Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House

Opposite Lion Gate in the Fort district, a short walk from the galleries of Kala Ghoda, Hornbill House is the kind of address that only rewards those who already know what it holds.

• The unshowy block gives little away from the pavement, yet behind it works the Bombay Natural History Society, founded in 1883 and still India's oldest and most influential wildlife research body.
• The building takes its name from the Society's emblem, the hornbill, a bird woven into BNHS lore through the celebrated resident hornbill said to have lived for years in its early rooms.
• The junction outside is named for Dr Salim Ali, the ornithologist whose decades of fieldwork with the Society helped map the birds of the subcontinent.
• The Society's reach is far larger than its frontage suggests.
• Its journal has appeared since the 1880s and remains one of Asia's longest-running natural history periodicals; its researchers have run bird-ringing and migration studies, grassland and wetland surveys, and the long campaign to understand and reverse India's vulture collapse.
• The reference collection held here, tens of thousands of preserved birds, mammals, reptiles and insects gathered over more than a century, is among the most important in South Asia, and taxonomists still travel to consult it.
• BNHS also serves as the Indian partner of the global BirdLife network.
• Set your expectations before you come.
• Hornbill House is a working headquarters and research library rather than a ticketed museum, so there are no display halls to wander.
• What you can reasonably do is call at reception during office hours, browse the counter of Society field guides and publications, and ask about membership or the current programme of nature walks, talks and camps, many of which run from the Society's education centre near Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Goregaon rather than from Fort.
• Access to the library and the collection is by prior arrangement only.
• Most travellers fold the stop into a wider Fort and Kala Ghoda heritage walk.
• Fort and Churchgate are good ground for vegetarian eating, though the neighbourhood is mixed and nothing should be assumed.
• Udupi-style rooms scattered through the lanes turn out idli, medu vada, dosa and strong filter coffee from early morning, and several are vegetarian-only, but glance at the board or ask at the counter before ordering, because their neighbours may not be.
• Ten to fifteen minutes west toward Churchgate you will find unlimited Gujarati and Rajasthani thali dining rooms; confirm the kitchen is pure vegetarian when you sit down.
• For something quicker, farsan counters sell dhokla, khandvi and khakhra to carry away, and carts near Flora Fountain do vada pav and poha, so stick to stalls with an all-vegetarian display and ask first.
• Say no onion and garlic at the point of ordering if you need a Jain meal.