“Ajay was a very important part of the Elephant Task Force that I had set up and that led to its being declared as the national heritage animal. Passionate scholar and fine human being. Learned so much from him,” tweeted former Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on the passing away of Ajay Desai in Belagavi in Karnataka on Thursday night.
In his early career, Desai worked as a scientist with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) on its Elephant Project.
His work ‘The Indian Elephant: Endangered in the land of Lord Ganesha’, was one of the early field guides on elephants in the country. Desai had several research papers on elephants to his credit.
Though Desai’s works were spread across India, he was close to the Tamil Nadu landscape.
The protected areas that are now known as the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) were among his early turf in research and conservation.
“Though he did his post-graduation in Marine Biology, he was drawn to the world of forests and especially elephants after getting inspired by people namely J.C. Daniel from the Bombay Natural History Society. A.J.T. Johnsingh, former Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, was among his early mentors,” said D. Boominathan, landscape coordinator of WWF-India, Coimbatore, who worked closely with Desai for about two decades.
According to him, Desai was one of the early conservationists who dedicated their lives in understanding elephant behaviour and elephant corridors. He was also among the early conservationists who studied human-elephant interactions in the Indian scenario and tracked jumbos using radio collars.
Desai was consulted by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department on crucial issues related to elephants. His expertise was sought for the capture and translocation of elephants nicknamed Vinayagan and Chinnathambi in the Coimbatore Forest Division, Arisi Raja in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve and a few others in the Nilgiris landscape. At the time of his demise, Desai was a member of an expert committee appointed by the Forest Department to study the elephant population in Tamil Nadu and deaths of elephants in Coimbatore Forest Division.
“Desai had great understanding about the spatial and the temporal usage by elephant metapopulation at a landscape level. He had the gift of viewing any elephant or ecological problem with a completely new perspective and was always ready to come with practical solutions. Desai was a great inspiration to all elephant habitat managers and researchers. The field of Asian elephant conservation has lost its foremost champion,” said I. Anwardeen, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Coimbatore Circle) about his association with Desai since 2007.
Retired forest official C. Badrasamy, who worked with Desai in the Nilgiris landscape for about five years, recalled that Desai always tried to remain non-controversial though he was highly resourceful. “His views were always acceptable to others”.
