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{{short description|Indian hunter and conservationist}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}

[[File:Billy Arjan Singh.jpg|thumb|Billy Arjan Singh]]
[[Kunwar (title)|Kunwar]] '''"Billy" Arjan Singh''' (15 August 1917 – 1 January 2010) was an Indian hunter turned conservationist and author. He was the first who tried to reintroduce [[Bengal tiger|tigers]] and [[Indian Leopard|leopards]] from captivity into the wild.<ref name="obituary">Thapar, V. (2010) ''Obituary: Billy Arjan Singh'' HT Media Limited, 2 January 2010 [https://archive.today/20130125223320/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Obituary-Billy-Arjan-Singh/Article1-493083.aspx online]</ref>

Billy Arjan Singh died at his original farmhouse ''Jasbir Nagar'' on 1 January 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/wildlife-enthusiast-author-billy-arjan-singh-dies/story-mOlRh5YfAZ6AXRAPrCQOLN.html|title=Wildlife enthusiast, author Billy Arjan Singh dies|website=Hindustan Times|access-date=June 21, 2021}}</ref>

== Early life ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2011}}
Kunwar "Billy" Arjan Singh was born in [[Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh|Gorakhpur]] on 15 August 1917 as the second son of Kunwar Jasbir Singh, [[Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]] (1887–1942), a member of the royal Ahluwalia dynasty of [[Kapurthala]]. His grandfather was Raja [[Harnam Singh]] and his uncle was [[Raja Maharaj Singh]]. [[Rajkumari Amrit Kaur]] was his aunt and his elder brother was Air Vice-Marshal Kunwar Jaswant Singh, [[PVSM]] (1915–1963). In 1940, Singh was commissioned as a [[Second Lieutenant]] in the [[British Indian Army]] and was posted to the south of Iraq.

== Hunter turned conservationist ==
Singh described how in his youth he had been an insatiable hunter. However, one day having shot a young leopard in the lights of his vehicle, he dramatically changed his view of hunting, feeling nothing but revulsion for killing and vowing that from then on he would pursue the cause of conservation. His first major project was to save a herd of [[barasingha]] in the neighbouring Sathiana range of the forestry reserve at Dudhwa.
In 1976, he was awarded the [[World Wildlife Fund]]'s gold medal, the WWF's premier award, for his conservation work.<ref>WWF ''The Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal'' [http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/history/duke_of_edinburgh_conservation_medal/ online] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725110145/http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/history/duke_of_edinburgh_conservation_medal/ |date=25 July 2014 }}</ref> He was also largely responsible for persuading the then Prime Minister, [[Indira Gandhi]], to transform [[Dudhwa National Park|Dudhwa]] into a {{convert|200|sqmi|km2|adj=on}} national park.

== Re-introduction of big cats ==
Singh's conservation efforts for wildlife are best known for his [[reintroduction]] of leopards and a tiger into the wild of Dudhwa National Park. He started by bringing up an orphaned male leopard cub named Prince, which he successfully reintroduced to the wild in 1973. To provide Prince with a mate he subsequently raised two orphaned female leopards cubs, Harriet and Juliette.<ref>{{cite book |author=Singh, A. |year=1982 |title=Prince of Cats |location=London |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=0-224-02034-X}}</ref>
In July 1976, he acquired a hand-reared female tiger cub named ''Tara'' from [[Twycross Zoo]] in the [[United Kingdom]], and reintroduced her to the wild in the Dudhwa National Park with the permission of India's then Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Singh, A. |year=1981 |title=Tara, a tigress |publisher= Quartet Books |location=London and New York |isbn=070432282X}}</ref>

In the 1990s, some tigers were observed in the protected area, which had a [[Siberian tiger]] [[phenotype]] of a large head, pale pelage, white complexion, and wide stripes, and were therefore suspected to be Bengal-Siberian tiger [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrids]]. Billy Arjan Singh sent hair samples of tigers from the area to the [[Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology]] in [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]] where the samples were analysed using [[Mitochondrial DNA|mitochondrial]] sequence analysis. Results revealed that the tigers in question had a Bengal tiger mitochondrial [[haplotype]] indicating that their mother was a Bengal tiger.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Shankaranarayanan, P. |author2=Singh, L. |year=1998 |url=http://www.iisc.ernet.in/~currsci/nov10/articles18.htm |title=Mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence among big cats and their hybrids |journal=Current Science |volume=75 |issue=9 |pages=919–923 |access-date=18 September 2007 |archive-date=12 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160712160934/http://www.iisc.ernet.in/~currsci/nov10/articles18.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Skin, hair and blood samples from 71 tigers collected in various Indian zoos, in the [[Indian Museum|National Museum in Kolkata]] and including the two hair samples from Dudhwa National Park were prepared for [[Microsatellite (genetics)|microsatellite]] analysis that revealed that two tigers had [[allele]]s in two [[Locus (genetics)|loci]] that were contributed by Bengal and Siberian tiger subspecies.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Shankaranarayanan, P. |author2=Banerjee, M. |author3=Kacker, R. K. |author4=Aggarwal, R. K. |author5=Singh, L. |name-list-style=amp |year=1997 |url=http://www.freewebs.com/hmgrgcb/publication/Elec%20shankar%20et%20al%201997.pdf |title=Genetic variation in Asiatic lions and Indian tigers |journal=Electrophoresis |volume=18 |issue=9 |pages=1693–1700 |doi=10.1002/elps.1150180938 |pmid=9378147 |s2cid=41046139 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723034412/http://www.freewebs.com/hmgrgcb/publication/Elec%20shankar%20et%20al%201997.pdf |archivedate=23 July 2013}}</ref> However, samples of two hybrid specimens constituted a too small base to conclusively presume that ''Tara'' was the source of the Siberian tiger genes.<ref>Menon, S. (1997). [http://www.india-today.com/itoday/17111997/wild.html ''Tainted Royalty''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080630013849/http://www.india-today.com/itoday/17111997/wild.html |date=30 June 2008 }}. India Today.</ref>

== Awards ==
For his contributions to conservation, Arjan Singh was widely honoured. In 1996, he was awarded the ''World Wildlife Gold Medal'', and obtained the [[Order of the Golden Ark]] in 1997.<ref>{{cite web |author=WWF |url=http://worldwildlife.org/stories/tiger-hero-billy-arjan-singh |title=Tiger hero: 'Billy' Arjan Singh |year=2010 |publisher=WWF, 4 January 2010}}</ref>

In 2004, Arjan Singh received the [[J. Paul Getty Trust|Getty]] Award, administered by the [[World Wildlife Fund]], for his innovative contribution to conservation and for creating public awareness. In 2006, he received the ''Yash Bharati award'' and the [[Padma Bhushan]] two months later.<ref>{{cite web|author=Atroley, A. |url=http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/index.cfm?uNewsID=1160 |title=Billy Arjan Singh awarded Padma Bhushan. |year=2006 |publisher=WWF India, 30 March 2006}}</ref>

He also received the ''Lifetime Award for Tiger Conservation''.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}

== Legacy ==
To ensure that his work in conservation continued, Singh established the Tiger Haven Society in 1992. The Society's aims include preserving Tiger Haven and sponsoring research into wildlife.

== Publications ==
* ''Tiger Haven''. Macmillan, London 1973; Oxford University Press, Oxford 1999
* ''Tara, a tigress''. Quartet Books, London and New York 1981
* ''Prince of cats''. Jonathan Cape, London 1982; Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2000
* ''Tiger! Tiger!''. Jonathan Cape, London 1984 and 1986
* ''The legend of the maneater''. Orient Longman, New Delhi 1993
* ''Arjan Singh's tiger book''. (co-author) Lotus Collection, Roli Books, New Delhi 1998
* ''A tiger's story''. HarperCollins Publishers India, New Delhi 1999; Tara-India Research Press, New Delhi 2005
* ''Eelie and the big cats''. Oxford University Press, New Delhi and New York 2001
* ''Watching India's wildlife : the anthology of a lifetime''. Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2003 and 2004

=== Biographies ===
* [[Duff Hart-Davis|Hart-Davies, D.]] 2005. ''Honorary tiger : the life of Billy Arjan Singh''. Lotus Collection, Roli Books, New Delhi
* Shaminder Boparai, and A. Mookerjee (ed.) 2011. ''Billy Arjan Singh – Tiger of Dudhwa'' with support from WWF, Tiger Haven Society. HarperCollins, New Delhi

== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110728105533/http://www.tigerhavensociety.org/ Tiger Haven Society]
* [https://archive.org/details/CryHavocArjanSingh Cry Havoc (1980)]
* [http://www.wildlifeofindia.org/ Billy Arjan Singh's website.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912234158/http://www.wildlifeofindia.org/billymain.htm |date=12 September 2009 |title=Google Cached }}
* [http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/index.cfm?uNewsID=1160 Billy Arjan Singh awarded Padma Bhushan, WWF-India (Worldwide Fund for Nature – India), 30 Mar 2006]
* [http://www.fatheroflions.org/ArjanSingh.html Films and books by and about Billy Arjan Singh]

{{Authority control}}
{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 2000–09}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Billy Arjan}}
[[Category:Indian conservationists]]
[[Category:People from Gorakhpur]]
[[Category:People from Lakhimpur Kheri]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in other fields]]
[[Category:Punjabi people]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:Indian Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Indian royalty]]
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]

Billy Arjan Singh - Revision history

Bot at 01:41, 26 October 2022