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Ajith Kumar Papers, Archives at NCBS
The Ajith Kumarn Papers came to the Archives at NCBS through a donation by Kumar in Bangalore in early 2019. The Archives was, however, familiar with the material since it first came to know of it in 2016, and has used a digital copy of it over the years.
Born in 1952, Ajith Kumar has been a pioneer in the field of wildlife biology in India. Kumar obtained a Master's in Zoology degree from the University of Kerala, Trivandrum, in 1974. He studied the ecology and population dynamics of lion-tailed macaques in the Western Ghats for a doctorate from Cambridge University. His research interests include the ecology of primates and small mammals in the Western Ghats and the Himalayas. He has been a faculty at the Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun) and at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (Coimbatore). He joined the Wildlife Conservation Society - India in 2003. As one of the core architects of the Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation program, hosted by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) Bangalore, and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS-New York), Kumar has been an educator and mentor to dozens of wildlife biology students.
The collection contains the papers of Ajith Kumar -- research field notes gathered during Kumar's fieldwork in the early 1980s. Being a small volume, the material is all contained within one folder in the Research series.
Ajith Kumar's field notes from 1982-83, written on Braille paper (sourced from a church in the US, since resources were limited, and it was good non-blotting paper). The notes are for studies on how four species of tree living mammals (Bonnet monkeys, lion-tailed macaques, Nilgiri langurs and giant squirrels) co-exist and compete for same resources in the Anamalai Hills, Tamil Nadu.
Test annotation: Ajith Kumar also said in his oral history interview that during his PhD, he and his colleagues did not have much resources and needed an inexpensive solution. That was another reason that the Braille paper was used for field notes since it was the closest, cheapest thing available. Also see OH interview: https://catalogue.archives.ncbs.res.in/repositories/2/archival_objects/3658. - Venkat S. July 1, 2025.