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India’s ‘tiger man” and wildlife conservationist Billy Arjan Singh passed away on Jan 1, 2010, which is also the year of the tiger according to the Chinese calendar.

Billy’s story underscores the power of what a single person can achieve if they put their mind and body to it.

For over 50 years Billy worked and fought for the rights of “the big cats” of India. He was “tenacious” and “obstinate” in his single-minded pursuit to save the tigers of India. It was that obstinate and single-minded streak that helped in creating Dudhwa National Forest, which is the only national forest in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. He successfully helped rehabilitate “the big cats” into the jungles near Dudhwa. The first “big cat” that was rehabilitated was Prince, followed by Harriet and Tara.

Billy was born on August 15, 1917 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.  A fantastic marksman, Billy went on “shikars” (hunting trips) with his extended family members as a young boy. Sometime in 1960 Billy underwent a transformation and became a fierce champion of the “big cats” and dedicated the rest of his life in preserving them. Billy won a number of awards for his work including the Padma Bhushan and the J.Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation award.

In Part-1 of our interview Priya Commander, Billy’s youngest niece fondly recollects stories about her uncle including the back stories of Prince, Tara and Harriet and about Jim Corbett, the author and wildlife conservationist, who was a family friend of theirs.  Through Priya’s recollections we get a peek into the “real” Billy, an animal loving and fun-loving man, who loved having his extended family around him during Christmas time.

Priya was born and brought up in London, but spent a lot of time at Tiger Haven with her uncle.

You can listen to Part-2, where Priya talks about the private side of Billy.