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You are the "bad boy" of Indian ornithology? How did you
come to acquire that sobriquet?
I just love that reputation and work hard to maintain it!
I was born in Calcutta of mixed parentage. My father is a
Sikh from Pakistan and my mother, a princess from Assam, so
that was a pretty good start. I was, at a very early age,
sent off to a very famous public school in the Shimla hills,
where you were considered a sissy if you read a book. Unless
you beat your opponent to a bloody pulp at boxing, you were
not a hero. You can well imagine the fate of one who claimed
he was interested in birds! So I spent my early life being
a 'closet' birdwatcher. I hated those ten years in school.
University, by comparison, was a blast and after an indifferent
academic career, I sort of drifted into publishing where I
have been now for three decades.
My interest in birds grew and as a birdwatcher and publisher,
I was concerned about the lack of quality bird books published
in India. The ones available were terribly produced. Horrible
illustrations! The text, though outdated, was good. So I said
why not just get a few friends together and produce my own
bird book. This I did in 1993.
That hardly sounds like the kind of thing that a "bad boy"
would do!
Well, all hell broke loose in the Indian birding world with
the publication of my Birds of India. I was attacked
from all quarters of the establishment. Who is this upstart,
they exclaimed, who presumes to move into this sacred turf?
No Ph.D., no formal education and certainly not one of us!
They never reviewed my book; they hammered it. They also spoke
disparagingly of my efforts at seminars and in private conversations
(most were related right back to me!). In retrospect, it was
quite funny. The only people who were supportive were the
British birding press, which delivered brilliant reviews.
And great sales, I might add. Between four editions, Birds
of India sold over 250,000 copies. That's what I call
vindication. I lose no sleep over the fact that the dusty
bird 'establishment' in India still calls me names. What makes
me happy is that the younger (and infinitely sharper) lot
is at ease with me and I thoroughly enjoy birding with them.
You have yet another book on the cards, I understand. Do
we need one, or are you merely cocking another snook at your
detractors?
My first book was published almost ten years ago. I believe
it is outdated in terms of its look, information and images.
So, with Bill Harvey, I did a really big, "state-of-the-art"
Indian bird book. I'm talking about 500 pages, 806 species
illustrated and described, and more than 1,000 photographs
taken largely by Otto Pfister. I am delighted with the proofs.
We needed the book. I could never have cocked such an expensive
snook at people, even if I agreed for a moment that they might
have been worthy of the effort!
So when does Sanctuary get to review your book?
It should hit India within a few weeks. It is being published
simultaneously in the US, England and Singapore. A large number
of birdwatchers prefer photographs to illustrations. This
book is for them. I believe it is the single largest compilation
of photographs of Indian birds in a book of this kind anywhere
in the world.
Would Dr. Sálim Ali have approved?
God, yes! Don't you remember how he supported Sanctuary, when
so many people around him kept saying that it would close
down! Frankly, one of the enduring regrets of my life is that
I never personally met the great man. I have tremendous respect
for his work and without him, Indian ornithology would never
have risen to world standards. He left the nation an incredible
wealth of information, but sadly Lilliputs surrounded him.
Years after his death, I can see no one who shows even a glimmer
of his greatness (Humayun Abdulali might have been the one
exception, if his PR had been better!).
Where does this leave the Bombay Natural History Society
in your view?
I think its publication staff should do some soul searching.
Why, they should ask themselves, have the two great new books
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Grimmett, Inskipp
and Inskipp and A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian
Subcontinent by Krys Kazmierczak, been written by people
outside India? Pam Rasmussen, an American, is writing another.
I think it's time for the BNHS to move on and out of the shadow
of Dr. Sálim Ali. They need to show that they are capable
of original thinking.
Are you being fair to the Society? It is, after all, the
only really solid scientific organisation in the country with
an independent voice.
I think the current Director, Dr. Asad Rahmani, is an outstanding
field biologist. His tragedy is that he has inherited the
entire weight (and ghost) of the past. The BNHS is the repository
of all natural history knowledge in India, not just ornithological
knowledge. They should disseminate that information in a readable
and attractive way. We are now two years into the new century,
and have you seen the quality of the stuff they produce? It
is 20 years out of date. And the less said about the Hornbill,
the better. Unless the BNHS shrugs off the cobwebs of the
past (which is not to say it should discard its hoary traditions),
it is doomed and cannot move into the future. I really love
the BNHS, but my views on its current stewards seem harsher
than you can take, so I think I'll just keep my mouth shut!
Back to ornithology and birding. Where is it going? Is
it growing?
It's growing regionally. We are in the cyberspace age. If
you compare Indian birding sites, you will discover just why
people who cannot grow intellectually are condemned to irrelevance.
Sites like Nikhil Devasar's Delhibird and Sumit Sen's
Kolkatabirds are just brilliant. Aasheesh Pittie in
Hyderabad is another great birdman, as are a whole bunch of
birders in Bangalore.
Would you agree that we have too much birding, too little
defence of birds and bird habitats?
I totally agree. But many of the young people I have mentioned
are indeed involved in the defence of some of the lesser-known
areas like Basai, outside Delhi. But if I were to be asked
who has really defended birds all these years, I would point
to people like you through Sanctuary, Belinda Wright
and her Wildlife Protection Society and Valmik Thapar, whose
zealous tiger fixation has saved god alone knows how many
birds!
But you have it in for us too, don't you? "Tigerwallahs"
I have often heard you refer to us dismissively!
Do you deny that the wildlife movement in India is far too
tiger and mega-fauna centric? Talking tigers works fine for
the birds of Corbett or Ranthambhore. But where does it leave
the Great Indian Bustard or the Double-banded Courser? I think
Dr. Rahmani and J.C. Daniel would actually side with me on
this one!
Bikram, we are going to steer far from the BNHS for a while!
Tell me a bit about the joy of birding. Which are your favourite
birding destinations?
That's like asking which child I love the most! Several. All
sadly under serious threat. For waterbirds, I'd say Hokarsar
and Wular in Kashmir, Chilika in Orissa, Point Calimere in
Tamil Nadu and, of course, the one and only Ghana in Bharatpur.
But what really drives me wild are forest birds. So much so
that I have, in fact, built a house on the Tons river between
Dehradun and Mussoorie. Only someone who goes birding in the
Lower Himalayas, the northeast or the Western and Eastern
Ghats will know what I mean.
Are you still looking for the Mountain Quail here?
We all live in hope. The Jerdon's Courser and the Forest Spotted
Owlet were rediscovered, after all. I am told that a few people
have mounted a search for the Mountain Quail (now known as
the Himalayan Quail). Where my home is situated is precisely
where this elusive quail was found 100 years ago. Perhaps,
I will spot it while out walking one morning. Now that would
surely set some tails on fire! On a more serious note, I think
that the search for species, which have been presumed extinct
would revitalise the natural history establishment.
Is the Pink-headed Duck going to pop up somewhere too?
No. I believe that the Pink-headed Duck is lost to us forever.
The last authentic record was in 1935 from Darbhanga, Bihar.
It was never abundant and current 'discoverers' mistakenly
talk about the Red-crested Pochard, to which it bears a very
superficial resemblance. Some intriguing sighting claims,
however, are coming out of Upper Myanmar, which is (ornithologically)
hopelessly under-explored.
A lesser-known fact is that just one specimen of the Large-billed
Reed Warbler Acrocephalus orinus actually exists! A.O.
Hume reportedly collected one specimen in the Sutlej Valley
in Himachal Pradesh in the mid-1800s and till this year, experts
felt that Hume's bird was possibly an aberrant form of a known
species. Recent research suggests otherwise. The bird's status
remains unknown, but its short wings indicate that it could
be a resident, or short-distance migrant. Orinus is probably
beyond redemption, but I am convinced that there are yet-to-be-discovered
birds lurking in the Eastern Ghats and the northeast. Habitat
loss in places like Lava, West Bengal is killing birds. We
could well be killing off new species before even discovering
them in places like Darjeeling and Sikkim.
So what are the key problems facing birds? And in which direction
do we search for solutions?
The problems are pretty much what they were before. But the
situation is getting more acute by the day. I'd say that deforestation
is the single most serious threat today, followed closely
by toxic contamination. The statistics do not make happy reading.
Half of India's natural forests have disappeared, 70 per cent
of the water bodies are polluted and 40 per cent of mangroves
have been cut. The felling of tall trees in moist deciduous
and evergreen forests has affected hornbills in particular.
Similarly, Adjutant Storks are losing nesting sites much too
fast. The massive deforestation in the Andaman and Nicobar
has affected the status of the megapode, the only one found
in our territorial limits. The Nicobar Pigeon too is on its
last legs. The destruction and conversion of grasslands has
rendered the future of the Great Indian Bustard and the two
floricans very doubtful at best. Draining water bodies seriously
affects the White-winged Wood Duck, which already has the
dubious distinction of being the rarest duck in India.
Why has so little work been done on toxics by ornithologists?
Because they clump together in small insecure clubs and suffer
from acute myopia! The impact of pesticides on falcons has
been known for decades. Have Indian ornithologists and field
biologists been sleeping? They should have been raising hell
about pesticides, organochlorine contamination and endocrine
disruptions. These affect the breeding biology of birds. What
could be more basic to bird studies than this? What is more,
as Rachel Carson showed us, birds are the early indicators
of chemicals in our own bodies.
They say that this is the task of activists and that the
scientists' job is done the moment the facts are pointed out.
By this token Dr. Sálim Ali should not have fought for Silent
Valley. Rachel Carson should not have fought the pesticide
and chemical companies. Dr. Rosalie Bertell should not be
fighting the nuclear industry. Just take one look at the holy
Yamuna in Delhi, or the Ganga. If this is how you treat your
goddesses, what hope is there for birds? Unless scientists
look beyond funding for their next projects, or lucrative
consultancies from the very sources that damage the environment,
we will see DDT, aldrin and other chemicals kill the Sarus
Crane. Even common species like sparrows might vanish. I am
not even going to talk about vultures!
This hardly sounds like the Bikram Grewal I know. Are you
trying to ruin your "bad boy" image by turning politically
active?
Not by a long shot! Maybe some of your own anger has rubbed
off on me! I'll probably be normal by tomorrow!
What does the future hold for India's birds?
As the song suggests, que sera sera! What will be,
will be. It's very mixed, I'm afraid. The good news is that
more and more young people are taking to birdwatching. More
binoculars are floating around. Birds like Stoliczka's Bushchat
and the Sind Sparrow are being seen around Delhi. These raise
questions. Were they always there and overlooked, or are the
changes in habitat drawing them close to Delhi? The resultant
debate can only add to our knowledge. The bad news is that
birds continue to be accorded the lowest priority, even among
conservationists. Like I said earlier, there is a Project
Tiger and a Project Elephant, but who looks after the birds?
The extinction of the tragopans will be no less a tragedy
than the death of the last cheetah.
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