Sitting in the tiny boat with the Old Man, we floated gently over the waters of Rajasthan’s Keoladeo Ghana National Park in Bharatpur. With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, I heard him mutter, “Quite amazing!”. A Pheasant-tailed Jacana was out hunting, walking like Jesus, atop the leaf-clothed waters. That was it. No further comment. I said nothing either. He had gently suggested we stay quiet and leave all discussion to when our birding was done. Moments later, a dark shadow flew low overhead and by instinct I softly muttered, “Jungle Crow”... only to hear him whisper in his inimitable style, “Unless it turns out to be a species new to science!”
Walking back to Shanti Kutir, the old Forest Rest House, Dr. Sálim Ali said, “You might have liked to say ‘I think it might be a Jungle Crow’.... because you never know!” He knew that I knew that his life and the destiny of the BNHS, was changed by the fall of a Yellow-throated Sparrow he had shot. (Google it to know the story)! Six years before he died, he helped me think through the process of publishing Sanctuary Asia: “I hope you own a bank because you will probably need it.” That was not dissuasion, it was opening a door for ‘a fool’ to peer through before rushing in.
Forty years later, here I am and here is Sanctuary Asia, published uninterrupted through wars, riots, bomb blasts, financial meltdowns, and plain fatigue. In our earliest days, the Old Man offered me every imaginable help and urged all BNHS scientists to do so too. And they did.
A month or so before he died, he pulled playfully at the skin of his frail arm and said: “This decrepit body can’t any longer keep pace with my mind. I suppose it’s now up to you younger people. You must promise to stand by the BNHS.” I swore I would. I did. I still do.
In the 1980s, he asked me to get more members for the BNHS. Through Sanctuary, I did, and its membership rose by almost a thousand within months. Today, I am again asking every member of the Sanctuary network to join the BNHS. By doing so, you would not only be protecting this Little Egret Egretta garzetta fishing along Pune’s once-pure Kavadi Path riverbank, you would be carrying a baton forward for generations who need to make the Old Man’s quest their own. Protecting India’s biodiversity is the finest way to demonstrate your love for India. Environmental protection is patriotism in action.
