Billy Arjan Singh

Kunwar "Billy" Arjan Singh (15 August 1917 – 1 January 2010) was an Indian hunter turned conservationist and author. He was the first who tried to reintroduce tigers and leopards from captivity into the wild.

Billy Arjan Singh died peacefully at his original farmhouse Jasbir Nagar on 1 January 2010.

Kunwar "Billy" Arjan Singh was born in Gorakhpur on 15 August 1917 as the second son of Kunwar Jasbir Singh, CIE (1887–1942), a member of the royal Ahluwalia dynasty of Kapurthala. His grandfather was Raja Harnam Singh and his uncle was Raja Maharaj Singh. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur was his aunt and his elder brother was Air Vice-Marshal Kunwar Jaswant Singh, PVSM (1915–1963) In 1940, Singh was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Indian Army and was posted to the south of Iraq. Upon his return to India he purchased a farm in the remote district of Lakhimpur Kheri and built himself a home – named in honour of his father – Jasbir Nagar. He settled down to a life of farming and hunting. Nearly ten years later, he also acquired an estate on the borders of the forestry reserve at Dudhwa. This came to be known as Tiger Haven and it is there that he lived for most of the rest of his life.

Singh described how in his youth he had been an insatiable hunter. However, one day having shot a young leopard in the lights of his vehicle, he dramatically changed his view of hunting, feeling nothing but revulsion for killing and vowing that from then on he would pursue the cause of conservation. His first major project was to save a herd of barasingha in the neighbouring Sathiana range of the forestry reserve at Dudhwa. In 1976, he was awarded the World Wildlife Fund's Gold Medal, the WWF's premier award, for his conservation work. He was also largely responsible for persuading the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi to transform Dudhwa into a 200-square-mile (520 km²) national park.

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