Anwaruddin Choudhury


Anwaruddin Choudhury, M.A., Ph.D, D.Sc, is an Indian naturalist, noted for his expertise on the fauna of North-East India.
Choudhury is an ornithologist, mammalogist, artist, civil servant, photographer and author. He is recognized by many as an eminent naturalist and conservationist studying wildlife throughout North-East India and adjacent areas. He is the Honorary Chief Executive of the Rhino Foundation for nature in North East India and was Deputy Commissioner of Baksa and Lakhimpur districts in Assam and also served as Secretary with the government of Assam. He retired as Divisional Commissioner of Barak valley, Development Commissioner for Hill Areas and Commissioner & Secretary to the Government of Assam in August 2019. Known as the "Birdman of Assam", he was the first to produce books on the birds of different northeastern states including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. His studies have contributed enormously to the conservation and awareness in North-East India.
He is the author of 28 books and more than 744 articles and scientific papers.
Dr Choudhury is recognised as one of India's well known wildlife experts and conservationists. In particular he has spent three decades following the fortunes of North-East India's wildlife.

Life history

Early life

Born in Meghalaya in 1959, Choudhury initially studied science but received his Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Geography from the B.Borooah College, Guwahati in 1981, and went on to Gauhati University to obtain his Master of Arts degree in Geography in 1985. He obtained his PhD on primates in 1989. He became only the second person to get a DSc from Gauhati University, which was on mammals in 2008.
He married Bilkis Begum Mazumdar in 1994. A daughter, Dona, was born two and half years later in 1997. Later a son, Dino, was born in 2005.
Choudhury took up interest in wildlife since unknown childhood and continued with his love of wildlife and nature conservation.
From 1983, Choudhury is an Assam Civil Service officer holding various important posts such as Executive Magistrate, Research Officer, Sub-divisional Officer, Project Director of Rural Development, Project Coordinator of Shifting Cultivation control, Joint Secretary of Environment & Forests, Tourism; Director of Tea, Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate and Secretary. He was also empanelled for the post of Vice Chancellor twice.

Success in art

He has artistic talent, which; however, was not inherited from anybody. He had his first exhibition in Guwahati in 1975. Choudhury has published his artworks in various Indian and international journals, magazines and periodicals including a cover of the Oriental Bird Club Bulletin published from U.K. He has also profusely illustrated his books with his art work.

Ornithology

Casual bird watching took a serious scientific approach in the early 1980s. He started writing for popular magazines and started a regular weekly column as ‘Birds of Assam’ in an English daily The Sentinel published from Guwahati. The publications in local newspapers in 1980s brought him recognition in the field of ornithology across Assam but his writings in international scientific journals and his books brought him recognition in the field of ornithology far and wide.
Choudhury undertook systematic bird surveys in different pockets of North East India.
He rediscovered a rare galliform species, Manipur bush quail in Assam after its last record 75 years ago. He has made several new country records for India and Bhutan. He was Coordinator of Asian Mid-winter Waterfowl Census for Assam and was also coordinator for the North East India. He is also the State Coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network.
He has done pioneering path-breaking studies on the endangered White-winged wood duck and Mrs Hume's pheasant, which revealed their accurate range and status in India.

Mammal research

In 1986, he traveled to North Cachar Hills to start a two-decade long research on primates that covered the entire North-East India in later years. Little was known about the life of these simians in the wild until he started his writings on them. He has made several country records for India and Bhutan. But the most significant are discovery and description of three flying squirrels, new to science in 2007, 2009 and 2013. These new flying squirrels have been named by him Petaurista mechukaensis, mishmiensis. and siangensis. The holotypes of these are in the collection of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. He also discovered a new species of primate but identified it as a subspecies of Macaca thibetana. This was later on described by other scientists as Macaca munzala. Recently he described a new subspecies of hoolock gibbon. This has been named by him Hoolock hoolock mishmiensis. Describing new species and subspecies of mammals in the 21st century is undoubtedly very significant. He also revealed for the first time that the stump-tailed and pig-tailed macaques are restricted by the Brahmaputra towards west of their range. His authoritative works on the wild water buffalo have been published recently as the first monograph on this endangered species. His 432-page The Mammals of North East India which was launched in 2013 is the most comprehensive and authoritative such work on any part of India.

The Rhino Foundation

He is the founder Chief Executive of the Rhino Foundation for nature in North East India, a leading NGO of India since 1995. His pioneering work in conservation also contributed greatly to the awareness in North East India. His stewardship of the Rhino Foundation for nature in North East India as well as his other activities was recognised and he was appointed a member of the State Board for Wildlife, the highest policy making official body on wildlife in 2003 by the Government of Assam. The Government of Assam has also made him members of two other high official bodies, the State Wetland Steering Committee in 2003 and State Pollution Control Board in 2008. Prior to that the Government of India made the Rhino Foundation for nature in North East India a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife in 1999.
He was one of early members of the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the Bombay Natural History Society in North-East India and has actively contributed towards their activities in this region including wildlife surveys, awareness and identification of Important Bird Areas.

Conservation career

Dr Choudhury is a member of as many as nine IUCN/SSC/BLI Specialist Groups, which in itself is a major conservation achievement. He is a member of IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant, Asian Rhino, Asian Wild Cattle, Bear, Cat Specialist Groups, and IUCN/SSC/BLI Waterbird and Galliformes Specialist Groups. In addition he is a member of IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group's South Asian Network and was also with IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding and Small Carnivore Specialist Groups in the 1980s and 1990s, Choudhury went to the remote Himalayan region in Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan, and to the mountainous regions of Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, which are occupied by people of the Tibetan-Burman and Tibeto-Chinese ethnicity and who heavily supplement their income by hunting wildlife. Choudhury was there to study the vanishing wildlife as well as motivating the people for conservation with various amounts of success.

Conservation results

Choudhury's work in conservation has resulted in the protection of a large number of areas in the North-East India, more particularly Assam. Due to his work, at least 12 wildlife sanctuaries have been established, including Bordoibam-Bilmukh, Pani-Dihing, Barail, Bherjan-Borajan-Podumoni, Dihing-Patkai, Hollongapar Gibbon, Nambor-Doigrung, Nambor, East Karbi Anglong, North Karbi Anglong, Amchang and Marat Longri; and two elephant reserves, the Dhansiri-Lungding and Dihing-Patkai. He was also instrumental in upgrading Dibru-Saikhowa into a national park, inclusion of Laokhowa and Burhachapori Sanctuaries in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve and declaration of the white-winged wood duck as the state bird of Assam. He is among very few fortunate scientists who could implement their own scientific/conservation recommendations later on as a bureaucrat. Many of the above have been officially notified and gazetted by himself as the Joint Secretary to the Government in Environment & Forest Department. He was also a key member of the Assam Forest Policy Drafting Committee.
His writings in the 1980s also resulted in shelving of a railway project through the southern edge of world-famous Kaziranga National Park and World Heritage Site.

Other contributions

As a bureaucrat, Anwaruddin Choudhury was influential in ensuring a rural district of Assam to start e-governance giving transparency to the rural poor. He also took active part and partially succeeded in reducing social murders in the name of witch-hunting in remote areas such as Baksa district at the edge of Eastern Himalaya in Assam.
Dr. Choudhury's influence helped save many protected areas in North-East India from environmentally destructive developmental projects. The diversion of a National Highway from Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve is a recent example. he always spoken against such projects including mega dams.

Publications and Writing

Anwaruddin Choudhury has written 28 books and monographs, and more than 48 technical reports on the birds and mammals of North East India based on his own studies, and supported by long-term observations. He has also written more than 744 articles and scientific papers about wildlife and conservation. He has published significant number of articles and papers in prestigious journals such as 81 articles starting from 1988 in Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, 13 articles starting from 1987 in Oryx, 21 articles starting from 1983 in Tigerpaper, 19 articles starting from 1991 in Newsletter for Birdwatchers, 14 articles starting from 2006 in Indian Birds, 15 articles starting from 1991 each in Forktail journal and BirdingAsia, 68 articles starting from 1996 in Journal & Newsletter of the Rhino Foundation, 22 articles starting from 2000 in Mistnet, 18 articles starting from 1982 in Sanctuary Asia, 15 articles starting from 1996 in Environ. In addition he also published in Folia Parimatologica, American Journal of Primatology, Primate conservation, Journal of Tropical Ecology, Primate Report, Pachyderm among others. Nearly four decades, Choudhury's field research has helped shape wildlife protection efforts in India more particularly in North-East India.
Many of Choudhury's books continue to be references for the study of birds and mammals in North-East India. He is the author of:

Books and monographs authored

Choudhury's honours include a gold medal by Gauhati University, a medal by the North-East India Geographical Society, Forktail-Leica Award for Mrs Hume's pheasant study by the Oriental Bird Club, OBC-WildWings Conservation Award, UK for conservation activities in Nagaland, Community Leadership Award of ERD Foundation, Eastern Himalaya Conservation Award of Balipara Foundation, True Legend Award of the Telegraph Group and various prizes for drawings.