Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Wings of freedom

PHOTOS: AMANO SAMARPAN

Picture Perfect A sarus crane

“Indian Birds in Focus,” by Amano Samarpan published by Wisdom Tree is not just a picture-perfect book but also an S.O.S. for action. The author-photographer zooms high at a crested serpent eagle sunning itself on a treetop. He focuses his camera low at a desert wheatear, wearing a pirate’s mask, stiff at attention. He sloshes through waterlogged swamps of Rajasthan to frame a slender sarus crane heeding its mate’s call.

Through intimate photographs and brief captions of birds in nine different habitats, Samarpan shows how “the fate of birds acts as a kind of barometer for the human race.” Over 10 per cent of the wild bird species in this country are threatened according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, he warns. “To ignore their fate is to ignore the potentially devastating consequences of our actions,” he reminds us.

While based in the U.K., Samarpan has been visiting India for over 30 years. In his own time, he has seen bird-rich areas disappear and once-frequent visitors become vaporous. He recounts, “I used to watch white-rumped vultures from my hotel room in the centre of Delhi and then suddenly, within a few years, they became endangered and were seldom seen anywhere. It took another few years for people to accept it was a result of a drug being given to cattle.”

A kingfisher

Another casualty of our brick and mortar lives is the house sparrow. Samarpan’s first encounter with Indian birds was with the jabbering joyous munia. He remembers his first day in Delhi when he tried sleeping off the jetlag. He was soon interrupted by the tweeting of a flock of sparrows that were diligently making a racket and exploring his prostrate body. The photographer says, “It was a delightful introduction to India and something I had never experienced before.” Today, the sparrow is seen in fewer numbers, he explains, because of the concretisation of cities. As we cement our houses, we deprive the humble sparrow of its thatched habitat. The book frames this bird’s dilemma in a lovely photograph of it peeping down from an asbestos roof, as if wondering where all its nesting thatch has gone.

But even while urbanisation pollutes the soil, water and air and elbows out nesting areas, birds have proved to be resilient, notes Samarapan. A hardy “urban survivor” is our common crow. He says we see many crows in the cities because they destroy nests of other birds and also simply because they are clever. Another bird, which has so far outlived man’s callous ways, is the black kite. Samarpan makes note of the black kites that can be seen “swooping around, giving great aerial displays and using this to get food”, from the top floor of the Le Meridien on wintry mornings.

A grey-headed fishing eagle

Samarpan took to photography about 20 years ago. One of his first assignments was at Sultanpur National Park, close to Gurgaon, though his knowledge was limited he made good images. On bird photography he says, “Some of the biggest challenges have not a lot to do with photography!” They have more to do with access to sanctuaries, finding a good guide and getting a candid shot despite hordes of tourists.

At first reluctant to reveal a favourite bird, Samarpan does admit he has a fondness for kingfishers for their bright plumage and for their deftness at diving into the water and emerging with a wriggling fish.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail