Edward Balfour
Edward Green Balfour (6 September 1813 – 8 December 1889)[1] was a Scottish surgeon, orientalist and pioneering environmentalist in India.
On the way he visited Mauritius where he witnessed ecological destruction about which he had read in the works of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Boussingault.
He served as a staff-surgeon at Ahmednagar and at Bellary, and in 1850 he acted as government agent at Chepauk and was a paymaster dealing with Carnatic stipends.
This led him to be posted to smaller areas and he spent the next ten years travelling around southern India.
In 1849, he wrote On the Influence exercised by Trees on the Climate of a Country in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, 1840 which was reprinted in 1849.
Using actual data to study problems and suggest solutions he wrote such works as the Statistics of Cholera and Remarks on the Causes for which Native Soldiers of the Madras Army were discharged the Service in tho five Years from 1842-3 to 1846-7 (1850).
Based on the Mauritius experience he warned of the possibility of famine due to deforestation and wrote about the links between water and forest cover in Notes on the influence exercised by trees in inducing rain and preserving moisture (Madras Journal of Literature and Science 15(1849):402-448) as well as reports to the famine commission (The influence exercised by trees on the climate and productiveness of the Peninsula of India.
This and other reports by Hugh Francis Cleghorn influenced Lord Dalhousie and led to the establishment of the Madras Forest Department.
[2][12] He maintained careful records of visitors to the museum and noted how a live orangutan specimen drew large crowds.
He noted his objective as being "to provide a text book for Native Medical Students; to improve the practice of Native Midwives; and to make known to the learned men of India, the modes followed by the people of Europe in aiding women when in natural labor as also when the labors are difficult.
"[15][3] He also attempted to influence the government to introduce medical education in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages but failed.
He noticed a marked increase in the number of visitors when a live specimen of a tiger cub and leopard was kept in the natural history section of the museum.
Based on his studies, he was sceptical of the state of indigenous scientific knowledge particularly in relation to health and in his Cyclopaedia suggested that Indians were so close to subsistence that they did not have the time or means to reflect accurately on their surroundings.
[2] When Balfour resigned from his position at the museum, he sought Edward Blyth as a suitable successor but was prevented by the Madras Government to enter into a correspondence on this.
Subsequent editions incorporated research by others including Sir Dietrich Brandis[20] and it grew into a five volume work in 1871-83.
He wrote in the Agricultural pests of India: The census of 1881 showed its population to be 198,790,853 souls, of whom 69,952,747 were agriculturists, 220,803 horticulturists, 35,076 arboriculturists, and 990,342 were tending animals.
The numbers engaged in agriculture, the great revenue obtained from the lands, and the losses the people are exposed to from wild beasts, all indicate the need for protective measures...Balfour continued to write about India after retiring to England in 1876.
[2] Balfour left India in 1876 after 42 years there, and at his farewell was felicitated in Madras by the Hindu, Muslim and European communities with a portrait of him placed in the Government Central Museum.
