Maruti Chitampalli Ji is a bird and wildlife researcher, naturalist, conservator, and a successful Marathi writer. He is known as ‘Aranya Rishi’ (Forest Sage) to his numerous nature loving readers.
Chtampalli Ji was born in Nagpur in 1932. His father worked in a mill and despite financial difficulties, Chitampalli Ji finished his education with the help of a scholarship. He was unsuccessful in college education but found his calling when he joined the Coimbature Forest College in Bangalore. After passing the course, he joined as a forest officer in Mahabaleshwar. This was the start of a 36 year service in the Forest Department of Government of India. After his retirement in 1990, he never relinquished his close contact with nature; thus his experience with the forests of India spans to an impressive 64 years.
During his training at the forest college, Chitampalli Ji noted that the theory courses all dealt with the commercial aspect of the forest, such as the length and breadth of wood, its cost etc. Even during his service in the post-independent India, most of his colleagues never even noticed the beauty of nature. In contrast, Chitampalli Ji was blessed with sensitivity of a writer, that allowed him to be one with nature. He once said, “I have never killed an animal in my life. How can I kill myself.” In the early days, he was often ridiculed by some of his colleagues because in those days, forest officers were not supposed to be bird watchers.
Chitampalli Ji has an intense curiosity about nature that started manifesting itself as he became accustomed to the job. He realized that many of the birds were known by their English names but their Marathi names were unknown. He noted that the Sanskrit language is a treasure trove for descriptions of birds and animals. So at the age of 40, he started learning Sanskrit from Pandits. Later, as he realised the great wealth of modern literature on birds in German and Russian, he started learning those languges as well. When Chitampalli Ji could not find names of sea birds, he went on a trip to the Raigad coast in Maharashtra, meeting fishermen. He would show them pictures of birds from English books and note down their local names, habitats, behavior.
Meeting noted Marathi writers such as G. N. Dandekar Ji and N. Kurundkar Ji acted as a catalyst and Chitampalli Ji started to write. His first book Pakshi Jay Digantara was published in 1981 and was a best seller. Since then he has been writing constantly. His oveure contains 21 major works, including Pakshi Kosh (encyclopedia of birds) and Prani Kosh (encyclopedia of animals). The former contains detailed information on 450+ birds, including their names in 18 languages while the latter has information on 500+ animals. Currently, he is working on Mastya Kosh (encyclopedia of fish) and Vruksha Kosh (encyclopedia of trees). Two of his books are required reading for BA/MA Marathi courses at the Nagpur University.
Generations of Marathi readers, myself included, owe their love for nature to the captivating books written by Chitampalli Ji.
I am in awe of the quality and quantity of the output produced by Chitampalli Ji. Can you imagine what an ardent task it must be to write an encyclopedia single handedly? Moreover, the internet or the AI are of no help here because the information in these encyclopedias is first hand, gathered from the 65 years research in the forest.
Sanskrit literature is full of detailed descriptions of birds, animals and nature, ranging from detailed descriptions of swan nests by the Vedic Rishis to the coded descriptions of bird behaviors in the Mahabharata. With his deep knowledge of Sanskrit literature, Chitampalli Ji made significant contributions in verifying these wildlife details. For instance, it was widely believed that the bird known as Chakor in Sanskrit literature is a mythical bird. Chitampalli Ji proved that Chakor is a real bird found in Nepal and Punjab and eats insects, roots etc. Or the famous Sanskrit saying ‘neer ksheer vivek’ that is supposed to mean the ability of a swan to seperate water from milk. Chitampalli Ji showed that this describes the behavior of a swan when it dips its neck to tear the lotus stems that are deep in water and suck the milky white substance inside. His detailed research papers on Otters, Gray Lag Gooseand Herons have been presented in international conferences.
While in service of the government of India, Chitampalli Ji went above and beyond his normal duties. He has made indefatigable contributions towards setting up and maintenance of the Karnala Bird Sanctuary, the Nagzira Sanctuary and the Melghat Tiger Project. He was instrumental in creating the bird museum at Navebandhgaon in the Vidarbha region.
The reason to write this artilce came from a Youtube video. It was an informal meeting of bird watchers in Bengaluru and in the introduction, they went into great detail about the history of bird watching in India. I was dismayed to note that they were unaware of the immense contributions made by Chitampalli Ji in this field. It was not their fault. Reason behind this omission is that Chitampalli Ji’s books have not been translated into English.
Chittampalli Ji has condensed his 65 years of first hand knowledge and experience of the forest into his 21 books, that include two encyclopedias. This treasure trove of knowledge needs to be translated into English and other languages, so that nature lovers in India as well as the rest of the world can benefit from it.
Chitampalli Ji has received numerous awards for his books as well as for his contributions towards nature conservation. The Adventure Foundation in Pune has constituted an award called ‘Maruti Chitampalli Nisargmitra Puraskar’ in his honor. Recently, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s highest civilian honor. It was a fitting tribute to a life dedicated towards preserving and protecting natural life and nature.
Information about Chitampalli Ji’s contributions is taken from his Marathi book Chakvachandan: Ek Vanopnishad.
Lead image : Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
