I first met him on the platform at Lucknow railway station in 1971. He stood by while my mother and I cajoled a leopard, Prince, off the train. Billy was very impressed by Prince’s good behaviour during the drive to Jasbirnagar, but his two macaques and dog Eelie bullied him for many days. The only member of his new home that Prince managed to get the upper hand of was Billy’s timid elephant, Sitara.
As an animal-freak teenager, I was star-struck by this wonderful man. His passion and driving force, even at 88, is awesome. Our visits to Tiger Haven were always the same: we went to bed with the generator on, and woke up to a mechanical clanking noise which was Billy lifting weights on the verandah. Endless walks in the forest, stick in hand, hot baths in large tin tubs, roti wrapped in gur and ghee after every meal, and wonderful long conversations about wildlife. It was heaven!
As the years went by, the talk got bitter while Billy fought a lonely battle against the forest department. They accused him of everything under the sun. His companion those days was his mother, a stately lady who despite living in the jungle with the most basic facilities, served tea and hosted meals as though we were eating at the Dorchester. Billy built her a wire-mesh enclosure, ‘Gran’s cage’, to protect her from Prince. There, she’d spend her daylight hours contentedly doing the crossword. Visitors would bolt into the cage, making polite conversation while looking nervously over their shoulders.
Two years after Prince, two more leopards entered Billy’s life. And unlike Prince who would spend long weeks away in the forest, these two had much better manners (despite a sign that read "Women and Children Not Welcome") and they constantly hung around Tiger Haven.
With Indira Gandhi at the helm, Billy was also the right man at the right time. She supported Billy’s "hair-brain schemes" and he used the connection to the hilt, not for himself but for a cause.
In 1976, Billy flew in from London with the love of his life, the tigress Tara. When we were introduced, two days later, she jumped on my back and left scars that took weeks to heal. Even then Tara was not going to share her man with anyone. But Billy’s work with Tara soon became controversial. The major criticism was that she was a hybrid, a "genetic cocktail". Long after Tara has gone, there are now believed to be only two types of tigers, with nominal variations.
Billy is the most single-minded person I’ve ever known. He battled the odds and achieved many victories for wildlife. In particular he saved a critical population of swamp deer, and got Dudhwa declared a national park. In fact, the appetite of the swamp deer are the reason Billy’s farm on the edge of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve has never made a profit.Billy’s had many endearing friendships in his life. His unforgiving ways and intolerance of failure often tested them to the limit, but his charm and sense of humour always won the day. He has been supported by a host of personalities—that dance in and out of the book; devoted friends who loved his quick wit and strange lifestyle, and the fact that he’s politically incorrect in his view that animals come before people.
Honorary Tiger is a tribute to a friend. It is simple, straightforward and, like Billy, entirely endearing. It should be read by anyone interested in wildlife conservation, but also by those who want to succeed and are devoted to a single cause.
(Belinda Wright is the head of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.)
