Dr.Salim Ali

Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali (12 November 1896 – 20 June 1987)

Born	12 November 1896 Mumbai, British India
Died	20 June 1987 (aged 90) Mumbai, India
Nationality	Indian
Fields	ornithology natural history
Notable awards	Padma Bhushan (1958), Padma Vibhushan (1976)
Spouse	Tehmina Ali

Almost every one of us is interested in watching colorful and distinct birds crossing us. But very few are passionate about studying them in detail. One such man who took extreme interest and excitement in studying birds closely and categorizing them was Dr. Salim Ali. One of the greatest biologists of all times, Salim Ali meticulously observed and documented the birds of the sub-continent for around 80 years, thereby making immense contribution to the field of ornithology. It was his phenomenal and path-breaking work in the related field that he was bestowed with the nickname of "birdman of India". Besides, he was fondly known as the "grand old man of Indian ornithology" as well. Such was his extraordinary work in the distribution and ecology of over 1000 bird species inhabiting South Asia that he created history and made significant contributions in conserving the fauna, which in an integral part of a mosaic of landscapes.

Honours and memorials

Although recognition came late, he received several honorary doctorates and numerous awards. The earliest was the "Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal" in 1953, awarded by theAsiatic Society of Bengal and was based on an appraisal of his work by Sunder Lal Hora (and in 1970 received the Sunder Lal Hora memorial Medal of the Indian National Science Academy). He received honorary doctorates from the Aligarh Muslim University (1958), Delhi University (1973) and Andhra University (1978). In 1967 he became the first non-British citizen to receive the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union. In the same year, he received the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize consisting of a sum of $100,000, which he used to form the corpus of the Salim Ali Nature Conservation Fund. In 1969 he received the John C. Phillips memorial medal of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The USSR Academy of Medical Sciences gave him the Pavlovsky Centenary Memorial Medal in 1973 and in the same year he was made Commander of the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. The Indian government decorated him with a Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1976. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1985.

Dr. Salim Ali died in 1987, at the age of 91 after a prolonged battle with prostate cancer in Mumbai. In 1990, the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) was established at Coimbatore by the Government of India.

Salim Ali National Park

Salim Ali National Park also called as City Forest National Park(in earlier times) is located in Jammu and Kashmir in India. It extents in 9.07 km² area and is positioned in the closeness of Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Inadjacentcontiguity, it is situated at anexpanse of 12 kilometers from the Airport of Srinagar.In the memory of SalimMoizuddin Abdul Ali, the renowned Indian Birdwatcher and Naturalist, this Park is calledSalim Ali National Park and was acknowledged as a National Park in 1992.

ABHISHEK SINGH