Rise of the revivalist

The country's official taxidermist has been busy reviving pets for owners, but fears that the art needs a fresh lease of life and more takers, writes GAJANAN KHERGAMKER

For a pet-owner to lose one’s pet is heartbreaking, to say the least. And, to watch it stand back on its feet in that posture so fondly familiar, is magical. There’s one man who makes it happen and he’s India’s only official taxidermist.

After bringing ‘back to life’ pets ranging from rare parrots, turtles, fishes and Dobermen to thousands of wild animals such as tigers, lions, leopards and exotic birds like macaws, peacocks and vultures across the nation’s wildlife sanctuaries and zoos by a procedure known as taxidermy, as he gets older, India’s most-renowned taxidermist Dr Santosh Gaikwad is now a worried man.

“After me, I fear that the art of taxidermy may be lost for good. I need to ensure that the skill is passed down to generation next,” he reveals, in an interview.

Here go the excerpts:

What made you take up this novel and rare form of art considering your background as an academician?

It was back in 2003, when I was working as an assistant professor with the Mumbai Veterinary College when I visited the then Prince of Wales Museum, now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, and saw a leopard on display in the museum. I couldn’t believe that the leopard could look so ‘real’ and life-like even in death. It was anatomically accurate. As an assistant professor of Anatomy and Histology, it was bewildering for me. Till then, I had not even heard the term ‘taxidermy’ and had called the specimen ‘stuffing’ as most others did. This was a procedure that had been done by the British and wasn’t being done anywhere in India then.

How did you find out more about the procedure? Did you obtain any formal training in it?

My curiosity got the better of me. I visited the museum again and, this time around, had a better look at the specimen, even more carefully. I actually even lay down below the animal to see how it was recreated. Then upon asking a museum staffer about how the animal was made to look so real, I was told the animal’s skin had been taken out and “stuffed with something”. Even on enquiries in museums in Madras, Kolkata and other cities, I was told it was taxidermy but informed that it was not taught anywhere in India. So, I was left with little option but to research on it through literature procured from the internet and other places.

So, taxidermy as you practise it, has been self-taught? How did you go about it?

You see, as an associate professor of Anatomy with the Mumbai Veterinary College having completed a Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry followed by a Masters in Anatomy and Histology before doing a PhD in Anatomy in 2011, I had the basic skills of making incisions, skinning etc but had never performed taxidermy ever. But, my job at the veterinary college made access to dead birds and animals easy. I began practising on birds first and would often bring dead birds home and practise on my dining table, even face a lot of flak from my wife at home. With a lot of practise I learned the skill of ‘skinning’ with perfection. That out of the way, I realised that the most difficult and the important part in the entire procedure was ‘mounting’ which gives shape to the specimen and requires a thorough understanding of the anatomy (bodily structure) of the creature.

The practice of taxidermy must have taken up a lot of your time. How did you manage to do that with your job at the veterinary college?

Besides my job at the veterinary college, I had a thriving private veterinary practice of my own. Now, as my passion for taxidermy grew with each specimen I worked upon, I found it exceedingly difficult to balance it with my private practice and job. I knew I had to make a choice between the job and private practice to get enough time to spend on taxidermy. I dropped my private practice and left the needle and syringe for the knife and blade I used in taxidermy. I continued with my government job as a professor though.

How did the inauguration of India’s first and only Taxidermy Centre happen finally?

The then dean of my college wrote a letter to the then Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Bimal Majumdar stressing on the importance and need to preserve rare species of birds and animals in the wild, instead of burning them. He pointed out the absence of space and equipment to perform taxidermy needed to be addressed. Majumdar, without delay, paid a visit to Mumbai and passed an order for the construction of a Taxidermy Centre and asked me to choose a room for the taxidermy works. The Wildlife Taxidermy Centre at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) was officially inaugurated by the Secretary of Maharashtra Forest Department on October 1, 2008.

Who did the taxidermy of larger animals preserved in museums and zoos across India before the Centre was inaugurated?

You see, earlier, all such materials were sent to the Van Ingen & Van Ingen or Van Ingen of Mysore which was India’s first taxidermy factory established in 1900 and best known for tiger and leopard taxidermy trophy mounts. The factory stopped operation in 1999, after which there was a complete dearth of taxidermy processes. Since then, I have been undertaking all taxidermy works across India

What is the future of taxidermy?

The old Taxidermy Centre at SGNP has been demolished and a new one is coming up in the place, complete with a public viewing gallery and the works. My worry is that after me, there will be nobody to move this work ahead. All I had started would be wasted. Today, even as Forest Department officials call me for the preservation of rare species of birds and animals that have died in captivity or due to diseases across India, through taxidermy, and pay me an honorarium for my work, there’s a new trend for pet-owners to commission me to ‘breathe life’ into their dead pets. While they are ready to pay a fortune for it, I charge them a basic fee. After all, the joy on their faces to watch their pets come to life again is worth more than all the money in the world.