A saying goes like “If your passion becomes your work, then you will never get tired of it” which is true in the case of Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali or just Salim Ali as everyone knows. He is known as the “Birdman of India” because of the abundant love he had for birds. Pakshi Rajan of recent mega blockbuster 2.0 is inspired from the life of Salim Ali.
A sparrow which sparkled his passion:
Salim Ali was born on 12th November 1896 to the couple Moizuddin and Zeenat-un-Nissa as their ninth child. He had to face the sadness of losing his parents, his father died when he was one and his mother when he was three. He was taken care by his Uncle Amiruddin Tyabji, a freedom fighter, and aunt Hamida Begum, in Mumbai.
At the age of ten, he was very playful and was fond of hunting with his toy gun. One day Ali shot a small bird but as it fell down he became restless at its sight. He immediately ran to the bird and took it in his hand. Even though it looked like an ordinary sparrow the young Ali’s eyes sparkled to see its throat yellow colored. This ignited a sudden interest on birds which turned into a passion of his lifetime.
Journey in ornithology:
Ali’s curiosity towards the yellow color of the throat of the bird made him shoot numerous questions regarding that to his uncle. His uncle wondered seeing this and took him to W.S.Millard, Honorary Secretary of Bombay Natural History Society. He was also amazed at the interest of young Ali and shared his knowledge about birds with Ali. This inculcated more thirst in Ali to research about birds and their habits.
Salim Ali joined St.Xavier’s college, Mumbai but due to chronic headaches was not able to continue his education. He went to Burma to assist his brother in running Wolfram and timber business but the woods of Burma pulled him to feed his passion. As he returned back to India, he joined the degree of Commercial law and accountancy at the same time he completed his degree in Zoology too.
A sparrow which sparkled his passion:
Salim Ali was born on 12th November 1896 to the couple Moizuddin and Zeenat-un-Nissa as their ninth child. He had to face the sadness of losing his parents, his father died when he was one and his mother when he was three. He was taken care by his Uncle Amiruddin Tyabji, a freedom fighter, and aunt Hamida Begum, in Mumbai.
At the age of ten, he was very playful and was fond of hunting with his toy gun. One day Ali shot a small bird but as it fell down he became restless at its sight. He immediately ran to the bird and took it in his hand. Even though it looked like an ordinary sparrow the young Ali’s eyes sparkled to see its throat yellow colored. This ignited a sudden interest on birds which turned into a passion of his lifetime.
Journey in ornithology:
Ali’s curiosity towards the yellow color of the throat of the bird made him shoot numerous questions regarding that to his uncle. His uncle wondered seeing this and took him to W.S.Millard, Honorary Secretary of Bombay Natural History Society. He was also amazed at the interest of young Ali and shared his knowledge about birds with Ali. This inculcated more thirst in Ali to research about birds and their habits.
Salim Ali joined St.Xavier’s college, Mumbai but due to chronic headaches was not able to continue his education. He went to Burma to assist his brother in running Wolfram and timber business but the woods of Burma pulled him to feed his passion. As he returned back to India, he joined the degree of Commercial law and accountancy at the same time he completed his degree in Zoology too.
His passion earned him fame:
If someone says today that Ali was rejected for a post in Zoological Survey of India because he did not possess a regular degree, we will not believe it but it happened then. He has to join as the guide lecturer in the history section of Prince Whales museum for survival but he could not stick to it for long. So he took a small break and left to Germany, where he met Irvin Stressman, world’s famous ornithologist and worked under him. There he happened to meet a lot of similarly interested persons and gained wide knowledge about birds.
Ali returned back to India in 1930 but went blank on hearing that his position as a guide was removed due to lack of funds. He along with his wife moved to her village in Mumbai, which was surrounded by trees. Ali continued his passion and started his research on birds and started documenting them which came out as the world-renowned literary masterpiece “The Book of Indian birds” in 1941. It stood as one of the world’s best sellers for numerous years. This gained him a chance of associating with famous ornithologist S.Dhillon Ripley and both published a ten volumed “ Handbook of birds of India and Pakistan”, which is another great work.
Honors and later life of Ali:
India’s highest order civilian awards Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan was bestowed on him in 1958 and 1976 respectively. He was conferred with “Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal” by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1953. He was the first non-British to receive Gold Medal from British Ornithologist’s Union. He also donated generously an amount of five lakhs which he got through an international award for the development of Bombay Natural History Society, the place which triggered off his life as an ornithologist.
The country paved its respect for this great naturalist by establishing SACON - Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural history in the city of Coimbatore. Salim Ali bird sanctuary of Goa and Thattakad bird sanctuary of Kerala is on his praise. Puducherry University opened up Salim Ali school for Ecology and Environmental science on his remembrance. The Bombay Natural History Society was renamed as Dr.Salim Ali chowk.
Last flocking of a bird’s feathers:
Salim Ali was rightly called as the “Grand old man of Indian Ornithology” for his seamless efforts for a period of ninety years in the research of kinds and habits of Indian birds. The yellow-throated sparrow which initiated the saga became the title of his autobiography “The Fall of a sparrow”. He also contributed for the wisdom about regional birds in his works like “Birds of Kerala”, “Birds of Sikkim”, “Indian Hill Birds”, “Common birds” etc.
Salim Ali, who admired nature was absorbed by the nature on 27th July 1987 but his passion is retained in his works. 2.0 made us realize that the birds' population outnumbers the human population but how the wrong usage of technology is severely reducing their existence. Whatever knowledge we have on birds today is a gift of Salim Ali and we owe him for it. The best way to return back is to save and preserve birds because the world is not only for humans.
WRITTEN BY SOCIAL AUTHOR OF SLATEKUCHI: PRABHA KATHAMUTHU
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