PHOTO DIARY
An invaluable message
RANJIT LAL
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The concerns of African wildlife, and a caveat to environmental bureaucrats.
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An African Diary: 12 Days in Kenya’s
Magical Wilderness; Valmik Thapar,
Afterword by Kuki Gullmann, Oxford University Press, Rs.1995.
Valmik Thapar of course, needs no introduction; type the keywords, tigers and Ranthambhore and his name is bound to pop up. For that’s where his heart lies and, as I read this book, I felt awful for him: As he says, there’s so much we hav
e to learn (and give, though I wonder about that sometimes…) from the African wildlife conservation experience — if only we would bother.
Well chronicled
For 12 days last summer (2008), Thapar and his family and friends drank in the beauty, variety and sheer drama of wildlife in the Masai Mara. That he was clearly overwhelmed — as I guess anyone would be — is obvious. The diary describes the happenings of each day, but Thapar is more an issues man than one with lyrical descriptive powers: that’s where his strength lies — and is probably more useful.
What is perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the Afterword by Kuki Gullmann, the author of the bestselling I Dreamed of Africa, who sketches out her story — and is now managing the largest private wildlife reserve in Kenya. The lesson that emerges is simple (and we have examples from India too…): Put dedicated and hardworking people in charge; do not interfere with what they’re doing or put impediments in their way and let them get on with the job, and they will create miracles. Wildlife and environmental bureaucrats (and their political bosses of course), in moribund government departments might blanch at this, but will do well to commit this Afterword to memory and take an oath upon it!
They don’t really have a leg to stand upon considering for the last eight years they were in a state of bare-faced denial regarding the decimation of tigers in Panna National Park, despite desperate warnings being shouted from the treetops all the while.
There is another warning being shouted from the rooftops all over the world: we can no longer ignore the state of the world’s environment. Whether it’s global warming, pollution, decimation of species, destruction of rainforests — it’s time to stop and take a deep breath. Or like one of those fancy banks, we’ll go under… Every one of us.
This book is in coffee-table format, replete with photographs. What’s encouraging for photographers is that the pictures were taken with digital cameras with lenses that do not weigh three tonnes and look like bazookas and cost the equivalent of your house!
Problems
The only problem with a photo-book on African wildlife is that, by now, anyone interested in wildlife will have seen these scenes in motion on television. Lions hunting, wildebeest crossing crocodile infested rivers, leopards lugging their kills on to the treetops, gigantic sunsets…(Indian wildlife has not had such exposure on TV because it’s so much more difficult to shoot and weave a story out of your footage.)
The editing alas leaves something to be desired. Thapar thanks Oxford University Press for producing this book at “lightening’ (sic) speed, which probably says it all! Exclamations of wonder, (‘what a sight!’) which would pass muster in a handwritten diary, could have been culled in the printed version.
At Rs.1995, the book is an expensive proposition, but the message it imparts is invaluable. We can look after the environment and the wonderful creatures that make the world work, if we put our minds to it. If we don’t we’re going to be goners… That is reason enough to buy it.
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