Taxidermy is a word that most of us are not acquainted with. It is the art of ‘stuffing and mounting’ the skins of dead animals and
birds primarily for display in museums and institutions. You might remember
your visits to the local museum as a kid where you would have been fascinated
with a ‘stuffed’ lion on display. Little would you have known about the amount
of work that goes into preparing that model. Only after slogging for hours and following
certain basic and intricate steps involved in the art and science of taxidermy is
a dead animal is re-erected again.
The people
behind this work - the taxidermists - are hardly ever acknowledged; more so in
our country. In fact, in India, taxidermy is a dying art; despite there being
an authentic Wildlife Taxidermy Center here. Nevertheless, there is one man who
intends to spread the art of taxidermy across the country. Dr. Santosh Gaikwad is one of the few practicing taxidermists in India. The 42-year-old is a
Professor of Anatomy at Bombay Veterinary College and in between his work
there, he finds time to oversee the affairs at the Wildlife Taxidermy Center
located at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai. In this interview with me, Dr.
Gaikwad explains more about this fascinating art and its state in India, among
other things.
Excerpts from the interview
Q. Can you please tell us what
exactly ‘Taxidermy’ means and why is it useful?
Santosh Gaikwad: See, the term Taxidermy comes from
two different words. ‘Taxi’ means a vehicle which constitutes movement while
‘Dermy’, on the other hand, is skin. So Taxidermy basically means the movement
of the skin. The thing is, not many people know about this term. We generally understand
‘stuffing’ easily. This is an ancient art which is also a combination of
science. This art has been going on from the times of the British and today it
has developed a lot from its initial days.
Taxidermy is
very useful as it allows an animal or bird to be preserved for several decades
after its death. The body of the animal can be judiciously used for educational
purposes and little children of the country can learn a lot just by observing
the animal which has been stuffed. If a child gets to touch the mane of a lion,
which has been stuffed, it would make him feel elated and at the same time give
him some good knowledge about the animal.
Q. Tell us how you began your career
in taxidermy.
Santosh Gaikwad: I began my career in 2003; when
Taxidermy was at a very withering stage. At that time I was the Assistant
Professor of Anatomy at Bombay Veterinary College and I once visited the Prince
of Wales Museum. I noticed the varied kinds of bird and animals they had
preserved there and was quite intrigued. I then came to know about Taxidermy
and educated myself on it.
As my
interest in this art began I thought that why should caged and such endangered animals
and birds be burnt or buried after death? Why can’t we preserve them? I then
came to know that there is a clause in the Wildlife Protection Act on India
that if you want to preserve any animal after its death for education purposes
then you can. This then motivated me to become a taxidermist and preserve
animals even after their death.
That is how
I considered coming into this field.
Q. You say you educated yourself in
this field. Can you please elaborate?
Santosh Gaikwad: Well, when I was intrigued by this
subject I also realized that there were no proper institutions in the country
to teach me about it. I thus had to educate myself. I began by reading some
research material that I got from the library and questioning some of my senior
professors about it. Apart from that, I also visited museums and studied the anatomy
of various stuffed animals and birds, kept there, very intricately. To further help
myself learn Taxidermy, I also observed idol makers carpenters and painters to
get a basic idea of molding, carpentry and painting; elements of which is used
in taxidermy.
After having
done so for some time, I decided to experiment. I began that by bringing home
dead chickens and practicing on them. It was an arduous task as I would have to
work only after I reached home from work, but over time, I finally perfected
myself. There was one problem though. I had to keep the dead chickens in the
deep fridge at home to preserve their bodies. This greatly annoyed my wife and
I was chided quite a few times (smiles).
Q. What was the first real work you
did as a Taxidermist?
Santosh Gaikwad: Well, as I became better I began to stuff
small domestic birds at first. The Agriculture Information Technology Centers
of different universities of the city then came to know about me and asked me
to make small stuffed birds for them. That is how I began my first work as a
taxidermist. My work was then noted by the directors of some museums who
appreciated me a lot.
Q. So how did you then move from
small birds to different animals?
Santosh Gaikwad: After making those birds, I had now
got confidence and wanted to experiment with animals. But to play it safe, I
first chose fishes. Yet again, I read some research work on them from the
library and began practicing at home. Shortly after that, I got offers from
some fisheries colleges to make taxidermied fishes for them.
After this,
through my college, we approached the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of
the Maharashtra Forest Dept. for more work. He took some time to convince, but
he finally became impressed with my work. He then asked me to join work in
national parks to do the stuffing of bigger animals like leopards and tigers. In
around 2006, I had thus made my entry as an official wildlife taxidermist. My
work got noticed even more and I got offers from different places. The best
moment came when I got to make a Royal Bengal Tiger and the country’s last
Siberian Tiger.
Meanwhile,
at the same time I also worked at my home on stuffing cats and dogs as they
helped me hone my skills as a taxidermist. It was tough as I did everything
without any teacher to guide me.
Q. Can you explain in brief the steps
involved in stuffing an animal?
Santosh Gaikwad: There are actually a few basic steps
that go into the stuffing of an animal through taxidermy. The first step is
that of skinning which you can very well understand as that involves the
careful skinning of a dead animal through incision. The second one is tanning.
This involves the removal of fat muscles from the animal’s body after its
skinning. They are then kept in different solutions to keep the hair follicles.
This helps in preserving the stuffed animal for more than 70-80 years. Then
comes biometry, i.e. the careful measurement of different parts of the animal’s
body. After that, there is fleshing where you have to remove the flesh from the
animal’s body by a knife. A tiger’s flesh for example, can be easily removed by
6-8 people by knives in about eight hours. After this, there comes the skeleton
erection where we can make the skeleton in whatever position we want or have
been asked for: standing, sitting, jumping etc. After the skeleton has been
erected, we have to put clay on it; also known as clay modeling.
From the
clay we make out molds and from the molds we go on to make casts. From the casts,
we then prepare duplicate models of fiber of the particular animal. On this
model, or artificial body, the skin is then placed and stitched. The last stage
is the most crucial one known as finishing. Here we put glass eyes on the
animal which, you can say, brings the animal alive. So now you see Taxidermy is
the culmination of several art forms and science. Not an easy job isn’t it?
(smiles).
Q. So if today, I want to get an
animal stuffed, how should I go about it?
Santosh Gaikwad: Well, you will not be allowed to. In
our initial meetings itself we had decided that we will not prepare stuffed
animals to private individuals. The reason being that this might lead them to
kill precious birds and animals like peacocks or deer. That cannot be allowed.
Hence, taxidermy is only allowed for institutions and government organizations
where it is used for educational purposes. An individual can however acquire it
by getting a license from the government under very rare circumstances.
Q. How did the establishment of the
Wildlife Taxidermy Centre come into being?
Santosh Gaikwad: It was in 2009 that the B. Majumdar, Chief Wildlife Warden of
Maharashtra, took my suggestions to approve an ideal location for the first
authorized wildlife taxidermy centre. After some deliberations, the country’s
first wildlife Taxidermy Centre was established on 1st October 2009
in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Mumbai). It was a historic and proud moment
for me. I was then asked by Mr. Majumdar to oversee the work there. Soon after
being established, we started getting a lot of offers from several state forest
departments across the country for getting animals stuffed through taxidermy. And
even now, it is still the case. It makes me feel good.
At that time
I was the Associate Professor of Anatomy of my college and now I am the
Professor. It is quite challenging to juggle between my job and my work at the
Taxidermy Center, but I manage it and enjoy it thoroughly.
Q. What is the current situation of
taxidermy in India?
Santosh Gaikwad: It is not very healthy really. Despite
there being an official taxidermy centre and courses for teaching this art, no
one really is coming forward to learn in. I am the only practicing taxidermist
in the country currently. However, there has been some interest in this art
over the past many years. Several forest ministries are now interested in
training their officers in this art. I myself am giving taxidermy training to
people in different forest departments. Hopefully, many more will now come out
and become practicing taxidermists.
Q. What are your future plans now?
Santosh Gaikwad: I do not want this art to die with
me. I want to pass on my knowledge to others in the country and hence am always
willing to teach it to interested people. Unfortunately, not many people come
out to learn this. Perhaps they know that taxidermy is difficult to learn. It
needs to have a lot of hard work, patience and desire to perfect it. Nevertheless,
I will hope that I would be able to inculcate my skills to several others, and that hopefully, people will get awareness regarding this form. In the long run, I hope that several taxidermy schools can be opened in the country. That is my ultimate
dream.
