Jivanayakam Cyril Daniel (born

Nagercoil Nagercoil, also spelt as Nagarkovil ("Temple of the Nāgas", or Nagaraja-Temple), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu state, India. Situated close to the tip of the Indian peninsula, it lies on an ...

, 9 July 1927 – died

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, 23 August 2011), or J.C., as he was known, was an Indian naturalist, and the author of several acclaimed books on birds, mammals, and reptiles.

Life and work

Influenced early in his life by Sálim Ali, he had a long association with the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...

, where he served as a curator from 1950, and was then its first Director. After retirement in 1991, he was elected an Honorary Member and was also its Honorary Secretary. His books include ''The Book of Indian Reptiles'' and ''A Century of Natural History and Conservation in Developing Countries''. He co-authored ''Indian Wildlife - Insight Guides Lion Section''. He revised Ali's ''

Book of Indian Birds ''The Book of Indian Birds'' by Salim Ali is a landmark book on Indian ornithology, which helped spark popular interest in the birds of India. First published in 1941, it is currently in its 13th edition. Most of the older books on Indian birds we ...

'' for its 12th edition, published in 1996. He was also executive editor of the Society's journal and the initiator of the ''Hornbill'' magazine. He was diagnosed with cancer and died on 23 August 2011.

Legacy

J.C. Daniel is commemorated in the scientific name of species of lizard, '' Bronchocela danieli''. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Daniel, J.C.", p. 65).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel, J. C. People from Kanyakumari district Indian ornithologists Indian naturalists 1927 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Indian zoologists Scientists from Tamil Nadu Members of the Bombay Natural History Society