A.A. Dunbar Brander

Born to British parents in April 1877 to James Brander and Alice Grant, he was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (F.R.G.S) and  Zoological Society of London (F.Z.S.). He spent twenty-one years in the central provinces of India during his Forest Services. Out of these two decades, most of his time was spent in Kanha National Park.

Foresters of those years spent time under a canvas from November till April in the forests. During the camping months in the jungle, his work took him far from beaten roads and regular stations. This exposure made him wise on all aspects pertaining to the Jungle. A.A. Dunbar Brander saw wildlife in circumstances that are not available now. He kept records of all his observations which included some peculiar behavior of animals.

Initially a hunter, he stopped shooting, and said, that one understands the animal more when they observe him. He compiled his notes and authored one of the best books ever written on Indian Wildlife, ‘Wild Animals in Central India’. This book came out in 1923, and it became the basic reference of George Schaller’s, another conservationist of India, the study of Indian Wildlife – The Deer & the Tiger.

For someone interested in Indian Wildlife, the book ‘Wild Animals of Central India’ is of utmost relevance for it has direct experiences of the man who walked these jungles for years.