Let Our Precious World Be
Guidelines in the name of safety only distance the protectors of nature further from her.
By Bittu Sahgal
The aim is to let nature and wildlife be, and to promote these through an easily digestible visual medium.
We sat quietly atop an elephant as the incredible George Schaller, wildlife biologist extraordinaire, and the inspirational Alan Rabinowitz of Panthera, a US-based large-cat protection organization, gazed at a tiger resting in the shade, about 20 metres from us. “Let’s leave it alone,” George whispered. “It doesn’t look happy we’re here.” As if on cue, the tiger, which had just killed a spotted deer, sent us a grimacing snarl. Promptly, Brijendra Singh, honorary warden of the Corbett Tiger Reserve, good-humouredly instructed our mahout: “The tiger and George are both instructing us to return… let’s go!”
On the way back, both George and Alan concurred with Brij, who said, “Tigers really need nothing from us than to be left alone and undisturbed.” We were in Khinnanauli, in one of the thickest forest patches of Corbett in Uttarakhand and, even as late as in March 2011, we could hear the swift-flowing, blue, glacial Ramganga that eventually pours into the mighty Ganga.
At the heritage Khinnanauli Forest Rest House we found Steve Winter, a celebrated National Geographic photographer, waiting for us. Steve’s images have inspired millions around the world to love and care for wild nature and he was with us in Corbett to visually document the mission of these all-time tiger greats.
At the heritage Khinnanauli Forest Rest House we found Steve Winter, a celebrated National Geographic photographer, waiting for us. Steve’s images have inspired millions around the world to love and care for wild nature and he was with us in Corbett to visually document the mission of these all-time tiger greats.
Steve and I got talking about Sanctuary Asia, the magazine I edit, and about the need for forest officials to look upon dedicated nature photographers as allies and compatriots. All too often in India, even those photographers, cinematographers, writers and researchers whose entire lives have been committed to protecting wildlife are lumped together with day-trippers and picnickers (nothing intrinsically wrong with them!), making it impossible to capture and share intimate moments of natural history that could move nations to conserve their wild heritage.
“It’s tough for them to sort the wheat from the chaff, Steve. I have seen a man in a vehicle throw a plastic bottle at a tiger to grab its attention, the way insensitive visitors do in zoos,” I said, after readily agreeing that special access had to be afforded to individuals with proven worth and an ethical track record.
I spent quality time in Corbett with Steve whose quiet, purposeful life as a photojournalist was inspired by childhood memories of images in his father’s collection of National Geographic and Life magazines. The quintessential
adventurer, he has had his share of hairy adventures including being charged by a rhino in Kaziranga, a grizzly in Siberia and being trapped in quicksand in Myanmar. Yet, he says, he feels safer in the wilds than on city streets.
Steve’s world is my world. After a lifetime spent alternately celebrating and defending nature, Steve Winter and I will soon be sharing purpose and mission to help equip thousands of budding young conservation photographers in Sanctuary Asia’s fold, to move beyond pretty pictures… to defending that which is precious.
Our aim is to let nature and wildlife be, and to promote these through an easily digestible visual medium. Indeed, Indians should be grateful for the riches nature has blessed us so bountifully with. From the snow-capped Himalayas, the mangrove swamps of West Bengal’s Sundarbans; the coral islands of the Andaman Sea to the living Thar desert, and the steaming jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, virtually every kind of plant and animal can be found in this vast country. And every such treasure is now threatened, largely thanks to misguided notions that the
destruction of nature is acceptable collateral damage in exchange
for “development.”
Bittu Sahgal is Editor of Sanctuary Asia magazine and a member of the National Board for Wildlife.
- See more at: http://www.readersdigest.co.in/let-our-precious-world-be?page=2#sthash.Z5inTzeR.dpuf
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น