Indian Writing

Dayita Datta writes about The Collected Essays of Salim Ali, recently published by Permanent Black:

Even a general reader will find much to learn from his essays on “Mystery Birds of India”, on vanished species — from the Jerdon’s Courser and Forest Spotted Owlet (both since rediscovered), to the Pink Headed Duck (still officially extinct). Or the 1977 paper for the Food and Agricultural Organization on “The Role of Birds in Agriculture and Forestry”, where he warned of the harmful consequences of drastic measures to control birds deemed ‘pests’ without proper investigation of their role in the overall ecology — and gave the now famous example of the eradication of sparrows in China. (In the context of the precipitous drop in vulture population in India, this is a salutary article, which deserves to be widely disseminated.)

Another series of articles he did on the Mughal emperors’ interest in nature can be read and enjoyed by all. There are also delights such as the text of the Maulana Azad Memorial lecture, 1978, delivered to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations: “Bird Study in India: its History and its Importance.” Who but Salim Ali could begin a talk to such an august body by recalling a humorous vignette of the great Maulana’s relationship with the sparrows which shared his prison cell during his long incarceration during the Quit India movement? Even a report like “Flamingo City Revisited” has a touch of his puckish humour — describing an uncomfortable camel ride over the Rann of Kutch, he wrote, “One had the curious feeling of suddenly being transported from the ship of the desert to a ship on the ocean!”