Dr Ajith Kumar

(6 June 1952 – 1 March 2025)

Yesterday, with the passing of Dr Ajith Kumar, the world lost a leading primatologist, conservationist, teacher, and naturalist extraordinaire. NCF lost a great pillar of support – a person who has been our advisor and guide since our inception. And each of us lost a great friend, mentor, and colleague—a wonderful human being, the lodestar of our life. In his last moments, he was still doing two of the things that he loved the most in his long and distinguished life. He was leading students on a field trip into the Satpura forests. And looking for wildlife with binoculars in hand, he went on his final journey. 

Ajith... Ajith sir... you will remain with us. We will remember your teachings, your thoughtful counsel, your unstinting friendship. We will aspire to the spirit of empathy, conciliation, and kindness that you always showed to others, including those who differed with you. We will recount your hilarious stories, although we’ll never do it as well as you would, and laugh and laugh again. We will try to observe nature and do science with the same attention, brilliance, and insight that you brought to your own research and toward which you raised many of your students. We will raise a toast to you on many a pleasant evening recalling our times with you. We will walk the rainforests of the Western Ghats, which you have helped conserve and which we now understand so much better thanks to you. And the lion-tailed macaques you watched will continue to coo soft praises in the canopy for generations to come.