12 December,2010 12:09 AM IST | | Dhamini Ratnam
He's all of 22, but has written 20 papers for international science journals and sets out regularly to the Western Ghats for weeks on end in search of Trapdoor Tarantulas. Oh, and he's been rescuing snakes in his spare time since standard eight
Zoology student Zeeshan Mirza hasn't attended a single college lecture in the past year, but the professors at Bhavan's College, Andheri, aren't pointing accusatory forceps at him.
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Zeeshan Mirza holds up a cobra he rescued in Powai two weeks ago.
He released the snake at the border of Borivali's Sanjay Gandhi
National Park. Photos courtesy: Zeeshan Mirza
They know that the boy has been busy discovering new species of scorpions and spiders, publishing papers in international science journals and rescuing snakes near his Marol residence, in his free time.
The 22 year-old, who recently won the Young Naturalist Award at the Sanctuary-RBS Wildlife Awards 2010, can make tarantulas seem like friendly neighbourhood spiders. Such is his passion for arachnids -- "I always call them by their proper name," he explains -- that even mean old scorpions turn into interesting creatures who've been misunderstood and ignored for no fault of theirs.
Mirza is not your average college going kid. He is currently on a weeklong trip to Sawantwadi and Amboli to follow creepy crawlies, jot down their dimensions, study their behaviour and photograph them. Mirza has also been on trips to Andhra Pradesh and other districts of Maharashtra, apart from combing through the Aarey forest, near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park closer home.
Mirza's definition of night life is quite literal -- he has spent every evening, sometimes whole nights, since 2007, searching for unrecorded species of reptiles and spiders in Aarey along with friend and co-researcher Rajesh Sanap, a 23-year-old Arts graduate of Patkar-Varde College, Goregaon.
Their hard work has paid off.
This year in April, Mirza's paper on a previously unrecorded species of scorpions was published in an international science journal (https://independent.academia.edu/ZeeshanMirza/Papers).
He found the scorpion -- both the male and the female -- in Aarey in March 2007.
In June this year, a paper on another species of scorpions from Andhra Pradesh was published, establishing his discovery.
One can only claim to have discovered a species once a detailed scientific paper has been published in a science journal of national and international repute.
Which is why, although Mirza has come across other unrecorded species, the budding scientist chooses to remain tight-lipped about them.
In the coming weeks, three papers on new species of scorpions found in Coorg, Jalna district, Maharashtra, and on a farm in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh will be published, taking Mirza and Sanap's tally of discoveries to five in this year alone.
And his find-outer team, comprising friends from college and other interested green souls, haven't just found scorpions, or arachnids, as Mirza insists on calling them.
They've also found Tarantulas and challenged established notions about the spotted gecko lizard which are supposed to be rare and found only in the hills in South India ("They're not; Aarey Milk Colony is full of them," says Mirza), and tree-running ("Not true. We saw them running on the ground too").
Mirza's story is a good example of how a little passion and a lot of perseverance can take you ahead. But the irony that the youngster has to contend with is that in science, a lack of prior knowledge harms the addition of new information.
Mirza and Sanap are not sure whether the Tarantulas they've 'discovered' are new or not.
"No one has done any work on Indian species of Tarantulas, so we have little information and no guidelines.
When we go looking for Tarantulas, we need to find the male and female together, else we might mistake them for two different species," says Mirza.
The duo thinks they've found eight new species in Aarey itself, and Mirza is waiting for a national science journal to review his paper on one of them.
"If we can find new species of scorpions and Tarantulas in a concrete jungle like Mumbai, imagine what all we'll find in our forests."
Celebrating a few green souls
The Sanctuary-RBS Wildlife Awards have been instituted to recognise the best in the field of wildlife conservation and celebrate those doing their green best to preserve the flora, fauna and natural resources of our country. Sanctuary Asia is a wildlife, conservation and environment magazine, started by Bittu Sahgal in 1981. Besides Mirza, this year, two other youngsters also won the Young Naturalist Award -- 10 year-old Sooraj Bishnoi from Mumbai, and 23 year-old Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi from Assam.
