Dr Salim Ali, the Birdman of India

Dr N Munal Meitei
“I suppose I have done my bit, it’s now up to you young people” Dr Salim Ali
November 12, is the birthday of Dr Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali known as the ‘Birdman of India’. He was born in 1896 at Mumbai and was a pioneering Indian ornithologist and naturalist.
Dr Ali was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrote several books that popularized ornithology in the country. He became a key figure behind the Bombay Natural History Society after 1947 and used his personal influence to garner Government support for the organization, establish the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park) and prevent the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park in Kerala.
Salim Ali was born into a Sulaimani Bohra family in Bombay, the ninth and youngest child of Moizuddin Abdul Ali. His father died when he was a year old and his mother Zeenat-un-nissa died when he was three. Along with his siblings, Ali was brought up by his maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, in Khetwadi, Mumbai. Ali’s early interest was in books on hunting and he took the most interest in sport-shooting, encouraged by his foster-father Amiruddin. Shooting contests were often held in the neighbourhood in which he grew up and his playmates included Iskandar Mirza, the first President of Pakistan.
Ali conducted comprehensive, systematic bird surveys across various remote and inaccessible regions of India, the results of which were instrumental in the development of ornithology in the country. He authored books including ‘The Book of Indian Birds (1941)’ and the landmark ten-volume ‘Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan,’ co-authored with American ornithologist Sidney Dillon Ripley. His autobiography, ‘The Fall of a Sparrow (1985),’ is a celebrated work that details his journey.
As a dedicated conservationist, Ali used his personal influence to advocate for the preservation of natural habitats. A yellow-throated sparrow is often referred to as the ‘Salim Ali bird’ and is symbolic of the incident that sparked his lifelong passion for birds. Several species of birds, a fruit bat, a gecko subspecies and institutions, including the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), have been named in his honour.
In his autobiography, ‘The Fall of a Sparrow,’ Dr Ali notes the yellow-throated sparrow event as a turning point in his life, one that led him into ornithology, an unusual career choice, especially for an Indian in those days. Even at around 10 years of age, he maintained a diary and among his earliest bird notes were observations on the replacement of males in paired sparrows after he had shot down the male.
Salim went to primary school at Zenana Bible and Medical Mission Girls High School at Girgaum and later to St Xavier’s College, Bombay. Following a difficult first year in college, he dropped out and went to Tavoy, Burma to look after the family’s tungsten mining. 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 study at Davar’s College of Commerce but later changed to St. Xavier’s College and completed the course in zoology. Ali went to Germany to study in 1928, where he worked under Professor Erwin Stresemann at the Berlin’s Natural History Museum and in his autobiography, Ali calls Stresemann his guru.
Salim Ali was not very interested in the details of bird systematics and taxonomy and was more interested in studying birds in the field. Ali’s interest was in the living bird in its natural environment and he took interest in the historical aspects of ornithology in India. Ali played a major role in the development of bird study through the networking of birdwatchers in India.
Salim Ali studied the perplexing phenomenon of bird deaths at Jatinga, in Assam. While local lore attributed it to supernatural causes, Ali, along with other scientists, investigated and concluded it was likely caused by the peculiar topography of Jatinga, combined with atmospheric conditions like fog and artificial lights attracting and disorienting birds, particularly during specific weather conditions and times of the year. This led the birds to fly into the proximity of the lights and eventually crash.
Although recognition came late, Dr Salim Ali received several honorary doctorates and numerous awards. The earliest was the ‘Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal’ in 1953 and he also received the Sunder Lal Hora memorial Medal from the Indian National Science Academy. He received honorary doctorates from the Aligarh Muslim University (1958), Delhi University (1973) and Andhra University (1978). In 1967 he became the first non-British citizen to receive the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists Union. In the same year, he received the J Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize consisting of a sum of $100,000, which he used as a corpus for the Salim Ali Nature Conservation Fund.
In 1969 he received the John C Phillips memorial medal of IUCN. The then USSR Academy of Medical Sciences awarded him the Pavlovsky Centenary Memorial Medal in 1973 and he was made Commander of the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of the country. The Indian Government decorated him with a Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1976. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1985.
Conservation efforts and timely interventions of Dr Salim Ali were crucial in establishing many Bird Sanctuaries and National Parks in the country and his work and legacy will continue to inspire conservation efforts and birdwatching across India and beyond.
Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel, email-nmunall@yahoo.in