Maruti Bhujangrao Chitampalli, best environmentalist, writer, and naturalist affectionately called Aranya Rishi, died on Wednesday (in Solapur) at the age of 93. Chitampalli is an awardee of the prestigious Padma Shri award, which he recently received from President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi. In 2006, he also presided over the 83rd Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan. Chitampalli will perform the last rites on Thursday Afternoon in Solapur. Through his death, not only has Maharashtra and the country lost a conservationist, but it has also lost the spiritual custodian of Indian forests and wildlife.

A Life Devoted to the Wilderness

Chitampalli was born on November 5, 1932, in the family of foresters in Solapur, Maharashtra. His life of experiences was as multi-layered and broad as the forests that he adored. Popularly called the Aranya Rishi or the Forest Sage, the great man was known to have worked tirelessly to protect the natural ecosystem and introduced the language of forests in the normal literature of Marathi.

Chitampalli was a trained man who was a forest officer, having passed out of the State Forest Service College in Coimbatore in the year 1958. He became a member of the Maharashtra Forest Department and worked there for 36 years before he retired as Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests. To Chitampalli, retirement was never rest. It was only in his later years that his work as a conservationist, writer, and mentor blossomed and took off. He traveled through forest regions of more than five lakh kilometers in India, mingled with tribes around the country, wrote on rare plants and animal life, and influenced policy in conservation.

Maharashtra Wildlife Sanctuaries Architect

Chitampalli contributed a significant part to the formation of some larger Maharashtra Wildlife sanctuaries such as Navegaon, Nagzira, Melghat, Karnala Bird Sanctuary, and others. His education and experience in ecology, as well as his cultural awareness, made these regions not only protectable, but it turned them into prosperous ecosystems related to the communities surrounding them.

He stocked new names and ideas of the sort such as the nomenclature of rookery of a bird by the name Kaak Gaar, which he popularised and advocated the plantation and preservation of the sacred trees by the name of Dev Vrikshas, which went down well with the rural and tribal masses’ concept of religion and environment. His philosophy was very simple and at the same time great: “Nature is not just a resource. It is a teacher, a healer, and a temple.”

Literary Legacy: Giving Forest Its Language

It is even possible to say that one of the most considerable contributions of Chitampalli was that he was able to give life to wilderness through words. He wrote more than 25 books in Marathi, including lyrical essays about birdlife, and encyclopaedias enumerating species of animals, birds, trees, and even fish.

His popular works include:

• Pakshi Jaay Digantara – a poetic account of migratory birds
• Pakshi Kosh – an encyclopaedia of Indian birds in Marathi
• Prani Kosh, Vruksha Kosh, and Matsya Kosh – encyclopaedias on animals, trees, and fish, respectively

These writings are described as pioneering works in Marathi literature. He was able to combine scientific accuracy and the beauty of letters. In this, he not only instructed the readers but also set the spirits of generations in the quest to take an interest in the natural world around them.

In the documentation of languages, too, his work was also to bring over the ecological knowledge of the tribes to the general discourse by making sure their knowledge was not lost and was held in reverence.

The Scholar Within: From Diary to Dictionary

Chitampalli was a scrupulous observer. During his field studies, he preserved hundreds of hand-written diaries where he recorded all the sights, sounds, and behavior patterns that he had observed in the wild. This was based on these diaries that formed the basis of his publication in literature and science.

He often stated, “Without observation, there is no understanding. Without understanding, there is no conservation.”

He also contributed approximately one lakh words concerning nature to the Marathi dictionary, much of which was based upon tribal dialects and rural pronunciations, and the dictionary has become a lingual bridge between science and society.

National Recognition

He lived much of his life being respected widely in the state of Maharashtra, but it took him some time to get national recognition. He was asked to preside over the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, a once-in-a-lifetime achievement of non-literary elite attendance.

In April 2025, at the age of 92, Chitampalli was given the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, in honour of his contribution to the fields of literature and education. Even when his health was failing, he attended the ceremony and received the award in person, being honoured by President Droupadi Murmu.

His receiving speech was brief, emotional, and powerful: “This honour belongs to the forests, the birds, the trees, and every child who reads about them and chooses to protect them.”

A Teacher, Mentor, and Silent Revolutionary

Chitampalli never pursued the limelight. Even in retirement, he continued to live simply in Solapur and subsequently Nagpur, and surrounded by books, plants, and visitors (students, environmentalists, writers, and even villagers) who would come to learn with and from him. His philosophy was in silent revolutions. He revolutionised it based on education, literature, as well as being in touch with the earth.

His students remember how he urged all to keep diaries and look at nature, not to gain fame, but to gain knowledge. “If you want to write well,” he once told a student, “first, you must learn to sit quietly under a tree.”

Final Goodbye

Chitampalli died in the morning of June 18, 2025, at his home in Solapur because of age- related illnesses. He leaves his family, a legacy to be found in the thousands of minds ignited and the species of birds documented, and trees planted and forests saved.

The last rites of his final journey would be carried out on 19 June, in the presence of family, friends, and government officials. Condolences flowed in all over the country.

Maharashtra Chief Minister stated, “Chitampalli ji was not just an environmentalist; he was a saint who heard the forest speak and taught us to listen.”

The Legacy Lives On

Chitampalli's life also reminds us in a world that is growing farther away from nature that the wisdom in the world is to observe, respect, and live in harmony with the earth. His method, rife with spirituality, rooted in science, and cloaked in culture, is the blueprint to conservation in the future.

Maharashtra institutions are now requesting the state government to save their home as a Natural Literature Museum. It is hoped that his diaries, as yet unpublished, will come to rest in some archive and fall to be read by generations of later ecologists and writers.

His absence leaves a void, but his words, his trees, and his ideas remain.

“The forest never dies. It becomes a memory. I have only been its student.”
— Maruti Chitampalli

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