He is also the one who appealed to former prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to have the forests of Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh declared as a tiger reserve under the prestigious ‘Project Tiger’.
In 1987, Dudhwa received status as a tiger reserve.
This is one of the biggest accomplishments in Billy Arjan’s career.
But before he started advocating for tiger protection — dedicating four decades of his life to it, Billy Arjan was a hunter.
Born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, on 15 August, 1917, Billy Arjan was raised in the then princely state of Balrampur.
Billy Arjan recalls his forties as the last time he picked up a rifle.
As he shared in an interview, “I finally stopped shooting in 1960 when I was overcome with remorse for ending the life of a beautiful leopard in the headlights of my jeep. I had no right whatsoever to destroy what I could not create.”
Then, he gravitated to the other end of the spectrum — conservation.
Billy Arjan’s focus was a piece of land in Uttar Pradesh — on the outskirts of the present-day Dudhwa Tiger Reserve — which came to be known as ‘Tiger Haven’.
“I bought it and turned it into a functioning farm.” He added that in the months to come, the farm became a haven where wildlife was allowed to thrive. To him, this act felt like “repaying old debts”.
In the years to come, Dudhwa became a safe haven where he lived until his death, as well as a sanctuary for the wildlife he had devoted his life to saving.
Billy Arjan passed away on 1 January 2010, at the age of 92, but not before changing the script of conservation in India.
In a salute to his resolve, Billy Arjan was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006.