A champion of wildlife, a tiger conservationist, an enthusiastic horse breeder and rider, the last of the British expatriates to have stayed on in India after Independence, Anne Wright, wife of Late Bob Wright (Robert Hamilton Wright) and mother of conservationist Belinda Wright passed today in the lap of nature in Madhya Pradesh where she spent her childhood.
Aged 94 years, Wright passed away peacefully at the Kipling camp, a wildlife resort at the edge of the Kanha National Park that she and her husband Bob had founded.
Bob and Anne Wright were at the centre of the expatriate community of Kolkata. They lived in Tollygunge Club that Bob revived.
But Anne carved out her own special place as a conservationist.
The daughter of a civil servant, Anne grew up in the jungles of central India and Bihar and turned into an animal lover.
In 1969, Wright played a pivotal role in founding the World Wide Fund (WWF) -India.
She was handpicked by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to be part of the Tiger Task Force.
In 1971, Anne Wright exposed the illegal trade of tiger skin in New Market in an explosive article that was published in Kolkata and republished by the New York Times. She was also a key member of the drafting committee of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Wright also managed to persuade Gandhi to work for the conservation of Siberian cranes. She served on the Wildlife Board of India for 19 years.
Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh posted in X: “She was a dedicated naturalist who was a member of the original Project Tiger Task Force of 1972.”
Ramesh told The Telegraph: “I spent hours with her while researching for my book ‘Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature’. She played a very active role in the Task Force which resulted in Project Tiger being launched.”
Activist Bonani Kakkar, who had worked with Anne, spoke of how she was instrumental in saving the Neora Valley in Kalimpong district, which is now on the tentative list of Unesco World Heritage Site.
Anne also met JRD Tata and convinced him to build the Taj Bengal in a manner that would not hamper the flight of the migratory birds in the Alipore zoo, said Kakkar.
Anne was awarded the Order of the Gold 1979, and the ‘Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ (MBE) in 1983.