“Billy” Arjan Singh: End of an Era

3 January, 2009

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“Billy” Arjan Singh: End of an Era

Sunday, Jan 03, 2010

Eminent wildlife activist and author Billy Arjan Singh died at his home in Lakhimpur Kheri late on Friday night. Singh, whose house ‘Tiger Haven’ was situated in the vicinity of the Dudhwa National Park, was ailing for quite some time. He was 94.




Photo credits: Ashish and Shanthi Chandola

A wildlife enthusiast who was known for his work on the big cats, Singh was born in Gorakhpur district in eastern UP. A scion of the Ahluwalia royal family from Kapurthala, Singh was a second lieutenant with the British Indian Army and fought the second World War in 1946. After returning to India, he purchased a small farmland in Lakhimpur Kheri district near the forest area, and created his house naming it Tiger Haven. The forest area was later developed as the Dudhwa Wildlife Sanctuary, with Singh said to have played a major role in it.

Singh had been conferred with a number of national and international awards for his wildlife conservation efforts. The Indian government presented him with the Padma Shri in 1995 and the Padma Bhushan in 2006. In 2004, the World Wildlife Fund conferred on him the J Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to international conservation. The Uttar Pradesh government had also conferred the Yash Bharti award on him.

A Personal Note:

“Billy” Arjan Singh’s amazing spirit has been released from its earthly existence. He was 94.

I first met him when I was a student in La Martiniere for Boys, in Kolkata. He had come to town for a screening of the film The Leopard that Changed its Spots. I saw the film - at the Tollygunge Club, I think - and heard him speak.

Thanks probably to my father P.K Ghosh who was with WWF’s Eastern India committee at the time, and also probably to Belinda Wright and her parents Bob and Anne, I was given an interview with him for a class magazine of which I was the editor.

The magazine was a 6-page cyclostyled job, but we worked hard at it and brought out two issues. Interviewing “Billy” Arjan Singh was a major highlight. That counts as the first interview ever, of my journalistic career.

I was impressed that he even had the time of day for me. I was in awe of this man with the muscled arms, whose personality exuded the raw spirit of the Uttar Pradesh wilderness - which I knew something of even as a boy, having travelled widely in jungle areas thanks to my father. He was both a hands-on field man, and a visionary conservationist.

I saw or met him sporadically, a few times in subsequent years. I devoured his books. I cannot claim to have known him well, but close friends of mine have been close to him, and I always heard of him and how he was doing, and followed his battles to save the tigers of Dudhwa.

A few years ago on the way back to New Delhi from Corbett Tiger Reserve, a friend read out passages from his first book Tiger Haven which had made such an impression on my teenage mind. I was struck by the fact that three decades later, almost everything he said in that book was still true.

We owe a huge debt to “Billy” Arjan Singh, for having inspired us and so many. In journalism and other fields, it is often said that if you are unpopular or controversial, you are probably doing something right. “Billy” Arjan Singh epitomized that quality. He was the true conservation hero, a pioneer, fearless and uncompromising.

There is little else to say except that the wildlife conservation community must live up to his example. We owe it to his brave and indomitable spirit, which perhaps still watches over the wilderness he loved so well and fought for, like a tiger, tooth and nail.

- Nirmal Ghosh