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Salim Ali (ornithologist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salim Ali
(1896 - 1987)
Sálim Ali, born Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, (November
12, 1896 - July 27, 1987), was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Known as
the "Birdman of India", Salim Ali was among the first Indians to
conduct systematic bird surveys in India and his books have contributed
enormously to the development of professional and amateur ornithology in India.
Early life
Yellow-throated
Sparrow
Salim Ali was born into a
Muslim family of Bombay, the tenth and youngest child. He was orphaned at the
age of ten, and brought up by his maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, and
childless aunt, Hamida Begum, in a middle-class household in Khetwadi, Mumbai. Another
uncle was Abbas Tyabji, well known Indian freedom fighter. Salim Ali was
introduced to the serious study of birds by W. S. Millard, secretary of the Bombay
Natural History Society (BNHS) who helped him identify an unusually coloured
sparrow that he had shot for sport. Millard identified it as a Yellow-throated
Sparrow, and showed him around the Society's collection of stuffed birds. This
was a key event in his life and led to Salim's pursuit of a career in
ornithology, an unusual career choice in those days. Salim Ali's cousin Humayun
Abdulali also became an ornithologist.
Burma
and Germany
Salim Ali's early education
was at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Following a difficult first year in
college, he dropped out and went to Tavoy, Burma to look after the family
wolfram mining and timber interests there. The forests surrounding this area
provided an opportunity for Ali to hone his naturalist (and hunting) skills. On
his return to India in 1917, he resumed his education, graduating with a
Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in Zoology. He married a distant relation,
Tehmina in 1918.
Ali failed to get an
ornithologist's position at the Zoological Survey of India due to lack of
sufficient academic qualifications. He however decided to study further after
he was hired as guide lecturer in 1926 at the newly opened natural history
section in the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai. He went on study leave in 1928
to Germany, where he trained under Professor Erwin Stresemann at the Zoological
Museum of Berlin University.
Ornithology
On his return to India in
1930, he discovered that the guide lecturer position had been eliminated due to
lack of funds. Unable to find a suitable job, Salim Ali and Tehmina moved to
Kihim, a coastal village near Mumbai, where he began making his first
observations of the Baya Weaver. The publication of his findings on the bird in
1930 brought him recognition in the field of ornithology.
Ali undertook systematic
bird surveys of the princely states, Hyderabad, Cochin, Travancore, Gwalior,
Indore and Bhopal, under the sponsorship of the rulers of those states. He was
aided in his surveys by advice from Hugh Whistler. Salim wrote "My chief
interest in bird study has always been its ecology, its life history under
natural conditions and not in a laboratory under a microscope. By travelling to
these remote, uninhabited places, I could study the birds as they lived and
behaved in their habitats."
Hugh Whistler also
introduced Salim to Richard Meinertzhagen and the two made an expedition into
Afghanistan. Although Meinertzhagen had very critical views of him, they
continued to remain good friends. Salim Ali found nothing amiss in
Meinertzhagen's bird works but later studies have shown many of his studies to
be fraudulent. Meinertzhagen later made his diary entries available to Salim
and reproduced in his autobiographical Fall of a Sparrow.
30.4.1973 'I am disappointed in Salim. he is
quite useless at anything but collecting. he cannot skin a bird, nor cook, nor
do anything connected with camp life, packing up or chopping wood. He writes
interminable notes about something-perhaps me... Even collecting he never does
no his own initiative...
20.5.1937 'Salim is the personification of the
educated Indian and interests me a great deal. He is excellent at his own
theoretical subjects, but has no practical ability, and at everyday little
problems is hopelessly inefficient... His views are astounding. He is prepared
to turn the British out of India tomorrow and govern the country himself. I
have repeatedly told him that the British Government haave no intention of
handling over millions of uneducated Indians to the mercy of such men as
Salim:...
Ali rediscovered a rare
weaver-bird species, Finn's Baya in the Kumaon Terai region, but was
unsuccessful in his expedition to find the Mountain Quail (Ophrysia
superciliosa).
He was accompanied and
supported on his early ornithological surveys by his wife, Tehmina, and he was
shattered when she died in 1939 following a minor surgery. After Tehmina's
death, Salim Ali was looked after by his sister and brother-in-law.
The following quote from
his autobiography clarifies his stand on hunting vs collection for scientific
study:
it is true that I despise purposeless killing,
and regard it as an act of vandalism, deserving the severest condemnation. But
my love for birds is not of the sentimental variety. It is essentially
aesthetic and scientific, and in some cases may even be pragmatic. For a
scientific approach to bird study, it is often necessary to sacrifice a few,
... (and) I have no doubt that but for the methodical collecting of specimens
in my earlier years - several thousands, alas - it would have been impossible
to advance our taxonomical knowledge of Indian birds ... nor indeed of their
geographic distribution, ecology, and bionomics.
Other
Contributions
Salim Ali was very
influential in ensuring the survival of the BNHS and managed to save the
200-year old institution by writing to the then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru for
financial help.
Dr. Ali's influence helped
save the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and the Silent Valley National Park. In 1990,
the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON) was
established at Anaikatty, Coimbatore, aided by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF), Government of India.
He took an interest in bird
photography along with his friend Loke Wan Tho.
Awards
Although recognition came
late, he received numerous awards, some of which are
- Padma Bhushan (1958)
- Union Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, a
rarity for non-British citizens (1967)
- The John C. Phillips Medal for Distinguished Service in
International Conservation, from the World Conservation Union (1969)
- Padma Vibhushan (1976)
- J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize
of the World Wildlife Fund (1976)
- Commander of the Netherlands Order of the
Golden Ark
(1986)
He was elected Fellow of
the Indian National Science Academy in 1958. He also received three honorary
doctorates and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1985.
Dr.
Salim Ali died in 1987 at the age of 91 after a prolonged battle with prostate
cancer.
World Wildlife Fund: Getty
Wildlife Conservation Prize Citation
The International Jury for the J.
Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize of the World Wildlife Fund has selected
for 1975
Salim A. Ali
Creator of an environment for conservation
in India, your work over fifty years in acquainting Indians with the natural
riches of the subcontinent has been instrumental in the promotion of
protection, the setting up of parks and reserves, and indeed the awakening of
conscience in all circles from the government to the simplest village
Panchayat. Since the writing of your book, the Book of Indian Birds which in its way
was the seminal natural history volume for everyone in India, your name has
been the single one known throughout the length and breadth of your own
country, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as the father of conservation and the fount
of knowledge on birds. Your message has gone high and low across the land and
we are sure that weaver birds weave your initials in their nests, and swifts perform
parabolas in the sky in your honor.
For your lifelong dedication to the
preservation of bird life in the Indian subcontinent and your identification
with the Bombay Natural History Society as a force for education, the World
Wildlife Fund takes delight in presenting you with the second J. Paul Getty
Wildlife Conservation Prize. February 19, 1976.
Writing
Salim Ali wrote a number of
popular and academic books, many of which continue to be standard references
for the study of birds in the Indian subcontinent. He is the author of
- Handbook of the Birds of India &
Pakistan
(Vols. 1-10) with Sidney Dillon Ripley, Bombay: Oxford University Press(OUP)
(1964-74)
Volume 1 Divers to Hawks
Volume 2 Megapodes to Crab Plover
Volume 3 Stone Curlews to Owls
Volume 4 Frogmouths to Pittas
Volume 5 Larks to Grey Hypocolius
Volume 6 Cuckoo-Shrikes to Babaxes
Volume 7 Laughing Thrushes to the Mangrove
Whistler
Volume 8 Warblers to Redstarts
Volume 9 Robins to Wagtails
Volume 10 Flowerpeckers to Buntings
- Fall of a Sparrow, (Autobiography) (1985)
- The Book of Indian Birds, Bombay: BNHS (1941), ISBN
0-19-566523-6
- Common Birds with Laeeq Futehally, New Delhi: National
Book Trust(NBT) (1967)
- A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the
Indian Subcontinent with Dillon Ripley, Bombay: OUP (1983)
- Common Indian Birds, A Picture Album New Delhi: NBT (1968)
- Hamare Parichat Pakshee with Laeeq Futehally (Hindi). New
Delhi: NBT (1969)
- Handbook of the Birds of India &
Pakistan
(compact edition) with Ripley, D., Bombay: OUP (1987)
- The Book of Indian Birds (12th and enlarged centenary
ed.) New Delhi: BNHS & OUP (1996)
- Bird Study in India: Its History and its
Importance New
Delhi: ICCR (1979)
- The Great Indian Bustard (Vols.1-2). with Rahmani, A.
Bombay: BNHS (1982-89)
Regional
Guides
- Birds of Bhutan with Biswas, B. & Ripley,
D., Calcutta: Zoological Survey of India (1996)
- The Birds of Bombay and Salsette with H. Abdulali, Bombay:
Prince of Wales Museum (1941)
- The Birds of Kutch, London: OUP (1945)
- Indian Hill Birds Bombay: OUP (1949)
- The Birds of Travancore and Cochin Bombay: OUP (1953)
- The Birds of Gujarat Bombay: Gujarat Research
Society (1956)
- A Picture Book of Sikkim Birds Gangtok: Government of Sikkim
(1960)
- The Birds of Sikkim Delhi: OUP (1962)
- Birds of Kerala Madras: OUP (1969)
- Field Guide to the Birds of the Eastern
Himalayas
Bombay: OUP (1977)
- The Vernay Scientific Survey of the
Eastern Ghat; Ornithological Section—Together with The Hyderabad State
Ornithological Survey 1930-38 with Hugh Whistler, Norman Boyd Kinnear (undated)
Technical
Studies and Reports
- Studies on the Movement and Population of
Indian Avifauna
Annual Reports I-4. with Hussain, S.A., Bombay: BNHS (1980-86)
- Ecological Reconnaissance of Vedaranyam
Swamp, Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu Bombay: BNHS (1980)
- Harike Lake Avifauna Project (co-author) Bombay: BNHS
(1981)
- Ecological Study of Bird Hazard at Indian
Aerodromes
(Vols. I & 2). with Grubh, R. Bombay: BNHS (1981-89)
- Potential Problem Birds at Indian
Aerodromes
with Grubh, R. Bombay: BNHS
- The Lesser Florican in Sailana with Rahmani et al. Bombay:
BNHS (1984)
- Strategy for Conservation of Bustards in
Maharashtra
(co-author) Bombay: BNHS (1984)
- The Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat (co-author) Bombay: BNHS
(1985)
- Keoladeo National Park Ecology Study with Vijayan, S., Bombay: BNHS
(1986)
- A.Study of Ecology of Some Endangered
Species of Wildlife and Their Habitat. The Floricans with Daniel J.C. &
Rahmani, Bombay: BNHS (1986)
- Status and Ecology of the Lesser and
Bengal Floricans with Reports on Jerdon’s Courser and Mountain Quail Bombay: BNHS (1990)
Trivia
- In his school days, the only award he won
was for good conduct, and the prize was a book, Our Animal Friends.
- Salim Ali wanted the Great Indian Bustard
to be declared the National Bird of India. The Lok Sabha however, chose
the Peacock.
- Salim Ali’s Fruit Bat (Latidens
salimalii), named after him in 1972 by the discoverer Kitty
Thonglongya, is one of the world's rarest bats, and the only species in
the genus Latidens.
- The Mysore Rock Bush Quail (Perdicula
argoondah salimalii) and the Eastern Race of the Finn's Baya Weaver
(Ploceus megarhynchus salimalii) were named, by Whistler and Abdulali
respectively, in Salim Ali's honour.
- The Black-rumped Flameback Woodpecker,
first collected in Kerala by Salim Ali, is named after his wife, Tehmina (Dinopium
benghalense tehminae).
- He was mentioned as himself in Anita
Desai's best selling novel "Village by the Sea".
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Salim_Ali_%28ornithologist%29&action=history
Salim Ali
(1896 - 1987)
Sálim Ali, born Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, (November
12, 1896 - July 27, 1987), was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Known as
the "Birdman of India", Salim Ali was among the first Indians to
conduct systematic bird surveys in India and his books have contributed
enormously to the development of professional and amateur ornithology in India.
Early life
Yellow-throated
Sparrow
Salim Ali was born into a
Muslim family of Bombay, the tenth and youngest child. He was orphaned at the
age of ten, and brought up by his maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, and
childless aunt, Hamida Begum, in a middle-class household in Khetwadi, Mumbai. Another
uncle was Abbas Tyabji, well known Indian freedom fighter. Salim Ali was
introduced to the serious study of birds by W. S. Millard, secretary of the Bombay
Natural History Society (BNHS) who helped him identify an unusually coloured
sparrow that he had shot for sport. Millard identified it as a Yellow-throated
Sparrow, and showed him around the Society's collection of stuffed birds. This
was a key event in his life and led to Salim's pursuit of a career in
ornithology, an unusual career choice in those days. Salim Ali's cousin Humayun
Abdulali also became an ornithologist.
Burma
and Germany
Salim Ali's early education
was at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Following a difficult first year in
college, he dropped out and went to Tavoy, Burma to look after the family
wolfram mining and timber interests there. The forests surrounding this area
provided an opportunity for Ali to hone his naturalist (and hunting) skills. On
his return to India in 1917, he resumed his education, graduating with a
Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in Zoology. He married a distant relation,
Tehmina in 1918.
Ali failed to get an
ornithologist's position at the Zoological Survey of India due to lack of
sufficient academic qualifications. He however decided to study further after
he was hired as guide lecturer in 1926 at the newly opened natural history
section in the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai. He went on study leave in 1928
to Germany, where he trained under Professor Erwin Stresemann at the Zoological
Museum of Berlin University.
Ornithology
On his return to India in
1930, he discovered that the guide lecturer position had been eliminated due to
lack of funds. Unable to find a suitable job, Salim Ali and Tehmina moved to
Kihim, a coastal village near Mumbai, where he began making his first
observations of the Baya Weaver. The publication of his findings on the bird in
1930 brought him recognition in the field of ornithology.
Ali undertook systematic
bird surveys of the princely states, Hyderabad, Cochin, Travancore, Gwalior,
Indore and Bhopal, under the sponsorship of the rulers of those states. He was
aided in his surveys by advice from Hugh Whistler. Salim wrote "My chief
interest in bird study has always been its ecology, its life history under
natural conditions and not in a laboratory under a microscope. By travelling to
these remote, uninhabited places, I could study the birds as they lived and
behaved in their habitats."
Hugh Whistler also
introduced Salim to Richard Meinertzhagen and the two made an expedition into
Afghanistan. Although Meinertzhagen had very critical views of him, they
continued to remain good friends. Salim Ali found nothing amiss in
Meinertzhagen's bird works but later studies have shown many of his studies to
be fraudulent. Meinertzhagen later made his diary entries available to Salim
and reproduced in his autobiographical Fall of a Sparrow.
30.4.1973 'I am disappointed in Salim. he is
quite useless at anything but collecting. he cannot skin a bird, nor cook, nor
do anything connected with camp life, packing up or chopping wood. He writes
interminable notes about something-perhaps me... Even collecting he never does
no his own initiative...
20.5.1937 'Salim is the personification of the
educated Indian and interests me a great deal. He is excellent at his own
theoretical subjects, but has no practical ability, and at everyday little
problems is hopelessly inefficient... His views are astounding. He is prepared
to turn the British out of India tomorrow and govern the country himself. I
have repeatedly told him that the British Government haave no intention of
handling over millions of uneducated Indians to the mercy of such men as
Salim:...
Ali rediscovered a rare
weaver-bird species, Finn's Baya in the Kumaon Terai region, but was
unsuccessful in his expedition to find the Mountain Quail (Ophrysia
superciliosa).
He was accompanied and
supported on his early ornithological surveys by his wife, Tehmina, and he was
shattered when she died in 1939 following a minor surgery. After Tehmina's
death, Salim Ali was looked after by his sister and brother-in-law.
The following quote from
his autobiography clarifies his stand on hunting vs collection for scientific
study:
it is true that I despise purposeless killing,
and regard it as an act of vandalism, deserving the severest condemnation. But
my love for birds is not of the sentimental variety. It is essentially
aesthetic and scientific, and in some cases may even be pragmatic. For a
scientific approach to bird study, it is often necessary to sacrifice a few,
... (and) I have no doubt that but for the methodical collecting of specimens
in my earlier years - several thousands, alas - it would have been impossible
to advance our taxonomical knowledge of Indian birds ... nor indeed of their
geographic distribution, ecology, and bionomics.
Other
Contributions
Salim Ali was very
influential in ensuring the survival of the BNHS and managed to save the
200-year old institution by writing to the then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru for
financial help.
Dr. Ali's influence helped
save the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and the Silent Valley National Park. In 1990,
the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON) was
established at Anaikatty, Coimbatore, aided by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF), Government of India.
He took an interest in bird
photography along with his friend Loke Wan Tho.
Awards
Although recognition came
late, he received numerous awards, some of which are
- Padma Bhushan (1958)
- Union Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, a
rarity for non-British citizens (1967)
- The John C. Phillips Medal for Distinguished Service in
International Conservation, from the World Conservation Union (1969)
- Padma Vibhushan (1976)
- J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize
of the World Wildlife Fund (1976)
- Commander of the Netherlands Order of the
Golden Ark
(1986)
He was elected Fellow of
the Indian National Science Academy in 1958. He also received three honorary
doctorates and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1985.
Dr.
Salim Ali died in 1987 at the age of 91 after a prolonged battle with prostate
cancer.
World Wildlife Fund: Getty
Wildlife Conservation Prize Citation
The International Jury for the J.
Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize of the World Wildlife Fund has selected
for 1975
Salim A. Ali
Creator of an environment for conservation
in India, your work over fifty years in acquainting Indians with the natural
riches of the subcontinent has been instrumental in the promotion of
protection, the setting up of parks and reserves, and indeed the awakening of
conscience in all circles from the government to the simplest village
Panchayat. Since the writing of your book, the Book of Indian Birds which in its way
was the seminal natural history volume for everyone in India, your name has
been the single one known throughout the length and breadth of your own
country, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as the father of conservation and the fount
of knowledge on birds. Your message has gone high and low across the land and
we are sure that weaver birds weave your initials in their nests, and swifts perform
parabolas in the sky in your honor.
For your lifelong dedication to the
preservation of bird life in the Indian subcontinent and your identification
with the Bombay Natural History Society as a force for education, the World
Wildlife Fund takes delight in presenting you with the second J. Paul Getty
Wildlife Conservation Prize. February 19, 1976.
Writing
Salim Ali wrote a number of
popular and academic books, many of which continue to be standard references
for the study of birds in the Indian subcontinent. He is the author of
- Handbook of the Birds of India &
Pakistan
(Vols. 1-10) with Sidney Dillon Ripley, Bombay: Oxford University Press(OUP)
(1964-74)
Volume 1 Divers to Hawks
Volume 2 Megapodes to Crab Plover
Volume 3 Stone Curlews to Owls
Volume 4 Frogmouths to Pittas
Volume 5 Larks to Grey Hypocolius
Volume 6 Cuckoo-Shrikes to Babaxes
Volume 7 Laughing Thrushes to the Mangrove
Whistler
Volume 8 Warblers to Redstarts
Volume 9 Robins to Wagtails
Volume 10 Flowerpeckers to Buntings
- Fall of a Sparrow, (Autobiography) (1985)
- The Book of Indian Birds, Bombay: BNHS (1941), ISBN
0-19-566523-6
- Common Birds with Laeeq Futehally, New Delhi: National
Book Trust(NBT) (1967)
- A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the
Indian Subcontinent with Dillon Ripley, Bombay: OUP (1983)
- Common Indian Birds, A Picture Album New Delhi: NBT (1968)
- Hamare Parichat Pakshee with Laeeq Futehally (Hindi). New
Delhi: NBT (1969)
- Handbook of the Birds of India &
Pakistan
(compact edition) with Ripley, D., Bombay: OUP (1987)
- The Book of Indian Birds (12th and enlarged centenary
ed.) New Delhi: BNHS & OUP (1996)
- Bird Study in India: Its History and its
Importance New
Delhi: ICCR (1979)
- The Great Indian Bustard (Vols.1-2). with Rahmani, A.
Bombay: BNHS (1982-89)
Regional
Guides
- Birds of Bhutan with Biswas, B. & Ripley,
D., Calcutta: Zoological Survey of India (1996)
- The Birds of Bombay and Salsette with H. Abdulali, Bombay:
Prince of Wales Museum (1941)
- The Birds of Kutch, London: OUP (1945)
- Indian Hill Birds Bombay: OUP (1949)
- The Birds of Travancore and Cochin Bombay: OUP (1953)
- The Birds of Gujarat Bombay: Gujarat Research
Society (1956)
- A Picture Book of Sikkim Birds Gangtok: Government of Sikkim
(1960)
- The Birds of Sikkim Delhi: OUP (1962)
- Birds of Kerala Madras: OUP (1969)
- Field Guide to the Birds of the Eastern
Himalayas
Bombay: OUP (1977)
- The Vernay Scientific Survey of the
Eastern Ghat; Ornithological Section—Together with The Hyderabad State
Ornithological Survey 1930-38 with Hugh Whistler, Norman Boyd Kinnear (undated)
Technical
Studies and Reports
- Studies on the Movement and Population of
Indian Avifauna
Annual Reports I-4. with Hussain, S.A., Bombay: BNHS (1980-86)
- Ecological Reconnaissance of Vedaranyam
Swamp, Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu Bombay: BNHS (1980)
- Harike Lake Avifauna Project (co-author) Bombay: BNHS
(1981)
- Ecological Study of Bird Hazard at Indian
Aerodromes
(Vols. I & 2). with Grubh, R. Bombay: BNHS (1981-89)
- Potential Problem Birds at Indian
Aerodromes
with Grubh, R. Bombay: BNHS
- The Lesser Florican in Sailana with Rahmani et al. Bombay:
BNHS (1984)
- Strategy for Conservation of Bustards in
Maharashtra
(co-author) Bombay: BNHS (1984)
- The Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat (co-author) Bombay: BNHS
(1985)
- Keoladeo National Park Ecology Study with Vijayan, S., Bombay: BNHS
(1986)
- A.Study of Ecology of Some Endangered
Species of Wildlife and Their Habitat. The Floricans with Daniel J.C. &
Rahmani, Bombay: BNHS (1986)
- Status and Ecology of the Lesser and
Bengal Floricans with Reports on Jerdon’s Courser and Mountain Quail Bombay: BNHS (1990)
Trivia
- In his school days, the only award he won
was for good conduct, and the prize was a book, Our Animal Friends.
- Salim Ali wanted the Great Indian Bustard
to be declared the National Bird of India. The Lok Sabha however, chose
the Peacock.
- Salim Ali’s Fruit Bat (Latidens
salimalii), named after him in 1972 by the discoverer Kitty
Thonglongya, is one of the world's rarest bats, and the only species in
the genus Latidens.
- The Mysore Rock Bush Quail (Perdicula
argoondah salimalii) and the Eastern Race of the Finn's Baya Weaver
(Ploceus megarhynchus salimalii) were named, by Whistler and Abdulali
respectively, in Salim Ali's honour.
- The Black-rumped Flameback Woodpecker,
first collected in Kerala by Salim Ali, is named after his wife, Tehmina (Dinopium
benghalense tehminae).
- He was mentioned as himself in Anita
Desai's best selling novel "Village by the Sea".
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Salim_Ali_%28ornithologist%29&action=history
Yellow-throated
Sparrow
Salim Ali was born into a
Muslim family of Bombay, the tenth and youngest child. He was orphaned at the
age of ten, and brought up by his maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, and
childless aunt, Hamida Begum, in a middle-class household in Khetwadi, Mumbai. Another
uncle was Abbas Tyabji, well known Indian freedom fighter. Salim Ali was
introduced to the serious study of birds by W. S. Millard, secretary of the Bombay
Natural History Society (BNHS) who helped him identify an unusually coloured
sparrow that he had shot for sport. Millard identified it as a Yellow-throated
Sparrow, and showed him around the Society's collection of stuffed birds. This
was a key event in his life and led to Salim's pursuit of a career in
ornithology, an unusual career choice in those days. Salim Ali's cousin Humayun
Abdulali also became an ornithologist.
Burma
and Germany
Salim Ali's early education
was at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Following a difficult first year in
college, he dropped out and went to Tavoy, Burma to look after the family
wolfram mining and timber interests there. The forests surrounding this area
provided an opportunity for Ali to hone his naturalist (and hunting) skills. On
his return to India in 1917, he resumed his education, graduating with a
Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in Zoology. He married a distant relation,
Tehmina in 1918.
Ali failed to get an
ornithologist's position at the Zoological Survey of India due to lack of
sufficient academic qualifications. He however decided to study further after
he was hired as guide lecturer in 1926 at the newly opened natural history
section in the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai. He went on study leave in 1928
to Germany, where he trained under Professor Erwin Stresemann at the Zoological
Museum of Berlin University.
Ornithology
On his return to India in
1930, he discovered that the guide lecturer position had been eliminated due to
lack of funds. Unable to find a suitable job, Salim Ali and Tehmina moved to
Kihim, a coastal village near Mumbai, where he began making his first
observations of the Baya Weaver. The publication of his findings on the bird in
1930 brought him recognition in the field of ornithology.
Ali undertook systematic
bird surveys of the princely states, Hyderabad, Cochin, Travancore, Gwalior,
Indore and Bhopal, under the sponsorship of the rulers of those states. He was
aided in his surveys by advice from Hugh Whistler. Salim wrote "My chief
interest in bird study has always been its ecology, its life history under
natural conditions and not in a laboratory under a microscope. By travelling to
these remote, uninhabited places, I could study the birds as they lived and
behaved in their habitats."
Hugh Whistler also
introduced Salim to Richard Meinertzhagen and the two made an expedition into
Afghanistan. Although Meinertzhagen had very critical views of him, they
continued to remain good friends. Salim Ali found nothing amiss in
Meinertzhagen's bird works but later studies have shown many of his studies to
be fraudulent. Meinertzhagen later made his diary entries available to Salim
and reproduced in his autobiographical Fall of a Sparrow.
30.4.1973 'I am disappointed in Salim. he is
quite useless at anything but collecting. he cannot skin a bird, nor cook, nor
do anything connected with camp life, packing up or chopping wood. He writes
interminable notes about something-perhaps me... Even collecting he never does
no his own initiative...
20.5.1937 'Salim is the personification of the
educated Indian and interests me a great deal. He is excellent at his own
theoretical subjects, but has no practical ability, and at everyday little
problems is hopelessly inefficient... His views are astounding. He is prepared
to turn the British out of India tomorrow and govern the country himself. I
have repeatedly told him that the British Government haave no intention of
handling over millions of uneducated Indians to the mercy of such men as
Salim:...
Ali rediscovered a rare
weaver-bird species, Finn's Baya in the Kumaon Terai region, but was
unsuccessful in his expedition to find the Mountain Quail (Ophrysia
superciliosa).
He was accompanied and
supported on his early ornithological surveys by his wife, Tehmina, and he was
shattered when she died in 1939 following a minor surgery. After Tehmina's
death, Salim Ali was looked after by his sister and brother-in-law.
The following quote from
his autobiography clarifies his stand on hunting vs collection for scientific
study:
it is true that I despise purposeless killing,
and regard it as an act of vandalism, deserving the severest condemnation. But
my love for birds is not of the sentimental variety. It is essentially
aesthetic and scientific, and in some cases may even be pragmatic. For a
scientific approach to bird study, it is often necessary to sacrifice a few,
... (and) I have no doubt that but for the methodical collecting of specimens
in my earlier years - several thousands, alas - it would have been impossible
to advance our taxonomical knowledge of Indian birds ... nor indeed of their
geographic distribution, ecology, and bionomics.
Other
Contributions
Salim Ali was very
influential in ensuring the survival of the BNHS and managed to save the
200-year old institution by writing to the then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru for
financial help.
Dr. Ali's influence helped
save the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and the Silent Valley National Park. In 1990,
the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History (SACON) was
established at Anaikatty, Coimbatore, aided by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF), Government of India.
He took an interest in bird
photography along with his friend Loke Wan Tho.
Awards
Although recognition came
late, he received numerous awards, some of which are
- Padma Bhushan (1958)
- Union Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, a
rarity for non-British citizens (1967)
- The John C. Phillips Medal for Distinguished Service in
International Conservation, from the World Conservation Union (1969)
- Padma Vibhushan (1976)
- J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize
of the World Wildlife Fund (1976)
- Commander of the Netherlands Order of the
Golden Ark
(1986)
He was elected Fellow of
the Indian National Science Academy in 1958. He also received three honorary
doctorates and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1985.
Dr.
Salim Ali died in 1987 at the age of 91 after a prolonged battle with prostate
cancer.
World Wildlife Fund: Getty
Wildlife Conservation Prize Citation
The International Jury for the J.
Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize of the World Wildlife Fund has selected
for 1975
Salim A. Ali
Creator of an environment for conservation
in India, your work over fifty years in acquainting Indians with the natural
riches of the subcontinent has been instrumental in the promotion of
protection, the setting up of parks and reserves, and indeed the awakening of
conscience in all circles from the government to the simplest village
Panchayat. Since the writing of your book, the Book of Indian Birds which in its way
was the seminal natural history volume for everyone in India, your name has
been the single one known throughout the length and breadth of your own
country, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as the father of conservation and the fount
of knowledge on birds. Your message has gone high and low across the land and
we are sure that weaver birds weave your initials in their nests, and swifts perform
parabolas in the sky in your honor.
For your lifelong dedication to the
preservation of bird life in the Indian subcontinent and your identification
with the Bombay Natural History Society as a force for education, the World
Wildlife Fund takes delight in presenting you with the second J. Paul Getty
Wildlife Conservation Prize. February 19, 1976.
Writing
Salim Ali wrote a number of
popular and academic books, many of which continue to be standard references
for the study of birds in the Indian subcontinent. He is the author of
- Handbook of the Birds of India &
Pakistan
(Vols. 1-10) with Sidney Dillon Ripley, Bombay: Oxford University Press(OUP)
(1964-74)
Volume 1 Divers to Hawks
Volume 2 Megapodes to Crab Plover
Volume 3 Stone Curlews to Owls
Volume 4 Frogmouths to Pittas
Volume 5 Larks to Grey Hypocolius
Volume 6 Cuckoo-Shrikes to Babaxes
Volume 7 Laughing Thrushes to the Mangrove
Whistler
Volume 8 Warblers to Redstarts
Volume 9 Robins to Wagtails
Volume 10 Flowerpeckers to Buntings
- Fall of a Sparrow, (Autobiography) (1985)
- The Book of Indian Birds, Bombay: BNHS (1941), ISBN
0-19-566523-6
- Common Birds with Laeeq Futehally, New Delhi: National
Book Trust(NBT) (1967)
- A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the
Indian Subcontinent with Dillon Ripley, Bombay: OUP (1983)
- Common Indian Birds, A Picture Album New Delhi: NBT (1968)
- Hamare Parichat Pakshee with Laeeq Futehally (Hindi). New
Delhi: NBT (1969)
- Handbook of the Birds of India &
Pakistan
(compact edition) with Ripley, D., Bombay: OUP (1987)
- The Book of Indian Birds (12th and enlarged centenary
ed.) New Delhi: BNHS & OUP (1996)
- Bird Study in India: Its History and its
Importance New
Delhi: ICCR (1979)
- The Great Indian Bustard (Vols.1-2). with Rahmani, A.
Bombay: BNHS (1982-89)
Regional
Guides
- Birds of Bhutan with Biswas, B. & Ripley,
D., Calcutta: Zoological Survey of India (1996)
- The Birds of Bombay and Salsette with H. Abdulali, Bombay:
Prince of Wales Museum (1941)
- The Birds of Kutch, London: OUP (1945)
- Indian Hill Birds Bombay: OUP (1949)
- The Birds of Travancore and Cochin Bombay: OUP (1953)
- The Birds of Gujarat Bombay: Gujarat Research
Society (1956)
- A Picture Book of Sikkim Birds Gangtok: Government of Sikkim
(1960)
- The Birds of Sikkim Delhi: OUP (1962)
- Birds of Kerala Madras: OUP (1969)
- Field Guide to the Birds of the Eastern
Himalayas
Bombay: OUP (1977)
- The Vernay Scientific Survey of the
Eastern Ghat; Ornithological Section—Together with The Hyderabad State
Ornithological Survey 1930-38 with Hugh Whistler, Norman Boyd Kinnear (undated)
Technical
Studies and Reports
- Studies on the Movement and Population of
Indian Avifauna
Annual Reports I-4. with Hussain, S.A., Bombay: BNHS (1980-86)
- Ecological Reconnaissance of Vedaranyam
Swamp, Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu Bombay: BNHS (1980)
- Harike Lake Avifauna Project (co-author) Bombay: BNHS
(1981)
- Ecological Study of Bird Hazard at Indian
Aerodromes
(Vols. I & 2). with Grubh, R. Bombay: BNHS (1981-89)
- Potential Problem Birds at Indian
Aerodromes
with Grubh, R. Bombay: BNHS
- The Lesser Florican in Sailana with Rahmani et al. Bombay:
BNHS (1984)
- Strategy for Conservation of Bustards in
Maharashtra
(co-author) Bombay: BNHS (1984)
- The Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat (co-author) Bombay: BNHS
(1985)
- Keoladeo National Park Ecology Study with Vijayan, S., Bombay: BNHS
(1986)
- A.Study of Ecology of Some Endangered
Species of Wildlife and Their Habitat. The Floricans with Daniel J.C. &
Rahmani, Bombay: BNHS (1986)
- Status and Ecology of the Lesser and
Bengal Floricans with Reports on Jerdon’s Courser and Mountain Quail Bombay: BNHS (1990)
Trivia
- In his school days, the only award he won
was for good conduct, and the prize was a book, Our Animal Friends.
- Salim Ali wanted the Great Indian Bustard
to be declared the National Bird of India. The Lok Sabha however, chose
the Peacock.
- Salim Ali’s Fruit Bat (Latidens
salimalii), named after him in 1972 by the discoverer Kitty
Thonglongya, is one of the world's rarest bats, and the only species in
the genus Latidens.
- The Mysore Rock Bush Quail (Perdicula
argoondah salimalii) and the Eastern Race of the Finn's Baya Weaver
(Ploceus megarhynchus salimalii) were named, by Whistler and Abdulali
respectively, in Salim Ali's honour.
- The Black-rumped Flameback Woodpecker,
first collected in Kerala by Salim Ali, is named after his wife, Tehmina (Dinopium
benghalense tehminae).
- He was mentioned as himself in Anita
Desai's best selling novel "Village by the Sea".