Hachette India

Sálim Ali For Children

Zai Whitaker

OF COURSE THERE WERE BIRDS IN THE BUSHES, TREES AND SKIES BEFORE SÁLIM ALI. BUT IT WAS HE WHO PUT THEM ON INDIA’S MAP FOREVER.

From being a trigger-happy airgun-toting nine-year-old boy to becoming one of the foremost bird scientists in the world, Sálim Ali did not follow a straight path. Somewhere along his adventures between India, Burma and Europe, he developed such a single-minded zeal for the study of feathered creatures that he spent all his time close to them.

Over the long course of researching bird life, in the days when there were no computers or internet, he wrote the first Indian field guide to birds, using just a notebook and binoculars.

‘Sálim Bhai’ – as he was widely known – had neither wealth nor connections in high places, but his passion for birds, a phenomenal memory and discipline made him one of the most famous ornithologists in the country and beyond.

In Sálim Ali for Children, his grand-niece Zai Whitaker brings to life the inspiring story of this brilliant, quirky man who left behind an incredible legacy.

Zai Whitaker

Zai Whitaker grew up in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in a family of naturalists, which was the beginning of her interest in wildlife and conservation. After college, she moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and worked at the Madras Snake Park and later helped start the Madras Crocodile Bank in Mamallapuram, and the Irula Tribe Women’s Welfare Society, Chengalpattu. She taught in Kodaikanal for 18 years and was principal of two schools. She has written 20 books, most of them for young people, on environmental issues. These include Andamans Boy, Sálim Mamoo and Me, Kali and the Rat Snake and Cobra in My Kitchen. She is the managing trustee of the Crocodile Bank, where she lives.