The people of the India have lived
for several thousand years in close proximity to its rich natural life.
Observation of birds in India has a long and ancient history. References to
birds can be found as early as 1700-1000 BC from the earliest Hindu religious
work, the Rig Veda, refers to about 20 birds, whereas Yajur Veda and subsequent
Vedas list up to 250, and include an interesting observation of brood
parasitism by Asian Koels . Not only poets described birds in their poems but
great rulers too were fascinated by birds. In the 16th century, the
Mughal rulers observed local birds and kept meticulous records. Humayun was
said to have stopped a hunt to have a painting made of a bird he had never seen
before, while emperor Jehangir’s knowledge of the devotion of Sarus crane to
their mates, and the behaviour of brood parasites like the Chataka or Jacobin
cuckoo, revealed his fascination for ornithology. In fact he even commissioned
several artists like Ustad Mansur and Abu’l-Hasan to portray birds with great
accuracy.
The scientific documentation of
Indian Birds began after arrival of the Europeans to India. At the start of the
18th century, as the Mughal Empire declined and the British power
grew, there were an increasing number of people who were fascinated by the
birdlife. It was around this time that Carl linnaeaus of Swedan started the
first proper classification of birds, establishing their scientific study
worldwide. The earliest book describing birds in India is attributed to Eleanyar
Albin in 1738. In 1830’s during his tenure Sykes published Catalogue of birds and mammals of the Deccan in the proceedings of
the Zoological Society in 1832, which listed 56 birds new to science, including
the Indian Pond heron. His list of birds of the Deccan included 236 species and
in A catalogue of the Birds of the Bombay
Deccan, he described several new species, naming many after Hindu deities.
There after many legendary works from the prominent birders of the time which
include Edward Buckley, McClelland, Franklin and Tickell from their work in
Northeast and the Bengal peninsula, and Vidal worked on the birds of the Konkan
and Travancore. After 1850, there came the magnificent, six volume Birds of
Asia.
Though the contributions of these stalwarts are considerable, the
inception of ornithology in India is credited to Capt. Surgeon Thomas,
C.Jerdon, Brian Hodgson and Edward Blyth, collectively called founders of
Indian ornithology. The next major ornithological advance came with the arrival
of Allan Octavius Hume, who is referred to as the ‘Pope of Indian Ornithology’.
In 1889, Eugene W. Oates and W.T.Blandford produced the first volume of Fauna
of British India. This included detailed observation on regions not covered in
earlier works, and were the most significant reference works on Indian
Ornithology. Baker’s important works included the eight bird volumes of the
second edition of the Fauna of British India published between 1922 and 1931. The first book, which could be used by birders
in the field was Hugh Whistler’s Popular
Handbook of Indian birds(1928).
This was then followed by Dr. Salim Ali’s
legendary work The Book of Indian Birds
(1941). This book stimulated local interests in bird watching and
culminated in the publication of the classic 10 volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (Ali & Ripley,
1964-74) which described 1200 birds from the area. The development of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in
1833 gave a major boost to the growth of interest in birds. Another well-known
birder was Zafar Futehally, who founded and edited the newsletter for
Birdwatchers in 1959 which encouraged amateur bird watchers. Recently a field
guide to Indian birds, Birds of the
Indian subcontinent by Grimmet, Inskipp and Inskipp, by three authors
turned many people into birders and made them fall in love with these natures
colourful beauties. This gave major ecological base to avian habitat
conservation and also about the conservation of the wetlands.
