Wildlife conservationist Aditya ‘Dicky’ Singh, IAS officer who quit Civil Services to build a forest, dies at 57

Aditya 'Dicky' Singh a well-known photographer and animal conservationist, passed away at his home on the outskirts of Ranthambore tiger reserve in Rajasthan on Wednesday, September 6. He was 57. Singh's tragic demise has shocked the internet and the Indian wildlife community.

"Aditya had surgery after a minor heart attack a few weeks ago, after which he had come back and was recuperating well. It was a normal day yesterday, he was talking to everyone and was very jovial in his usual way. It appears that he died in his sleep early morning today," family friend Dharmendra Khandal told PTI.

Aditya Singh's journey into the world of wildlife conservation was far from conventional. In 1998, he left the Indian Administrative Service and moved to Ranthambore, where he worked on documentaries and conservation initiatives while pursuing his love of wildlife photography. For wildlife documentaries made for the BBC, National Geographic, NHK Broadcasting Service, and various other organisations, he served as a field assistant.

 September 6, 2023

To establish a forest reserve,  Singh leased a government property and bought around 40 acres of the nearby farmland. His initiative to manage the forest that abutted Ranthambore National Park put an end to the area's unlawful mining and woodcutting. The reserve is still a non-commercial piece of land.

"Singh took up the rewilding project with great passion and rooting out invasive foreign plants and planting native trees, he turned it into a small forest. Through his conservation work he has motivated so many people. He developed the culture among conservationists of regularly following individual tigers," Khandal, a conservation biologist, said.

Apart from his conservation efforts that included guided safaris through the vast richness of Ranthambore National Park, Singh had also co-authored a book "Noor: Queen of Ranthambore", covering different aspects of tigress Noor's life through a collection of photographs and stories.

Singh is survived by his wife, Poonam, and 11-year-old daughter, Nyra.

(with inputs from PTI)