Sumit Sen, pioneer in digital archiving of birds, passes away

Kolkata: Ornithologist Sumit Sen, the pioneer of digital archiving of birds in Kolkata, passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest here on Monday. He was 69. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.Sen, a nephew of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, "had highlighted birds of Bengal to the rest of the world through his website kolkatabirds.com", said Sujan Chatterjee of Birdwatchers' Society. "He was the director of American Express bank when I met him. He was very passionate about birdwatching and photography. Once his daughter asked him about some info on birds which he didn't find. This made him create this website. He used to collect photos, scan them in digital formats from Mumbai and then upload them on the website. These efforts started in 1999. At one point, his website was the only one with such details and photos in the country," said Chatterjee.Dipankar Ghose, senior director of biodiversity conservation at WWF-India, said Sen had funded a study of endangered vultures, which Ghose later implemented."Sumit-da was a birder par-excellence. I got to know him around 2000 through fellow birder Sujan Chatterjee... His website kolkatabirds.com was the most authentic online resource for birds of Bengal and most of India two decades back. He has mentored many ornithologists and shared ideas in making a career in nature conservation. He believed in gaining and sharing of knowledge. We will try to take his vision forward," said Ghose.State Wildlife Advisory Board members Joydip Kundu and Biswajit Roy Chowdhury remembered him as someone who never compromised when it came to birdwatching. "He was also against the playing of bird calls to lure and photograph birds," said Kundu.Besides birds, Sen has also archived fish species found in Sundarbans, said Arjan Basu Roy of NGO Nature Mates Nature Club.

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