Ram Brahma Sanyal was the first superintendent of the Alipore Zoological Gardens

Alipore Zoological Gardens

The Alipore Zoological Gardens is India's oldest formally stated zoological park and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has been open as a zoo since 1876, and covers...

 in Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 (then Calcutta). He was a pioneer in captive breeding, and was one of the first zookeeper

Zookeeper

A zookeeper is a worker in a zoo, responsible for the feeding and daily care of the animals. As part of their routine, they clean the exhibits and report health problems...

s with a training as a biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

. He was a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London

Zoological Society of London

The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...

 and wrote a handbook on keeping and breeding animals in captivity - A Handbook of the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal (1892) which was reviewed in the journal Nature

Nature (journal)

Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...

 (4 August 1892). This was the standard handbook for zookeepers for over 50 years until Lee Crandall published The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity in 1964. His scientific methods led to the rare birth of a live Sumatran Rhinoceros

Sumatran Rhinoceros

The Sumatran Rhinoceros is a member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant rhinoceroses. It is the only extant species of the genus Dicerorhinus. It is the smallest rhinoceros, although is still a large mammal. This rhino stands high at the shoulder, with a head-and-body length of ...

 in 1889, an event that was not seen in captivity until 2001.

Biography

R. B. Sanyal was born in the village of Mahula in Murshidabad District

Murshidabad district

Murshidabad district is a district of West Bengal in eastern India. Situated on the left bank of the river Ganges, the district is very fertile. Covering an area of 5,341 km² and having a population 5.863m it is a densely populated district and the ninth most populous in India...

 of present day West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 in 1858. Son of Baidyanath Sanyal, he passed the Entrance examination from Baharampur College. He came to Calcutta for studies, and joined the Calcutta Medical College, probably in 1870. He gave up his studies on the recommendation of doctors as he developed eye problems. Among early influences on his career was that of Dr. George King

George King (botanist)

Sir George King , was a British botanist appointed superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta in 1871, and the first Director of the Botanical Survey of India from 1890. King was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1901....

, noted botanist and the superintendent of the Indian Botanical Gardens

Indian Botanical Gardens

The Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden is situated in Shibpur, Howrah near Kolkata. They are commonly known as the Calcutta Botanical Garden, and previously as the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta...

 in Shibpur

Shibpur

Shibpur is a residential area located in the city of Howrah, West Bengal, India. It is well known for being the location of the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, the Bengal Engineering College and the Hazar Hath Kaali Temple. The famous Bengali linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji...

 (then the Royal Botanic Gardens), who was a faculty at the Calcutta Medical College.

Initial years at the zoo

Sanyal joined the Alipore Zoological Gardens from its inception in the winter of 1875 - 1876 as a casual worker, probably due to the influence of George King, who was a member of the Honorary Managing Committee. In the first few months, he was responsible both for the upkeep of the animals, and for looking after the needs of the visitors to the zoo. His hard work paid off, and by September 1876 he was made a "head babu

Babu

Babu may refer to:Place:* Babu District, in Hezhou, Guangxi, ChinaTitle* Babu , South Asian term of respect People*Babu , list of people with this name* Babù, Anderson Rodney de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer...

" (head assistant) with wages of Rupees forty (a significant sum of money in those days).

In January 1877 the Managing Committee decided to start a daily register noting animal habits and behaviour in the zoo on a day to day log book basis. Sanyal was chosen to assist three Europeans including Carl Louis Schwendler

Carl Louis Schwendler

Carl Louis Schwendler was a German electrician and one of the first proponents of the Tungsten based incandescent light bulb. He also published an influential textbook on telegraphs, and worked in British India at a senior post in the Telegraph Department...

, one of the honorary governors and original donator of the zoo's starting stock. Sanyal took a lot of notes and referred to the existing literature of the time, mainly to T. C. Jerdon's Animals of India and Birds of India. Some of Sanyal's duties were lightened when an additional gardener was recruited during this period.

Meanwhile, the zoo management was looking for a new superintendent, and in spite of Sanyal's prowess, were keen on appointing a European to the post. The minutes of the Managing Committee meeting held on 19 July 1877 document that:

"Babu R. B. Sanyal is unfit to have the job of the management of the Garden and that it is necessary to approve a European head keeper ..."

The committee was, however, forced to give him superintendent status due to lack of a qualified European candidate.

At this juncture, besides writing the daily register, Sanyal had to keep a daily account of the number of animals fed, quantity of food fed, and the cost of the food over and above all his other duties among which was feeding (sometimes handfeeding) every animal in the zoo three times a day.

Meanwhile, Sir Alfred Croft, Director of Public Instruction, visited the Gardens regularly and got acquainted with Sanyal. Impressed by his abilities, he offered Sanyal a job which Sanyal accepted, handing in his resignation to the zoo on 25 July 1878. The zoo management, loath to let Sanyal go in view of impending expansions to the zoo, refused to accept his resignation on the grounds that he was already in Government service, even though Sanyal's job was not pensionable.

Additional duties for Sanyal over the next few years included supervision of the new construction at the zoo, and overseeing a project (starting 1883) for interbreeding Australian cattle with native stock to improve the quality of the stock, both of which Sanyal performed efficiently.

Publication of the handbook and other writings

Upon 10 years of keeping the daily register, the Honorary Secretary of the Management Committee requested Sanyal to write a series of English articles on the basis of the logs he kept. The new Lieutenant Governor

Lieutenant governor

A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...

 of Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

, Sir Steuart Colvin Bailey requested in the Annual Report of 1888 - 1889 that the records of the superintendent be published as a handbook that could aid other individuals and zoological gardens. The findings of Sanyal were thus published as A Handbook of the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal in 1892.

The work was groundbreaking in its field, and was divided into two parts - one for observations on mammals and one for observations on birds. In all, the work looks at 241 kinds of mammals and 402 kinds of birds. It was reviewed by the scientific journal Nature

Nature (journal)

Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...

 in the issue dated 4 August 1892, and caused Sanyal to become known for the first time outside the Indian zoological community. The handbook caught the eye of the Vice President of the Zoological Society of London

Zoological Society of London

The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...

 W. T. Blanford

William Thomas Blanford

William Thomas Blanford was an English geologist and naturalist. He is best remembered as the editor of a major series on The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma.-Biography:Blanford was born in London...

. Nature published a favourable review of the book, stating that:

" ... on the whole we must allow that this volume is a remarkable production, considering the circumstances under which it has been prepared and that its author deserves great credit for the pains bestowed on its composition and for much valuable information contained within it"

During this period, Sanyal wrote a significant number of popular science

Popular science

Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...

 articles in his mother tongue of Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

 in the children's magazines of Sakha (18 articles in the period 1887 - 1890) and Mukul (18 articles in the period 1895 - 1900). He further followed this up with a second book Hours with Nature, published in 1896 for a target audience of schoolchildren.

Recognition

With the recognition of Sanyal in the zoological community, he published in quite a few scientific journals and attended conferences and was part of trips to other zoos in different parts of India and the world.

Among Sanyal's most notable scientific publications were three scientific papers published in the Proceedings of the London Zoological Society in the years 1893 - 1895:

• Notes on a hybrid between the Semnopithecus phayrei Blyth and S. cristatus, November 1893 pp. 615 – 616
• Notes on Cynogale bennetti Gray, March 1894, pp. 296 – 297
• On the moulting of the Great Bird of Paradise
  Greater Bird of Paradise
  The Greater Bird-of-paradise is a Bird-of-paradise in the genus ParadisaeaCarolus Linnaeus named the species Paradisaea apoda, or "legless bird-of-paradise", because early trade-skins to reach Europe were prepared without feet by natives; this led to the misconception that these birds were...
  
   with brief notes upon its habits in captivity, June 1895, pp. 541 – 542

In 1894, Sanyal visited the zoological park Jijamata Udyan (then Victoria Gardens) at Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 (then Bombay) based on an invitation from the Secretary to the Bombay Municipal Corporation. He submitted a report to the authorities at the zoo suggesting improvements.

Sanyal also took up the project of the analysis of snake venom

Snake venom

Snake venom is highly modified saliva that is produced by special glands of certain species of snakes. The glands which secrete the zootoxin are a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other vertebrates, and are usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the eye,...

, with the possibility of discovering antivenom with Dr. John Anderson in the period 1895 - 1896. He later continued this research alone in the final years of his life in around 1905.

Sanyal was sent to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in June 1898 for a first-hand look at the great zoological gardens of Europe, and attended the Fourth International Congress of Zoology in Cambridge, England in August. He made several important observations and built up a significant network of peers on these travels.

On return to India, Sanyal was made a Rai Bahadur. Sanyal also presented a detailed report on the housing, feeding and treatment of animals in European zoos. One of the most notable aspects of this work was to highlight the reasons for success in captive breeding

Captive breeding

Captive breedingis the process of breeding animals in human controlled environments with restricted settings, such as wildlife reserves, zoos and other conservation facilities; sometimes the process is construed to include release of individual organisms to the wild, when there is sufficient...

 in European zoos for species which had failed to reproduce in captivity in Calcutta.

Sanyal was also made an Associate Member of the Asiatic Society

Asiatic Society

The Asiatic Society was founded by Sir William Jones on January 15, 1784 in a meeting presided over by Sir Robert Chambers, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the Fort William in Calcutta, then capital of the British Raj, to enhance and further the cause of Oriental research. At the time of...

 in Calcutta. He often presented live demonstrations and gave lectures at the Society's monthly meetings, and placed scientific papers in the society's well-known journal.

Final years

Sanyal became widely known in zoological circles on account of his work and publications. He travelled to Yangon

Yangon

Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...

 (then Rangoon) to plan the zoo facilities there. In June 1902 Sanyal was finally made a member of the honorary committee. Failing health caused Sanyal to ask for a retirement by January 1906. The replacement nominated for the post of Superintendent was also an Indian - Pasupati Mitra. However, in late 1905, Mitra was called back by his department, causing the zoo authorities to extend Sanyal's stay in office by a couple of years. Sanyal continued office duties despite failing health - including hazardous and strenuous duties like working on snake antivenom, and conducting autopsies on dead animals to ascertain their cause of death.

In his final years in office, Sanyal outlined plans of acquiring animals from other places like South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

 and Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, based on a system of exchange and purchase. He died while holding office, on 13 October 1908.

Other activities

Sanyal was also a pioneering member of the Brahmo Samaj

Brahmo Samaj

Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of the Brahmo religion which is mainly practiced today as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1859. It was one of the most influential religious movements responsible for the making of...

, a Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 reformist movement of the late 19th century centered in Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

. Sanyal donated a large amount of money for the purchase of land for building the Brahmo Sammilan Samaj.

Ram Brahma Sanyal's seminal handbook was reprinted by the Central Zoo Authority of India

Central Zoo Authority of India

The Central Zoo Authority of India is the body of the government of India responsible for oversight of zoos. It is an affiliate member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums ....

. A biography of R. B. Sanyal was written by Dilip K. Mittra in Bengali.

External links

• Sanyal, Ram Bramha (1896) Hours with nature (scanned book)
• Kisling, V. N. (2001) Zoo and Aquarium History: Ancient Animal Collections to Zoological. CRC Press. ISBN 084932100X Google books