Digvijaysinh Jhala, the first environment minister of India and the patriarch of the royal family of erstwhile princely state of Wankaner in present-day Morbi district, died in Wankaner Saturday 03 Sature day evening following a brief illness. He was 89.
Jhala, the titular ruler of the erstwhile state of Wankaner, was the eldest of the two sons of Pratapsinh Jhala and grandson of Amarsinh Jhala, the last ruler of the Wankaner.
Born in 1932, he received his education from Rajkot’s Rajkumar College, St Stephen’s College in Delhi, and University of Cambridge in England. He was elected as an MLA from the Wankaner constituency for the first time in 1962 as an Independent and again in 1967 as a candidate of the Swatantra Party. Jhala later joined the Congress and was elected to Parliament from the Surendranagar Lok Sabha seat in 1979 and again in 1984.
He served as the first environment minister of the country from 1982-84 in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and oversaw the creation of a number of national parks and sanctuaries in the country during his tenure.
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