“The men who discovered India came as amateurs; by profession they were soldiers and administrators. But they returned home as giants of scholarships...”

—John Keay, historian and travel writer

The Indian Army, besides fighting wars and managing peace also plays a major part in the protection of nature, according to several well-known naturalists.

In an effort to bring to light this lesser known achievement of the Army, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has released a coffee-table book: Natural History and the Indian Army. Co-edited by veteran environmentalist J C Daniel and Lt General (Retd) Baljit Singh, the 260-page book is a collection of writings by Indian Army officers over the past 225 years that had earlier appeared in the Journals of BNHS (JBNHS).

The chapters are arranged chronologically, starting with the days of the British Raj and continuing to the post-independence era, to date. Several colour plates of paintings of flora and fauna as well as photographs are spread between the essays.

Baljit Singh, a retired lieutenant general in the Indian Army, is known for the greening of 800 acres of training area in Kota, Rajasthan. During his tenure, Singh had organised nature trails for soldiers and their families around his cantonment, initiate use of solar energy for cooking and charging. He later became a Trustee of WWF-India, BNHS representative said.

“The officers of the British India Army were very often avid nature enthusiasts and for them the diversity of the Indian sub-continent with its myriad habitats ranging from tropical to temperate to alpine, were a treasure of natural history to be explored,” added Atul Sathe, BNHS official spokesperson.

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