The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest
non-governmental organisations in India engaged in
conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...
and
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...
research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publishes the ''
Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society''. Many prominent naturalists, including the ornithologists
Sálim Ali and
S. Dillon Ripley
S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet.
S may also refer to:
History
* an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics
* Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...
, have been associated with it.
History
British hunters in Bombay organized a hunting group around 1811, their activities included riding with foxhounds and shooting. A Bombay Hunt was supported by Sir Bartle Frere from 1862. A natural history society was begun, possibly as spinoff from the Bombay Geographical Society, in 1856 by Doctors Don (of Karachee), Andrew Henderson Leith (surgeon), George Buist, and
Henry John Carter along with
Lawrence Hugh Jenkins, then a registrar of the Supreme Court. The group did not last more than three years. On 15 September 1883 eight men interested in
natural history met at
Bombay in the Victoria and Albert Museum (now
Bhau Daji Lad Museum
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum is the oldest museum in Mumbai. Situated in the vicinity of Byculla Zoo, Byculla East, it was originally established in 1855 as a treasure house of the decorative and industrial arts, and was later renamed in honour of ...
) and:
According to
E. H. Aitken (the first honorary secretary, September 1883-March 1886), Dr
G. A. Maconachie was the ' (Latin for "source and origin") of the society. The other founders were Dr D. MacDonald,
Col. C. Swinhoe, Mr J. C. Anderson, Mr J. Johnston, Dr
Atmaram Pandurang and Dr
Sakharam Arjun. Mr
H. M. Phipson (second honorary secretary, 1886–1906) was a part of the founding group. He lent a part of his wine shop at 18 Forbes Street to the BNHS as an office.
In 1911,
R. C. Wroughton, a BNHS member and forest officer, organised a survey of mammals making use of the members spread through the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...
to provide specimens. This was perhaps the first collaborative natural history study in the world. It resulted in a collection of 50,000 specimens in 12 years. Several new species were discovered, 47 publications were published, and the understanding of biogeographic boundaries was improved.
In the early years, the ''Journal of the BNHS'' reviewed contemporary literature from other parts of the world. The description of ant-bird interactions in German by
Erwin Stresemann
Erwin Friedrich Theodor Stresemann (22 November 1889, in Dresden – 20 November 1972, in East Berlin) was a German naturalist and ornithologist. Stresemann was an ornithologist of extensive breadth who compiled one of the first and most compreh ...
was reviewed in a 1935 issue leading to the introduction of the term ''
anting'' into English.
Today the BNHS is headquartered in the specially constructed 'Hornbill House' in southern
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...
. It sponsors studies in Indian wildlife and conservation, and publishes a four-monthly journal, ''
Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'', as well as a quarterly magazine, ''Hornbill''.
BNHS is the partner of
BirdLife International in India. It has been designated as a 'Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation' by the Department of Science and Technology. Its headquarter is in Mumbai and has one regional centre at Wetland Research and Training Centre, near
Chilika Lake,
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
.
BNHS logo
The BNHS logo is the
great hornbill, inspired by a great hornbill named William, who lived on the premises of the Society from 1894 until 1920, during the honorary secretaryships of
H. M. Phipson until 1906 and
W. S. Millard from 1906 to 1920.
The logo was created in 1933, the silver-jubilee year of the Society's founding.
William
According to H. M. Phipson, William was born in May 1894 and presented to the Society three months later by H. Ingle of
Karwar
Karwar is a seaside city, ''taluka'', and administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district lying at the mouth of the Kali river on the Kanara coast of Karnataka state, India.
Karwar is a popular tourist destination and with a city urba ...
. He reached his full length () by the end of his third year. His diet consisted of fruit (like plantains and wild figs) and also of live mice, scorpions, and plain raw meat, which he ate with relish.
[ He apparently did not drink water, nor use it for bathing.][ William was known for catching tennis balls thrown at him from a distance of some 30 feet with his beak.][
In his obituary of W. S. Millard, Sir Norman Kinnear made the following remarks about William:]
Image:Buceros bicornis -illustration in book.jpg, Profile by E. Comber (1897) of the great Indian hornbill, "William," who lived on the premises of the society from 1894 until 1920, and who would later be the model for its logo.
Image:William office canary2.jpg, Another photograph of "William," by E. Comber published in the ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'', 1897.
Initiatives
National Dragonfly festival
The festival was started in 2018 in order to inform the public about integral role played by dragonflies in our environment.The Bombay Natural History Society has been organising the festival since then in association with WWF India, United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
, United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...
and National Biodiversity Board of India. The local events which are the part of this nationwide festival are also organised by WWF India in association with various state agencies. The "Thumbimahotsavam" is a state butterfly festival of Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...
which is organised as a part of National Dragonfly festival.
Asian Waterbird census
The Asian waterbird census is an annual exercise undertaken in India by Bombay Natural History Society in association with Wetlands International, in which enthusiastic birdwatchers count the birds by observing them near their respective breeding grounds.The exercise is a part of 'International waterbird census', an international exercise. It also aims to create awareness regarding bird species as well as health of the wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...
s, which are facing severve threat amidst anthropogenic disturbance. It is conducted in the month of January every year.
See also
* :Nature conservation in India
* Conservation Education Centre of the BNHS
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Official website
*Mehta, Sarika. (18 March 2005)
The Hindu Business Line.
{{Authority control
Natural history societies
Clubs and societies in India
Organisations based in Mumbai
Animal charities based in India
Bird conservation organizations
Nature conservation organisations based in India
Natural history of India
Organizations established in 1883
1883 establishments in British India