It's hard for a wife to resist visiting her husband's birthplace, especially when he is a legend.

Gerald Durrell, whose humorous accounts of his wild encounters in books like My Family and Other Animals and A Zoo in My Luggage were loved by readers the world over, was born in Jamshedpur on January 7, 1925. The family relocated to Britain when Gerry was only two-and-a-half years old, after his father died.

His wife Lee, 67, who now runs the wildlife park he set up in 1959 on Channel Island of Jersey, off the French coast of Normandy, will be in Jamshedpur on Friday night for the first time, 22 years after Durrell's death, and stay till April 17.

On Saturday, Lee will inaugurate Gerald Durrell Corner, set up by members of Loyola Alumni Association and voluntary group Gerald Durrell Initiative, at the Knowledge Centre on Loyola School campus.

The Gerald Durrell Corner is aimed at letting people known about the life and work of the writer-cum-animal conservationist. It will store 22 books written by and on the animal conservationist, leaflets on the work and wildlife documentaries especially on rescue operations initiated by zoo in Jersey.

The zoo has played an instrumental role in rescuing and saving species near extinction, one of them being the pygmy hog, the world's smallest pig, in Assam at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Believed to be extinct by the 1960s, the pygmy hog was sighted again in an Assam tea estate in 1971. From 1996, the Durrell Trust has been breeding pygmy hogs and last year it succeeded in releasing 100 pygmy hogs bred in captivity back in the wild in Orang National Park and elsewhere in Assam.

"The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust runs about 50 projects in 14 countries. They save endangered species and rehabilitate them in their natural habitats. Since Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, we thought it is our duty to let people know more about his amazing work as an animal conservationist and writer," said Ronald D'Costa, one of the founding members of Gerald Durrell Initiative.

After visiting Loyola School, Lee will take part in a programme at the Centre for Excellence on Saturday evening, where the best of poems and essays, written by schoolchildren on "What animals tell about us", a competition organised by the Loyola Alumni Association and Gerald Durrell Initiative, will be read out.

"We would want Jamshedpur to be more aware about things that matter. This is the second time we are establishing an educational and informative corner. The alumni association had earlier established Father George Hess Corner," said Loyola Alumni Association secretary Rajiv Talwar, referring to the US-born Jesuit priest, who was a beloved principal, educator and humanist.

Should Lee Durrell visit Tata zoo? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com