Anwaruddin Choudhury
Anwaruddin Choudhury is an Indian ornithologist, mammalogist, and wildlife conservation specialist mainly focused on North-East India. His work includes decades of research, field studies, and policy advocacy. He has served in various governmental roles, including being the Deputy Commissioner in Assam and as Secretary in the state government, and ultimately retiring as the Divisional Commissioner of Barak Valley in August 2019.
Choudhury is also the Honorary Chief Executive and a trustee of the Rhino Foundation for Nature in North-East India. Born into an academically oriented family, Choudhury was raised in Shillong and finished his matriculation in 1974. He earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in geography, followed by a Master's degree from Gauhati University, where he also received a gold medal for his academic performance. He completed his PhD in primate studies in 1989 and DSc in 2008 on a review of mammals of North-east India, both from Gauhati University.
Choudhury's public service career began in 1983 as an Assam Civil Service officer, transitioning to the Indian Administrative Service in 1999. Throughout his tenure, he undertook various administrative roles, leading projects aimed at rural development, environmental protection, and wildlife conservation.
Early and service life
Anwaruddin Choudhury, born in Shillong, Meghalaya, in 1959, is the eldest among four siblings born to Alauddin Choudhury and Hena Mazumder. His early education took place at various institutions, including Public High School, Hailakandi, Government Boys High School in Mawkhar, Shillong, and Government Victoria Memorial High School, Hailakandi, where he completed his matriculation in 1974 with second-division honors.Choudhury initially pursued science in college, but later obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Geography from B.Borooah College, Guwahati, securing a first-class position in 1981. He continued his academic journey at Gauhati University, earning a Master of Arts degree in Geography in 1985, also achieving first position with a gold medal. In 1989, under the guidance of Mohammed Taher, he earned his PhD focusing on the primates of Assam. Notably, he became only the second person to receive a DSc from Gauhati University, awarded for his systematic review of mammals in North-East India in 2008.
In 1994, Choudhury married Bilkis Begum Mazumdar, with whom he has a daughter Dona and a son named Dino. His maternal grandfather, Abdul Matlib Mazumder, was a prominent freedom fighter and served as a Cabinet Minister in Assam from 1946 to 1970.
Choudhury's dedication to ornithology began in the early 1980s, leading to the publication of over 175 scientific articles and 135 popular articles on birds. He has contributed significantly to the study of birds in North-East India, rediscovering species such as the Manipur bush quail after a 75-year absence from records. His research efforts have also included comprehensive surveys and conservation initiatives for migratory birds, particularly the Amur falcon.
In mammalogy, he has published 88 scientific articles and 82 popular articles since 1981. His research has led to the identification of several new species of flying squirrels and a subspecies of hoolock gibbon. Choudhury's work on the wild water buffalo stands out as a notable contribution to the field.
Success in art
He had his first exhibition in Guwahati in 1975, which was held jointly with noted artists Manabendra Baruah and Ajan Barua. Choudhury has published his artwork in various Indian and international journals, magazines, and periodicals, including the cover of the Oriental Bird Club Bulletin published from U.K.Ornithology
Casual bird watching took a serious scientific approach in the early 1980s. Choudhury pioneered long-term ornithological works in North-East India that are now nearly five decades old. He started writing for popular magazines and started a regular weekly column as ‘Birds of Assam’ in an English daily The Sentinel published from Guwahati. The publications in local newspapers in the 1980s brought him recognition in the field of ornithology across Assam, but his writings in international scientific journals and his books made that recognition global in nature. He has written 175 scientific articles and 135 popular articles on birds. Choudhury undertook systematic bird surveys in different pockets of North-East India.He rediscovered a rare galliform species, the Manipur bush quail, in Assam, after its last record 75 years ago. He has made several new country records for India and Bhutan. He coordinated the Asian Mid-Winter Waterfowl Census for Assam and is also the coordinator for North East India. He is also the State Coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network.
He has done pioneering path-breaking studies on the endangered White-winged wood duck and Mrs Hume's pheasant to reveal their accurate range and status in India. He also campaigned for the conservation of migratory Amur falcons in Assam from 1994 onwards, in Manipur starting in 2001, and in Nagaland in 2004. He carried out detailed monitoring of the roosting population of this falcon in 2017-19 in Karbi Anglong that revealed a lot of new information on the species including the annual fluctuation of population.
Mammal research
Choudhury pioneered long-term primate research in North-East India in the mid-1980s, nearly four decades ago. To date, he published 88 scientific and 82 popular articles on primates starting from 1981. In 1986, he traveled to North Cachar Hills to start a two-decade-long research on primates that covered the entire North-East India in later years. Little was known about the life of these simians in the wild until he started his writings on them. He has made several country records for India and Bhutan. But the most significant is the discovery and description of three flying squirrels, relatively new to science, in 2007, 2009, and 2013. The three new flying squirrel species that were described by Choudhury in 2007–2013 are:- Mechuka giant flying squirrel, Petaurista mechukaensis Choudhury, 2007
- Mishmi giant flying squirrel, Petaurista mishmiensis Choudhury, 2009
- Mebo giant flying squirrel, Petaurista siangensis Choudhury, 2013
He also discovered a new species of primate but identified it as a subspecies of Macaca thibetana. This was later on described by other scientists as Macaca munzala. Recently he described a new subspecies of hoolock gibbon, which he named the Hoolock hoolock mishmiensis. He also revealed for the first time that the stump-tailed and pig-tailed macaques are restricted by the Brahmaputra towards the west of their range. His authoritative works on the wild water buffalo have been published recently as the first monograph on this endangered species. His 432-page The Mammals of North East India, published in 2013, is the most comprehensive and authoritative coverage of any part of India.
Choudhury's observations on capped langur revealed hitherto unrecorded differences in facial hair patterns that differentiate the three subspecies, which were earlier based on color variations. Hair patterns are more dependable than color patterns.
The Rhino Foundation
He is the founder and Chief Executive of the Rhino Foundation for Nature in North East India, a leading NGO in India since 1995. This NGO was founded by some leading tea companies and its founder chairperson was Anne Wright. Anil Kumar Goswami, a leading scientist of Assam is its current chairperson. Choudhury's pioneering work in conservation also contributed greatly to increasing awareness of the issue of endangerment of Rhinos in North East India. His stewardship of the Rhino Foundation for Nature in North East India as well as his other activities was recognised and he was appointed a member of the State Board for Wildlife, the highest policy-making official body on wildlife, in 2003 by the Government of Assam. The Government of Assam has also made him a member of two other official bodies—the State Wetland Steering Committee in 2003 and the State Pollution Control Board in 2008. Before that, the Government of India made the Rhino Foundation for Nature in North East India a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife in 1999, which was headed by the then Prime Minister of India Atal Behari Bajpayee.Choudhury was one of the early members of the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the Bombay Natural History Society in North-East India and has actively contributed towards their activities in this region, including wildlife surveys, awareness and identification of Important Bird Areas.