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A Life with Wildlife:
From Princely India
to the Present
By M. K. Ranjitsinh
Published by HarperCollins
Hardcover, Rs. 799/-
Which is the animal that
has faced the maximum
decline after Independence?
Most would say it’s the tiger
(some estimates say there
were 35,000 tigers in India in
the twentieth century), some
would say it is elephants or the
teetering Great Indian Bustard.
M. K. Ranjitsinh though, says it is the blackbuck. In his
memoirs, A Life with Wildlife: From Princely India to the
Present, Ranjitsinh tells the story of many species – and his
observations may come as news to us. The blackbuck was
the “showpiece of the plains”, and has suff ered a dramatic
decline, he writes. In Saurashtra, the author estimates
blackbucks declined from 80,000 to 3,000 between the
1940s and 1960s. This is a pertinent way to understand
this book.
Ranjitsinh writes of all the wildlife he has experienced,
not just charismatic species. From elusive takins to tigers,
blackbuck to wild pigs and the critically endangered
Great Indian Bustards. His life provides a meaningful and
continued link between pre-Independence and present-
day India, through his personal observation as well as
participation in the drafting of law and policy.
That Ranjitsinh helped in drafting the Wild Life
(Protection) Act of 1972, and in carving out several
sanctuaries, is well known. What is lesser known are the
stories behind these actions. For instance, his memoirs say
state governments frittered away conservation ethics after
Independence – Odisha called for hunting of tigers even
in the 1950s, and other states deforested heavily. While
many may not agree with his pro-royalist views, the book
is a valuable account of how conservation was brought on
national and state agendas. There have been many ‘Ranjitsinh
committees’ in the National Board for Wildlife, several letters
to heads of government, and rewilding or reintroduction
proposals (such as bringing Asiatic cheetahs to India). Some
of the author’s interventions worked, and some didn’t. The
memoirs seem to suggest what counts in conservation is the
eff ort, rather than guarantees of success.
On the other hand, this is also a personalised natural
history account. There are vivid accounts of treks, jungle
walks, encounters with wildlife like bears and leopards –
and scars – gathered over the years. The author recounts
breaking into tears when he spotted a leopard in Rampara,
a cherished forest, on December 31, 2015. For the teeming
wealth of natural history knowledge and raconteur it
off ers, the tone of the book meanders and should have
had better editing.
For many a modern reader, a pertinent curiosity
would be – what does a retired civil servant and
additional secretary in the environment ministry,
sometime-hunter and an active conservationist have
to say about conservation today? One of the burning
issues is that of the modern hunt – many states
today wish to scour out and cull animals. This is
what Ranjitsinh told Sanctuary Asia, “Culling should not
be started. If an animal has to be destroyed, it must
be by the wildlife department itself. The reason is that
we are a country in which there are no halfway measures.
Either we allow full grazing or we close grazing altogether.
Regulated grazing has never worked. We have moved
from a hunting ethos to a protection one in the country.
If we go back to a so-called controlled hunting phase,
not only will it be hugely misused but the conservation
ethos itself may change. And it will provide the present
government an opportunity to undo whatever has been
achieved in the last four decades.”
There are, unhappily, some other repeats of history
too, chief being massive pollution and an absence of
responsibility towards environmental damage. The author
was present in Bhopal in 1984 when the gas tragedy
happened, though spared from direct exposure. The true
lessons of Bhopal were not learnt, and are still not realised,
the book avers. By going against Nature in creating
pesticides or poisons stronger than the last, we are creating
short term but completely unsustainable patterns; a
process we see repeated today, he stresses. The air of
Delhi and Mumbai, and many other cities, is testament to
this lack of sustainability.
This is an important lesson – problems are cyclical; thus
fi nding sustainability and solutions is even more important
and shouldn’t be brushed off to the next generation. I’d
thus recommend this complex but rewarding book not
just to the wildlife enthusiast but to anyone interested in
environmental decision-making.
By Neha SinhaBook Review