Salim Ali is synonymous with bird study in India. In fact, he popularised the science of ornithology — The Book of Indian Birds and Birds of Kerala are landmark contributions. The massive 10-volume The Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan that he brought out with S. Dillon Ripley contains a wealth of information and still is a reference guide to birders. In Words for Birds, Tara Gandhi has collected and edited Salim Ali’s radio broadcasts (1941-1985).
An assortment of 35 delightful talks, the volume brings forth the turns of phrases and the subtle humour of the astute bird watcher, delightfully echoing his famous autobiography, The Fall of a Sparrow.
Winter visitors
Bombay of the 1940s is way different from what it is now. In one of his earliest talks he notes: “Now we are getting into the season when you must keep your eyes and ears open for incoming winter visitors. Arrivals have already commenced, early as it is. I noticed a Whimbrel and a couple of Sandpipers the other day…; and many more are doubtless on their way. The majority of migrants, however, will not be amongst us before October. But the Wagtails and Pipits should be on our lawns and maidans before long, and you must look out for them. Mark the dates of their arrival and departure year after year and you will be astonished to find how regular and punctual they are with their time table.” There’s a tone of intimacy in his talks, as he takes off from the maidans of Bombay to the Himalayan ranges of Sikkim, the valleys of Assam to the Western Ghats of Kerala.
The editor has done a good job of dividing the talks into five sections — Watching Birds, Seasons for Birds, Learning about Birds, Birds at Risk, and Nature in India, which project the broad range of the naturalist’s eye. His concern for habitat preservation and protection of fauna on the brink of extinction is amply brought out in these brief talks. “What is now required is the understanding of the fact [that] human ecology is an integral part of nature conservation, and all who take a total view of life on earth must realise that man’s future cannot be considered separately from that other life…”
The talks revolve round intimate observations of bird behaviour, nesting and migrations, the science of bird watching, specific comments on human interaction with birds and mammals, the need for a serious step towards conservation of land and habitat, and are interspersed with personal reminiscences. To the outsider, the birdwatcher often appears to be an odd creature, and Ali understands why people may get puzzled: “Their first glimpse of me very often has, it is true, been of a shabby khaki-clad of the garage mechanic type, wandering leisurely and rather aimlessly about the countryside and surreptitiously peeping into bushes, and holes in tree trunks and earth banks….”He was sometimes taken for “a dangerous criminal.” Now, as a rule, he says, ornithologists are “mild and harmless individuals.”
As early as 1957, Salim Ali called attention to five vanishing species of Indian birds: Pink Headed Duck, Mountain Quail, Jerdon’s Courser, the Great Indian Bustard and White Winged Wood Duck — a warning we should have taken serious note of. In his references to the delights of listening to bird calls and songs, watching them flit through leaf and grass, the reader can sense the relentless aesthete, and similarly, when he highlights the need to conserve biodiversity and protect the natural habitat, we sense the urgency and call to positive action of an ardent ecologist.
Words for Birds: Collected Radio Broadcasts; Salim Ali, edited by Tara Gandhi, Black Kite/Hachette India, ₹599.
The reviewer is Professor and former Chair, Department of English, Pondicherry University.
Published - February 19, 2022 04:12 pm IST
