Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali He was a renowned ornithologist from India. Due to his passion for birds and their conservation, he earned the nickname The Birdman of India. He was one of the first Indians to systematically study birds. Apart from being an ornithologist, he is the author of several books which make ornithology very popular in India and abroad. Absorbed in bird studies for his entire life, Salim did many kinds of research and discovered many things about them. Due to his diligence and affinity with nature, the Indian government honored him with various awards and titles.
Biography/Wiki, Caste
Salim Ali was born into a Sulaimani Bohra family on November 12, 1896 in Bombay, (now Mumbai) British India. He was the ninth and youngest son of his parents. When he was only one year old, his father died and at the age of three, his mother passed away. Along with his siblings, Ali was raised by his maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, and his childless aunt, Hamida Begum. From a young age he was very interested in books and spent most of his time reading. He was enrolled in primary school at Zenana Bible and Medical Mission Girls High School along with his two sisters at Girgaum in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
For his higher education, he entered St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Initially, he was interested in books on hunting, however, following the advice of his uncle, he began to be interested in shooting sports because shooting competitions were held regularly in his neighborhood. Once he shot a sparrow with his toy air gun, he showed that sparrow to his uncle, Amiruddin, who took that bird to the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) of which Amiruddin was a member. At BNHS, Salim met WS Millard, the BNHS Secretary. WS Millard inspired him to study ornithology.
Family
Ali was born to Moizuddin and Zeenat-un-Nissa. He had eight brothers. He married Tehmina in December 1918. Information about his children is unknown.
Career
He dropped out of St. Xavier’s College and went to Burma (now Myanmar) to manage his family’s tungsten mining. When he was in Burma, he became acquainted with JC Hopwood and Berthold Ribbentrop, who were in the service of the Burma Forest Service.
Salim Ali in Burma
In 1917, he returned to India and went to Davar’s College in Mumbai and studied Business Law and Accounting. However, that did not interest him and Father Ethelbert Blatter helped him a lot and encouraged him to study Zoology. He eventually completed a Zoology course.
Ali was unable to get a position as an ornithologist with the Zoological Service of India due to the lack of a formal university degree. However, in 1926, he was hired as a guide teacher in the newly opened natural history section of the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai for a salary of Rs 350 a month. Very soon, he tired of his work and in 1928, he went to Germany for further study, where he trained under the renowned ornithologist and professor Erwin Stresemann, whom Ali considered his role model. When he returned to India in 1930, he was again unable to get a job. Due to lack of employment, he and his wife moved to Kihim, a coastal town near Mumbai, where he got very close to the birds, studied the breeding of the berry weaver and discovered its sequential polygamy mating system.
Ali greatly helped the survival of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and managed to save a 100 year old institution. He wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, requesting financial support for the BNHS. Ali was the first person to introduce a systematic ornithological study at that time when no one knew the distribution pattern of birds in India. He helped save many Sanctuaries and National Parks across the country and some of them are Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, Rajasthan and Silent Valley National Park, Kerala, India.
Awards/Honors
- 1958: Padma Bhushan and Honorary Doctorate from Aligarh Muslim University
Salim Ali received Padma Bhushan in 1958
- 1969: John C. Phillips Commemorative Medal
- 1973: Ph.D. from the University of Delhi and the Pavlovsky Centenary Commemorative Medal from the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences
- 1975: J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership in the amount of $100,000.
- 1978: PhD from Andhra University
famous books
- 1941: The Indian Bird Book
- 1964: Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (co-written by an American ornithologist, Dillon Ripley)
- 1967: Common Birds (co-authored with his niece Laeeq Futehally)
- 1985: The Fall of a Sparrow (Autobiography)
Death cause
Ali passed away on June 20, 1987 at the age of 90 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
Facts
- In childhood, Ali was a playmate of Iskander Mirza, who was his distant cousin. After the partition of India, Iskander Mirza became the first President of Pakistan.
- His other uncle was Abbas Tyabji, a freedom fighter and associate of Mahatma Gandhi.
- When he was 13 years old, he suffered from a chronic headache for which he dropped out of his class.
- Ali was very fond of riding motorcycles. He started cycling with 3.5 HP NSU in Myanmar. Later, he owned a Harley-Davidson (three models), a Sunbeam, a Scott, a New Hudson, a Douglas, and a Zenith.
- In 1939, when his wife died, he became very depressed. After a few days of depression, his brother-in-law took Ali with him.
- In the 1960s, when the Indian parliament considered selecting the national bird of India, Ali wanted the great Indian bustard to be selected as the national bird, but the Indian peacock was chosen instead.
great indian bustard
- In 1967, Ali became the first non-British citizen to be awarded the British Ornithologists’ Union Gold Medal.
- In 1985, noting his contribution to ornithology, Indian President Zail Singh nominated him for the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament.
- In 1990, the Government of India established the Sálim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in his honour.
- The Indian government issued postage stamps in honor in 1996.
Salim Ali on a postage stamp
- In 2018, Indian filmmaker S. Shankar directed a 2.0 movie starring famous actors Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth. In that movie, Akshay Kumar played the role of Pakshi Rajan which is inspired by Salim Ali.
Akshay Kumar in the role of Pakshi Rajan
Categories: News
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
