Ali Manikfan: marine researcher, ecologist & Padma Shri Awardee

Shri M. Ali Manikfan is an Indian marine researcher, ecologist, shipbuilder, and a polyglot. He was recently bestowed with the Padma Shri Award this year. Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian honour of the country.

Ali Manikfan is an expert on a variety of subjects. And that too without having any kind of formal training or education in any of them. He was born on 16 March 1938, in Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep. In his 82 years of life, Ali Manikfan has accomplished astonishing things. And surprisingly, almost all of his skills and knowledge are self-taught.

Education & Early life

His father Musa Manikfan sent him to Kannur, Kerala for formal education. However, formal education did not interest him and dropped out in Class VIII to return to the island. According to him formal education is artificial and pointless. He believes that the best way to acquire knowledge is getting wisdom by observing our environment.

When he returned home, he self-taught himself numerous languages. These include English, Hindi, Malayalam, Arabic, Latin, French, Russian, German, Sinhalese, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu. He didn’t limit his self-teaching to languages. He broadened the horizon after that. Thus, he started learning about various other fields such as marine biology, marine research, geography, astronomy, social science, traditional shipbuilding, education, fisheries, agriculture and horticulture.

In 1956 he worked as a teacher and then became a clerk in Minicoy. But his interest was in marine life. In the 1960s he joined the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute of India.

Discovering new fish species

While working with marine biologist Dr. Santhappan Jones, Manikfan discovered a new fish species. This was thanks to Ali’s observation skills and his wide knowledge about marine life. To acknowledge that, Jones called the species Abudefduf manikfani. Due to his contributions he was listed as a co-author for a paper describing the fish species in the Laccadive archipelago found in the specimen collections.

His technical & agricultural experiments

Ali Manikfan produces his own electricity from a windmill which he designed himself for his 15-acre land in Valliyur in Thirunelveli district. He also has a refrigerator at home. He made this refrigerator on his own from scratch.

Shipbuilding

In 1981, Irish adventurer Tim Severin gave Ali Manikfan the responsibility of making a reconstruction of an ancient Arab trading ship, the Sohar. Thus, he went to Oman to direct the team of carpenters. The ship, named after the city of Sohar in Oman, was completely hand-made, using traditional boat-building techniques, and no metal was used in its construction. It took one year to build the 27-metre-long ship. Four tons of coir were needed to sew the planks of its hull, in the same way that ancient Maldivians had built ships. Tim Severin traveled 9,600 km from Oman to China by this ship. Severin described his eight-month-long journey in a book, The Sindbad Voyage. A Museum in Oman now displays the Sohar.

His own Calendar

Ali Manikfan has designed a lunar calendar based on the new moon times by Fred Espenak. He recommended Muslims all over the world to follow his lunar calendar. According to Ali Manikfan’s criterion “If the new moon ie. the geocentric conjunction of the sun and moon occurs before 00:00 UT, the following calendrical day is the first day of lunar month”. A minority in the State of Tamil Nadu in India follows his calendar. There, he is the Chairman of the Hijra Committee of India.

His own Bicycle

Ali Manikfan built a roller-driven motorcycle out of a bicycle with an attached old power sprayer motor. It was started by pedaling until the motor got going. He went from Tamil Nadu to New Delhi, doing an average of 60-70 km a day. Though its maximum speed is only 35 km/h, Ali Manikfan claims it’s far cheaper and efficient than a petrol-driven two-wheeler.

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