "the longest and most unbroken opportunity for research". And when Ali finally brought out a paper on the "nesting habits of the baya weaver-bird" four years later if immediately received world acclaim in ornithology because of its comprehensiveness.
Prolific Writings: Soon after he wrote The Book of Indian Birds his wife died. With this tie gone Ali immersed himself in his work and became a prolific writer. He brought out the Birds of Kutch in 1945 followed by the Indian Hill Birds in 1949 and Birds of Travancore and Cochin in 1953. It was when he was in the Mishmi hills in the North-east in 1948 along with his friend Dillon Ripley who was in the US Army that they decided to write the now famous Hand-book of Birds of India and Pakistan.
Awards have been showered on him with monotonous regularity. Apart from three honorary doctorates given by Indian universities, Ali was the first non-Britisher to win the prestigious gold medal of the British Ornithologist Union in 1967.
He followed it up with the coveted John Philips Memorial Medal for conservation awarded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1969. But the award he appreciates most is the J. Paul Getty International Prize for Nature Conservation in 1976 because it carried a cash prize of $ 50,000 (Rs 5 lakh).
He promptly donated the entire amount to start a nature conservation fund at BNHS thereby fulfilling a "long-cherished desire" of his. Replying to the Getty citation, Ali thought it was an "over-generous reaction" and said: "I cannot point to any single flashy or spectacular achievement. In retrospect I realise that perhaps the chief merit of my work lay in waging something like a long-drawn 'war of attrition' on governmental apathy and public indifference."
Right now Ali senses that his "long-drawn war of attrition" is nearing its successful end. But he continues to work as though he is a sprightly young man. These days he is up before the sun rises and is at his desk writing his unfinished autobiography. With a twinkle in his eye Ali says: "I hope to finish it before it finishes me"