A Scottish Environmentalist in Madras
A Scottish Environmentalist in Madras
http://newstodaynet.com/23aug/ss3.htm
V SUNDARAM
The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (RBGE) is one of the great botanic gardens of the world. While nearly 1 million people visit its living collections every year, many are unaware of the riches of its collections. These include the herbarium, which contains over 2 million specimens of dried plants dating back to 1697 and drawn from all over the world. It also has one of Britain's finest botanical libraries and archives. It is this unique combination of living and historical collections, crossing the artificial boundaries of art and science that enables the gardens to undertake its world- class primary research.
The contribution of Scottish medical botanists to the documentation both written and illustrative of India's rich flora from 1750 to 1900 was indeed remarkable. Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn (1820-1895) who came to Madras in 1842 to join the Madras Medical Service belongs to this glorious tradition. He traveled extensively in Southern India as an Army Surgeon from the 'arid sands of Madras City', the undulating plateau of the Mysore, the primeval forest of Coorg and Malabar, the woodless plains of Chengalpet and South Arcot and the Malabar Ghats, where in the South-West Monsoon the lancet, in pocket, coats with rust. He was advised by his mentor Sir Joseph Hooker of Edinburgh 'to study one plant a day for a quarter of an hour' which he did 'after the morning's duty in the jail and hospital was over'. During this period he became aware of the deleterious effects of deforestation and shifting agriculture in Madras Presidency. He brought this problem of deforestation in India in general and the districts of Madras Presidency in particular to the attention of an international audience at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1850. Cleghorn was appointed as Chairman of a Committee to investigate the probable economical and physical effects of Tropical Deforestation in 1851. This report covered the whole of India and had a seminal influence in the setting up of forest conservation policies and departments both in India and elsewhere in the British colonies.
In 1852 Cleghorn was appointed as Professor of Botany and Materia Medica at the Madras Medical College. In the same year, he became Secretary of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society on Cathedral Road in Madras. Drawing inspiration from the Great Empire Exhibition in London in 1851, Government of Madras organized the Madras Exhibition in 1855. Cleghorn served as Secretary of the Committee for Raw Products,which were displayed at that Exhibition. He advised the Government of Madras to organise a Forest Department and the Madras Government created a Forest Department in 1855 for the conservation and scientific management of forests. Government of Madras appointed Cleghorn as Conservator of Forests in 1856.
Cleghorn continued to take a major interest in forest conservation, climate and soil which resulted in the banning of the destructive practice of 'shifting cultivation' in the Madras Presidency in 1860. He was responsible for the planting of cinchona plants in experimental plantations around Ootacamund in the Nilgiri Hills in 1861. He was appointed Joint Conservator of Forests for India at Calcutta in 1861. In this capacity he gave a brilliant report on forest management in the North-West Himalayas (including Kashmir, Punjab and the Trans-Indus). His Indian career ended in his appointment as Inspector General of Forests at Calcutta in 1867.
Even after his retirement in 1868, he was actively associated with forest management in Madras Presidency. He bequeathed his personal library of forestry books which became the nucleus for the creation of the Cleghorn Memorial Library at the Museum of Science and Art (now the Royal Museum of Scotland) in 1888. Shakespeare had men like Cleghorn in mind when he wrote those immortal lines:
His life was gentle
And the elements so mixed in him
That Nature might stand up and say
THIS WAS A MAN!
http://newstodaynet.com/23aug/ss3.htm
V SUNDARAM
The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (RBGE) is one of the great botanic gardens of the world. While nearly 1 million people visit its living collections every year, many are unaware of the riches of its collections. These include the herbarium, which contains over 2 million specimens of dried plants dating back to 1697 and drawn from all over the world. It also has one of Britain's finest botanical libraries and archives. It is this unique combination of living and historical collections, crossing the artificial boundaries of art and science that enables the gardens to undertake its world- class primary research.
The contribution of Scottish medical botanists to the documentation both written and illustrative of India's rich flora from 1750 to 1900 was indeed remarkable. Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn (1820-1895) who came to Madras in 1842 to join the Madras Medical Service belongs to this glorious tradition. He traveled extensively in Southern India as an Army Surgeon from the 'arid sands of Madras City', the undulating plateau of the Mysore, the primeval forest of Coorg and Malabar, the woodless plains of Chengalpet and South Arcot and the Malabar Ghats, where in the South-West Monsoon the lancet, in pocket, coats with rust. He was advised by his mentor Sir Joseph Hooker of Edinburgh 'to study one plant a day for a quarter of an hour' which he did 'after the morning's duty in the jail and hospital was over'. During this period he became aware of the deleterious effects of deforestation and shifting agriculture in Madras Presidency. He brought this problem of deforestation in India in general and the districts of Madras Presidency in particular to the attention of an international audience at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1850. Cleghorn was appointed as Chairman of a Committee to investigate the probable economical and physical effects of Tropical Deforestation in 1851. This report covered the whole of India and had a seminal influence in the setting up of forest conservation policies and departments both in India and elsewhere in the British colonies.
In 1852 Cleghorn was appointed as Professor of Botany and Materia Medica at the Madras Medical College. In the same year, he became Secretary of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society on Cathedral Road in Madras. Drawing inspiration from the Great Empire Exhibition in London in 1851, Government of Madras organized the Madras Exhibition in 1855. Cleghorn served as Secretary of the Committee for Raw Products,which were displayed at that Exhibition. He advised the Government of Madras to organise a Forest Department and the Madras Government created a Forest Department in 1855 for the conservation and scientific management of forests. Government of Madras appointed Cleghorn as Conservator of Forests in 1856.
Cleghorn continued to take a major interest in forest conservation, climate and soil which resulted in the banning of the destructive practice of 'shifting cultivation' in the Madras Presidency in 1860. He was responsible for the planting of cinchona plants in experimental plantations around Ootacamund in the Nilgiri Hills in 1861. He was appointed Joint Conservator of Forests for India at Calcutta in 1861. In this capacity he gave a brilliant report on forest management in the North-West Himalayas (including Kashmir, Punjab and the Trans-Indus). His Indian career ended in his appointment as Inspector General of Forests at Calcutta in 1867.
Even after his retirement in 1868, he was actively associated with forest management in Madras Presidency. He bequeathed his personal library of forestry books which became the nucleus for the creation of the Cleghorn Memorial Library at the Museum of Science and Art (now the Royal Museum of Scotland) in 1888. Shakespeare had men like Cleghorn in mind when he wrote those immortal lines:
His life was gentle
And the elements so mixed in him
That Nature might stand up and say
THIS WAS A MAN!
posted by kubera at 11:52 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home