Book Review: Living With Birds

First published in Sanctuary Asia, Vol. 45 No. 2, February 2025

With improved technology and a much greater appetite among the young for books to remind them of the wonderful biosphere in which they live, it is heartening to see how many new, high-quality publications are emerging from within India. Here are four books that Sanctuary believes should be in every public library and in the homes of all those whose hearts beat to nature’s drum.

Living with Birds
By Asad Rahmani
Published by Juggernaut Books,
Soft cover, 350 pages, Price: Rs. 599/-

A disclosure! I have known my friend Asad Rahmani for several decades. We served together on the Executive Committee of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) for many long years, and while he was always best known as an accomplished ornithologist, I discovered close-up that his passion for nature enveloped virtually every aspect of biodiversity, from plants to species that lived in soils, grasslands, wetlands, riverine ecosystems, rainforests and coastlines.

An intensely honest and personal book, Living with Birds is a must-read for young naturalists and conservationists working to protect wild nature, for the sheer depth, horizons and India’s conservation history that it reveals. As Editor of the iconic BNHS Journal, which he edited for 10 long years, Dr. Rahmani’s many scientific articles have always been clear, original and on the nail. But I had no idea he could write as engagingly as he has done in his memoir, Living with Birds! In its pages, I also learned much about his growing-up years, which he never once spoke about in all the years I have known him. Also, about Aligarh Muslim University, where he, a self-confessed atheist, once taught, but which, with a touch of sadness, he now refers to as a ‘glorified madrasa’.

In the main, apart from avians, his book is a paean to the BNHS, one of the world’s pioneering nature conservation organisations. Not surprisingly, the many ornithologists and naturalists who helped build and consolidate the Society find pride of place in the book, including Dr. Sálim Ali, J.C. Daniel, David Ferguson, Dr. Gayatri Ugra, Isaac Kehimkar, Vibhu Prakash, Ravi Sankaran, Bharat Bhushan, and Rishad Naoroji, to name a few. Always a firm believer in the crucial role of women in protecting the biosphere, he singles out two women who he credits with consolidating both science and conservation for the BNHS: Dr. V. Shubhalaxmi, a Fullbright Scholar with an interest in moths and butterflies, who took charge of the BNHS Conservation Education Centres (CEC), and Neha Sinha, BNHS Head of Conservation and Policy, (now with WWF-India as Head-Policy and Communications). The marriage of science and conservation pervades the book in a subdued yet persistent way. For instance, the full support that the BNHS gave to the campaign to save the Rani Bagh campus as a Botanical Garden to prevent the hacking down of over 3,200 trees comprising 226 species in the heart of Mumbai was backed by rational appeals, alongside a very well-orchestrated public campaign:

The Bombay Natural History Society takes up a campaign only when the Society finds the issue important and we have sufficient reasons to oppose any so-called development project. However, the BNHS members are free to take up any campaign and BNHS supports them based on the merit of the case. One such was the redevelopment of a famous zoo in Mumbai… The proposed new plan had high-tech expensive facilities, (3-D theatre, auditorium, aquarium, 100 car- park, theme park, night safari and staff quarters) in an already crowded 60 acre compound. In effect, it would result in the cutting of hundreds of trees and removal of heritage structures.

When some BNHS members read this proposal in the newspapers they were horrified. One such group, which I named the Girls Gang, led by Hutokshi Rustomfram and Shubhada Nikhargwe, came to the BNHS for support... They even established the ‘Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Action Foundation’... Under tremendous pressure, the Government of Maharashtra scrapped BMC’s plan...

We are lucky to have members such as Hutokshi, Shubhada, Rene Vyas, Katie Bagli, and Hutakshi Arethna – all part of the ‘girls gang’.  I am proud that I gave every possible support to these passionate members of BNHS, who are concerned about plants, animals and the general public and the green lung of Mumbai. More power to them.

There is much more in this very rich book, including how, as Director of the BNHS, Dr. Rahmani worked with Major Arun Phatak (Retd.) to involve the Indian Armed Forces in peacetime nature conservation work.

Despite his retirement from the Army, Major Phatak had vast connections with Army officers, and the BNHS-Army engagement recommenced. This was not a PR exercise, but a genuine desire to collaborate with our Armed forces for wildlife conservation. For example, General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff visited BNHS in November 2021, one month before his tragic accident in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021. I attended the BNHS function and was amazed to hear him speak about Indian wildlife and conservation problems. His knowledge of wildlife would shame even a wildlife scientist – he was so up to date. His tragic death saddened everyone, including me, as I had interacted with him regarding the bustards in the field firing range of Jaisalmer and he had promised all help to BNHS in its bustard programmes.

Defenders of nature and defenders of borders have the same aim – to make our country strong in every field.

Before ending his book, a normally measured, almost reticent Rahmani allows his angst and pain to show when writing about the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), a bird he says changed his life:

As we confront modern challenges, we must ask: do we have leaders today who embody such commitment to conservation? The plight of the GIB serves as a poignant reminder of the need for visionary leadership in safeguarding our natural heritage. It will be a shame for the country if we allow this grand bird to go extinct in the coming years. We know what to do to save it from extinction but a firm commitment is required to protect its landscape habitat and to protect its surviving individuals from the network of high tension wires, which now dominate its aerial habitat. The plight of the bustard epitomises the threats, more or less similar, that many birds (such as cranes, storks, eagles and vultures) face daily. Signing biodiversity commitments in glittering international functions is fine, but the real work is on the ground where some hard decisions have to be taken.

Reviewed by Bittu Sahgal, Editor, Sanctuary Asia


 

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