Salim Ali Born (1896)

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian conservationist born on November 12, 1896 (died 1987).  Ali became one of the world’s foremost ornithologists, earning the moniker “The Birdman of India.”

Ali was born in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the youngest of nine siblings.  As a boy of ten, he shot a bird with an air gun.  He realized it wasn’t a common House Sparrow and asked his uncle to help identify the bird.  His uncle took him to the director of the Bombay Natural History Society, who identified it as a Yellow-throated Sparrow and showed the young Ali around the museum.  Ali was hooked—he became a regular at the museum and from then on birds were central to his life.

He was educated for business, however, and moved to Burma for several years to help develop his family’s tungsten mines.  He chose that assignment on purpose:  “I took the opportunity in Burma where the mining business was all in thick forest….That part of the country…was particularly good for birds.”

His interest in ornithology took him on a rambling life journey.  He studied zoology, but never completed a degree.  He was a guide and lecturer at a new Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai.  He traveled to Germany for two years to study birds and learn bird-banding.  He spent some years in a coastal community where he studied the nesting habits of weaverbirds—a topic that he later said was his most rewarding—and rediscovered a species of weaverbird thought extinct.

As his reputation as an ornithologist grew, he received opportunities to survey bird populations and behavior in many regions of India.  This was heaven to him.  Never a fan of taxonomy and nomenclature, he thrived on the observation of living birds in nature.  “I feel strongly like retiring from ornithology, if this is the stuff, and spending the rest of my days in the peace of the wilderness with birds, and away from the dust and frenzy of taxonomical warfare.”

He did not retire from ornithology, but made it his own.  Among many publications, he produced two seminal works.  First was The Book of Indian Birds, a popular book that raised interest in the observation and conservation of birds.  Second was the authoritative 10-volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, which he co-authored with S. Dillon Ripley, who would go on to become the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Ali became one of India’s most prominent conservationists.  He consulted with the governments of Jawaharlal Nehru, convincing him to continue support of the Bombay Natural History Society, and Indira Gandhi, who made him an Elder of the government.  He fought successfully for the protection of the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and Silent Valley National Park.

For his ninety years of dedication to conservation, Ali was honored with the highest recognitions from around the world.  He received both the second and third highest civilian awards in India, and was the first foreigner to receive the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists’ Union.  He was honored by the Soviet Union, the United States, the Netherlands and the IUCN.  Several bird species, bird sanctuaries and institutions are named after him.

Yet neither awards nor reputation motivated him.  Birds did.  A short film of his life ended this way:  “In the autumn of his life, yet young at heart, Salim Ali is out all the time, walking, looking, listening.  In the company of birds, he is never lonely….for to be with birds is very heaven.”

References:

Maps of India.  12 November 1896:  Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist and naturalist, was born.  Available at:  https://www.mapsofindia.com/on-this-day/12th-november-1896-salim-ali-indian-ornithologist-and-naturalist-was-born.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

New York Times.  1987.  Salim Ali Dies in India; Authority on Wildlife.  New York Times, June 21, 1987.  Available at:  http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/obituaries/salim-ali-dies-in-india-authority-on-wildlife.html.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

The Famous People.  Salim Ali.  Available at:  https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/salim-ali-7423.php.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

The Logican Indian.  2016.  Meet Salim Ali – The Birdman of India.  April 1st, 2016.  Available at:  https://thelogicalindian.com/rewind/meet-salim-ali-the-birdman-of-india/.  Accessed November 10, 2017.

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December 1
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December 2
International Whaling Commission Created (1946)
December 3
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December 4
Eastern Steller Sea Lion De-listed (2013)
December 5
World Soil Day
December 6
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December 7
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December 8
American Bird Banding Association Formed (1909)
December 9
Wupatki National Monument Created (1924)
December 10
Olivier Messiaen Born (1908)
December 11
International Mountain Day
December 12
Paris Climate Agreement Adopted (2015)
December 13
Baiji Porpoise Declared Extinct (2006)
December 14
World Monkey Day
December 15
Chico Mendes Born (1944)
December 16
Carol Browner, 8th EPA Administrator, Born (1955)
December 17
Alexander Agassiz, Pioneering Oceanographer, Born (1835)
December 18
First Commercial Nuclear Energy Produced (1957)
December 19
Richard Leakey, Kenyan Conservationist, Born (1944)
December 20
Earliest Date for Winter Solstice
December 20
“It’s A Wonderful Life” Released (1946)
December 21
Trevor Kincaid Born (1872)
December 21
Dr. Robert Bullard, Father of Environmental Justice, Born (1946)
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Ruth Yeoh, Malaysian Environmentalist, Born (1982)
December 22
Lady Bird Johnson, Environmental First Lady, Born (1912)
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Times Beach, Missouri, Declared Uninhabitable
December 24
The Christmas Tree
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December 26
UN Convention to Combat Desertification Began (1996)
December 27
Second Voyage of the Beagle Began (1831)
December 28
Endangered Species Act Enacted (1973)
December 29
Convention on Biological Diversity Began (1993)
December 30
Six Geese A-Laying
December 31
John Denver, Singer-Songwriter and Conservationist, Born (1943)
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