Salim Ali (ornithologist)

Dr. Sálim Ali (full name Dr. Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali), November 12, 1896 - July 27, 1987 was the pre-eminent ornithologist of India.

The Princely States

There were vast tracts of India, particularly the princely states whose avifauna had been little explored or studied. He offered to conduct regional ornithological surveys of these areas for the BNHS. He would give his services gratis provided the Society and the state authorities would fund the camping and transport. The princely states were only too eager to have their birds recorded for posterity, and they readily agreed to this novel idea. From there onwards he began his life as a nomad.

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Ali put into practice all that he had learned about field ornithology in Berlin. The working conditions were tough and not what an average young man from the city would have found ideal, but for Salim Ali, those were the best years of his career. The long years that Dr. Ali had spent in the field studying birds made him one of those rare Indians who really knew each and every part of their country, however remote or inaccessible. "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," he once remarked. Though those ornithological survey journeys were far from easy bird-watching sorties, Salim Ali's wife accompanied him and made camp life as comfortable as possible in those remote areas. She was not only his wife, but also his script editor, fellow bird watcher, and inspiration. For the next two decades Salim Ali roamed the subcontinent studying birds. There is perhaps no major bird breeding area on the subcontinent that he never visited.

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In 1939, Salim Ali's wife Tehmina died suddenly after minor surgery. It was a great blow. Her death was one of the greatest tragic experiences of Salim Ali, but perhaps it drove him deeper into the world of birds.

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After India's Independence from the long British rule, Salim Ali took over the BNHS and managed to save the 200-year old institution from closing down due to lack of funds. He wrote to Prime Minister Pandit Nehru for help. Nehru immediately gave the society funds to tide it over its difficult period.

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Recognition came late to him but it came abundantly. He received numerous awards including the J. Paul Getty International Award, the Golden Ark of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the golden medal of the British Ornithologists' Union (a rarity for non-British), a Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan from the Indian Government, three honorary doctorates, and numerous other awards. An unlikely parliamentarian, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1985. Dr. Ali's timely intervention saved the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and the Silent Valley National Park.

Related Topics:
British Ornithologists' Union - Padma Shri - Padma Vibhushan - Honorary doctorates - Parliamentarian - Rajya Sabha - 1985 - Bharatpur - Silent Valley National Park

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