The Hindu : New Delhi News : Catching wildlife at its mesmerising best

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Tuesday, Dec 30, 2008
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Catching wildlife at its mesmerising best

Madhur Tankha

Photo exhibition covers various facets of the beautiful creatures

Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

A treat for the eyes: Renowned photo-journalist Raghu Rai going through a photo exhibition, ‘Fujifilm Super-Six’, at All-India Fine Arts and Crafts Society in New Delhi on Monday.

To promote public awareness about wildlife heritage and the threat to our varied species from poachers, a three-day photo exhibition opened at the All-India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) gallery here on Monday.

Showcasing the works of six wildlife photographers -- Sanat Shodhan, Hira Punjabi, Gul Gulrajani, S. K. Tiwari, Saravana Kumar and Ramnath Chandrasekhar -- “Fujifilm Super Six” shows up various facets of the beautiful creatures of the wild.

Enticed forever by the wonders of nature, Satyendra says he left a flourishing career in the hospitality industry to settle at Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh. “Besides exotic creatures, my immense love for tigers made me settle down in M.P. where I am working as a wildlife photographer. While capturing tigers on my camera, I have realised that as long as you are in the jeep you are safe. Tigers are not at all used to human presence. They are blessed with good memory and can even recognise jeeps.”

Lifetime opportunity

Sharing details of taking pictures in the wild for the past three years, Satyendra says he once spotted nearly 50 spotted deer in the forest but due to harsh sunlight decided to give them a miss. “Within a few seconds, one of my colleague in the jeep shouted ‘Tiger!’. I saw a tigress pouncing on a sambhar. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I was lucky enough to capture the entire sequence on my camera.”

Chennai’s Ramnath Chandrasekhar says he started documenting natural history at the age of 13. “I have been pursuing professional wildlife photography under the guidance of my mentor S. Dattatri. It is difficult to sight tigers in South India because of thick undergrowth. Once I saw a group of wild dogs encircling a spotted deer. The male attacked the deer from behind and began eating it live. Though it was difficult to capture the scene on my lens, I managed to do it because we need to focus on wild dogs that are balancing our eco-system.”

Expressing concern over the decimation of tigers, Ramnath says the forest guards are lacking in weapons, wireless system and other equipment. “While the poachers are heavily armed, our forest guards don’t even have a proper communication system to alert the headquarters. Moreover, poachers work as a close unit. We need to arm these guards who are fighting against insurmountable odds and also have stringent laws in place. We badly need tigers to survive in the Indian forest or else other species would also become extinct,” says Ramnath, who will be sending a petition to the policymakers and lecturing students on the need to save our birds and animals from extinction.

The exhibition is open to the pubic at the AIFACS gallery on Rafi Marg up to this Wednesday – from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

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