Dr S M Mohnot who was World’s renowned Primatologist and Environmentalist Professor passed away yesterday. He died after a prolong illness.
The Professor was eighty-three year old, and was also the founder and director of School of Desert Sciences (SDS) and Head of Zoology Department of Jai Narayan Vyas University from 1964 to 2001.
Dr S M Mohnot was born in June 13 1941 in Jodhpur his father Ranjit Mall was an employee in Northern Railways India he did his primary education in Jodhpur only and enthusiast about environment conservation.
Dr. Mohnot, an active individual, has made substantial contributions to research. He has authored books and participated in discussions at global forums on Jodhpur’s Hanuman Langurs. These works are now popular worldwide.
Mohnot while staying in Germany worked on marmosets, the smallest of all living primates and developed a long range programme on langurs and came out with a sociological hypothesis on langurs in the wilderness. Germans, American and Canadian scholars have done their research and PhD under his guidance at the SDS.
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He always stressed the need of developing a world-class international Centre for primates at Jodhpur and to give a national character to develop a centre of excellence for primates has established a National Primate Museum and also a breeding centre to meet the demand for quality primates for a variety of research and studies.
Dr Mohnot did the ground work on the western Rajasthan’s environmental issues and stone mining hazards along with late Anil Agarwal, founder of the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based research institute presently run by Sunita Narain.
Among dozens of other books authored by S M Mohnot, three main books : Current Primate Researches, Primates of South Asia, and Environmental Degradation in Western Rajasthan received a world acclaim.