Raol Shree Dharmakumarsinhji (April 1917 – January 1986) was an Indian ornithologist, environmentalist and writer as well as a ruling prince. His elder brother

Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Colonel Maharaja Raol Sir Shri Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavsinhji KCSI (19 May 1912 – 2 April 1965) was an Indian king and politician, the last ruling Maharaja of the Gohil dynasty, who ruled Bhavnagar State from 1919 to 1948 and also served ...

was the last

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

of the

Bhavnagar State Bhavnagar State was a princely state with 13 Gun Salutes during the British Raj. It was part of Kathiawar Agency in Saurashtra. The State of Bhavnagar covered an area of 2,961 sq. miles and had a population of 618,429 in 1941. Its ruler ...

in western India.

Early years

Orphaned at the age of two, Dharmakumarsinhji studied under an English tutor before attending Rajkumar College in

Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat after Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, and is in the centre of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Rajkot is the 35th-largest metropolitan area in India, with a population of ...

. He then joined

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

in England, where he became the under-14

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

champion.

Ornithology

Dharmakumarsinhji had wide-ranging interests and talents. He emerged as a pioneer in the field of Indian wildlife photography as well as an amateur painter, having won numerous awards in both fields. In his youth, he was an enthusiastic

hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

, a collector of avian eggs, and also a keen falconer with an exquisite collection of birds from the genus ''Falco''. His interest in birds led him to undertake field studies of the

Great Indian Bustard The great Indian bustard (''Ardeotis nigriceps'') or Indian bustard, is a bustard found on the Indian subcontinent. A large bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs, giving it an ostrich like appearance, this bird is among the heaviest of t ...

and the

Lesser Florican The lesser florican (''Sypheotides indicus''), also known as the likh or ''kharmore'', is the smallest in the bustard family and the only member of the genus ''Sypheotides''. It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent where it is found in tall gras ...

.Khacher, S., & Khacher, L., 1986. Raol Shree Dharmakumarsinhji (1917-. 1986). J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 83 (1): 186–189.
/ref>

Conservation

In 1950, the Government of India appointed him to conduct biogeographical surveys across five Indian states –

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

and

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

– and make recommendations on areas suitable for conversion into designated national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Over the next three decades, he held several conservation-related government positions in India. He served as India's first Honorary Wildlife Warden, Vice Chairman of the Indian Board for Wildlife, and a member of the Rajasthan and Gujarat Wildlife Advisory Boards.

Publications

As well as many papers in journals, such as the ''

Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society The ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'' (also ''JBNHS'') is a natural history journal published several times a year by the Bombay Natural History Society. First published in January 1886, and published with only a few interruptio ...

'', books authored by Dharmakumarsinhji include: *''Birds of Saurashtra''. 1955. Bombay: Dil Bahar *
Sixty Indian Birds
' (with K S Lavkumar). 1972. New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India *''Reminiscences of Indian Wildlife''. 2000. Mumbai: Oxford University Press India.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dharmakumarsinhji 1917 births 1986 deaths People educated at Harrow School Indian environmentalists Indian naturalists Indian nobility Indian ornithologists Indian botanical writers Indian nature photographers People from Bhavnagar district 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers 20th-century Indian photographers 20th-century Indian zoologists Scientists from Gujarat Photographers from Gujarat 20th-century naturalists