The Zoo and the Man

photo credits: www.wikipedia.org , www.puronokolkata.com & www.english.kolkata24x7.com
Memory tags: Coming across Ram Brahma Sanyal

Of the ‘must see’ places in Calcutta of yesterday and Kolkata of today, one surely is the Alipore Zoological Gardens. Occupying 46.5 acres of some of the best real estate in the city with the address reading No. 2, Belvedere Road, Alipore, the zoo shares its locale with some of the most iconic locations of the city including the National Library of India and Taj Bengal.

In the early 19th century, British wanted to have a pleasant entrance to the Belvedere Estate, the then residence of Governor General of India. Therefore the Zoological Gardens were laid out with spacious green lawns, lakes and promenades. This landscape with its wide collection of animals and migratory birds in winter makes the zoo one of the most popular winter tourist attractions in Kolkata. Paying a ticket price of Rs 10-20 about three million persons visited the zoo in 2012 with the number touching to over 25,000 on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Alipore Zoological Gardens, the oldest formal zoo in India, was inaugurated to coincide with the visit of Edward VII, then Prince of Wales (1875-76). The initial stock of animals came from two private collections augmented by additions from patrons and were looked after by Ram Brahma Sanyal. I wonder if this name is known to the zoo’s visitors.

Sanyal joined the Alipore Zoological Gardens in 1875, the year of its inception after being recommended by King George who taught him at Calcutta Medical College and was superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. Sanyal was forced to drop out of his medical course due to eye problems and then became the ‘head babu’ of the zoo on a good salary (in those days) of Rs 40! He looked after the animals, the visitors, and kept a daily register of animal habits and behaviour. The then director of public instruction, Sir Alfred Croft was so impressed with Sanyal’s ability, that he set aside the prejudice of appointing a non-European as the first superintendent. Thus in less than two years, our “head babu” resigned from his government job to become the first superintendent because no European had his ability or qualifications! I wonder if Sanyal was tempted to keep notes on human behaviour at the zoo. And would it have been very different from today?

The National Library, Kolkata holds a book titled, “A Handbook of the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal”, printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press, published under the authority of the committee for the management of the Zoological Garden, Calcutta in 1892. This book came out of 10 years of daily note-keeping on 241 kinds of mammals and 402 kinds of birds by Sanyal. It was first collated for the lieutenant governor of Bengal, Sir Stuart Colvin Bailey who requested that Sanyal’s records be published as a handbook to help similar institutions.

Now comes what we would call today, a real cherry on the cake. Sanyal’s book was peer reviewed by WT Blanford, the then vice president of the Zoological Society of London (and ex-Geological Survey of India) in Nature (4th August 1892 issue). Not that Nature enjoyed the impact factor it enjoys today but it was prestigious enough (thanks to being British, BAAS and TH Huxley) to catapult Sanyal into the international arena. He would also publish peer accredited work in the proceedings of the London Zoological Society, write popular articles in Bengali for the magazine Sakha and a book for schoolchildren ‘Hours with Nature’. All this while supervising buildings for the nascent zoo and successfully overseeing a project to cross breed Australian cattle with indigenous breeds.

Sanyal very significantly used scientific methods to have the rare event of a live birth of a Sumatran rhinocerous in captivity. So rare was this last event that it was not seen in captivity again till 2001.The Times of India reported that the zoo would be taking up captive breeding of tigers and lions in 2014.A worthy continuation of the work of its first superintendent.

The story of Sanyal is quintessentially the triumph of ability, scientific methodology and peer recognition. The institution that he helped set up continues to occupy an important space in the ex situ management of animals, vital in today’s stressed and diminishing in situ management options. His most important book remained the standard handbook for zookeepers for over 50 years until Lee Crandall published, "The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity", in 1964. This is certainly his stand out achievement!

Should you want to read it, the beautiful ambience of the National Library is by far the best place. And may I say, establishments like the Zoological Garden, Zoological Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India, Geological Survey of India are part of the positive aspects of the British rule in India. So the next time it is your day out at the zoo, give its very interesting past a thought, protect its present and conserve its future.

Main resources:

1. Wikipedia
2. Staff reporter, “A big beautiful baby” Cincinati Post, 21 September, 2001 timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/alipore-zoo/;
3. Shamik Bag, “A long shelf life” 2012 www.livemint.com/ leisure www.nationallibrary.gov.in/