time. Most others gave up trying to keep
pace with him.
In the early 80s, he was focussed on
tiger pheromone research. For this, he
needed access to zoo-bred tigers and tiger
cubs for samples. I have witnessed the
struggle he underwent during this time.
The Alipore Zoo authority considered his
research worthless, a fellow scientist from
Calcutta University with close proximity to
Bijnan Bhavan in Delhi threw spanners in
his works and got his permissions to study
zoo-bred tigers cancelled. After much
trouble, he managed to get two leopard
cubs from a zoo in Madhya Pradesh. The
cubs were kept in a nature park in the
outskirts of Kolkata where they were
hand-raised. I was part of his team that
took care of the cubs and collected urine
samples from time to time, but soon the
owner of the park claimed the cubs as his
own property to deny RLB from further
research. But RLB persevered. When the
late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi
learnt of his struggles, she famouslyand many more. Using his personal
eight millimetre projector, he shared
rare fi lms collected from German
Universities on classic experiments in
embryonic developments and fi lms
on his own work on snails and more.
These visuals to the accompaniment of
poetic-narratives etched the wonders
of biological science in my mind.
He would share every moment of
excitement and joy, agony and anxiety
he experienced in his journey, away
from ‘civilisation’, to the heartland
of wild Africa. Here, in the Kora Lion
Camp in Northern Kenya, following
the success of Born Free (about Elsa,
the lioness, and her cubs), George
Adamson raised orphaned lion cubs
for release into the wild. His wife Joy,
the more popular of the Adamsons,
had been killed by poachers a year
ago. For weeks, after RLB returned,
we sat transfi xed listening to all the
happenings and activities in the camp.
With boisterous enthusiasm, he narrated
them, showed us photographs, notes,
drawings, and most importantly, the
fi lms he made using his eight millimetre.
We saw how the orphaned lion cubs
were raised, how the full-grown lions
would return to greet George on the
banks of the Tana river. Once he had us
in splits, as he described how romantic
it was to do ‘it’ every morning squatting
on a commode fashioned from elephant
jawbones under the open blue sky of
the African wilderness!
Every penny spent for that three-
month long trip had to be squeezed out
from his own savings, as well as for his
13 other such trips to diff erent parts of
Africa, the Amazon and Borneo! All this
was made possible because he lived
frugally and kept his requirements down
to a bare minimum, often surviving only
on boiled potatoes and eggs, buying
cheap clothes, relying only on public
transport and spending, if at all, only
on books! He was equally parsimonious
about the most precious of all resources
- time! I have never seen anyone in my
life who considered even indulging in a
10 minute tea-break as a waste of good
More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com | People
Prof. Brahmachary with legendary British wildlife conservationist George Adamson (right) at the Kora Lion
Camp in Kenya.COURTESY: RATAN LAL BRAHMACHARYRLB was basically a physical scientist who did pioneering work in molecular embryology and pheromone
chemistry. Yet, observing animal behaviour in the wild was his primary stimulus that enabled him to explore
the mysteries of nature.responded, “So you want a tiger cub?” and
she facilitated his research on tigers, both
in captivity and in the wild. Nandankanan
Zoo also allowed him to complete his
pioneering work on tiger pheromones with
the help of his students.
RLB was basically a physical scientist
who did pioneering work in molecular
embryology and pheromone chemistry.
Yet, observing animal behaviour in the
wild was the primary stimulus that
enabled him to explore the mysteries
of nature. Till his
last breath, he loved
wild nature and
breathed science.
They don’t
make people like
him anymore. tDr. Silanjan Bhattacharyya is
Professor and Head of the
Department of Zoology at West
Bengal State University.