KOLKATA: One of his early encounters with a wild tiger
was in the mid-70s at Madhya Pradesh's Bandhavgarh, when it was yet to
be declared a tiger reserve. As conservationist Biswajit Roy
Chowdhury, then 28 years old, was busy taking snaps of red-wattled
lapwing chicks, he suddenly spotted a yellow object melting into the
tall grass of the meadow. He soon realized that it was a huge tiger to
his left, not more than 50 yards from where he was standing. What
followed in the next few minutes was enough for Biswajit to fall for
this "large-hearted gentleman", as Jim Corbett
had famously called tigers. As he moved forward, the tiger also started
moving parallel to him, but the distance between them never reduced.
Soon, both of them reached a junction in a forest road, where they
parted ways: Biswajit took a right turn to the gate leading outside, and
the tiger went left to disappear into the woods.
Under the spell of the
wild, this city-based lensman took every opportunity to return to the
pristine forests of the country whenever he could. From snow leopards in
the Himalayan wildernesses to a whale shark in the Arabian Sea off
Gujarat, from the tropical rain forests of the Western Ghats to the
mangrove forests of the Sunderbans... the call of the wild grew louder
in his heart with every passing day. Packed with about 500 breathtaking
images of India's flora and fauna — the result of four decades of hard
work — his book 'Days In The Wild' is ready to hit the shelves. The
lively pictures, combined with quick facts, promise to take readers
close to the heart of wild India while building up awareness and the
urge to protect it.
Here are a few highlights from the book:
Big cats The tigers, Asiatic lions and leopards are a feast for the eyes. With every photograph, there's a brief caption providing insight into their behaviour. From a pack of wild dogs chasing a leopard in Madhya Pradesh's Satpuda, to the author's close encounter with a tiger at Uttarakhand's Corbett, the photographs have a story to tell. Rare images — such as the one of a pair of mating leopards in a Chhattisgarh forest — promise an interesting read.
Winged Wonders "My journey into the wilds originally began with birds," says Biswajit. The author was drawn to these winged creatures when he was a child. His family owned a farmhouse in Suriya near the Hazaribagh rail station, now in Jharkhand. A fruit orchard in the backyard with tall eucalyptus trees dotting the boundary wall made the place a paradise for bird watchers. It was here that he first sighted and identified a powerful raptor, the crested serpent eagle, as a young boy in the late 50s. From Indian skimmers in the Chambal to sun birds in Darjeeling and the common shelduck in the Sunderbans, the photo sojourn takes a flight of fancy with these images.
Herbivores Did you know that elephants have matriarchal families? The leader of a herd is the most senior female and the rest of the elephants in the herd follow her commands. Strewn with several such basic facts, the book promises to make the photo sojourn more interesting. The 63-year-old conservationist recalls how, on two separate occasions, his car was chased by an elephant and a rhino — in Bengal's Jaldapara and Assam's Kaziranga, respectively. At Kaziranga, the author recalls, the rhino had even banged the vehicle's rear with its horn. "Giant, yet gentle" — this is how Biswajit describes the powerful herbivores. A striking image in this section is that of a Markhor, an endangered wild goat, in a forest in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lesser cats The author expresses concern at current conservation efforts that are centred only around tigers and lions. Indian forests also harbour 15 lesser wild cats, he reminds readers. He recalls how fishing cats were once seen regularly around the wetlands of Panchla, a village in Howrah. "Caracal sightings were not rare in Panna or in many places in Rajasthan. But now, sighting lesser cats has become very difficult in Indian forests," he rues. To drive home this point, he uses several images of lesser cats, including that of a Binturong — the largest member of the civet family — in the forest of Darjeeling's Singalila. The images of a snow leopard in Ladakh and a clouded leopard in Meghalaya's Balphakram are worth a special mention.
Here are a few highlights from the book:
Big cats The tigers, Asiatic lions and leopards are a feast for the eyes. With every photograph, there's a brief caption providing insight into their behaviour. From a pack of wild dogs chasing a leopard in Madhya Pradesh's Satpuda, to the author's close encounter with a tiger at Uttarakhand's Corbett, the photographs have a story to tell. Rare images — such as the one of a pair of mating leopards in a Chhattisgarh forest — promise an interesting read.
Winged Wonders "My journey into the wilds originally began with birds," says Biswajit. The author was drawn to these winged creatures when he was a child. His family owned a farmhouse in Suriya near the Hazaribagh rail station, now in Jharkhand. A fruit orchard in the backyard with tall eucalyptus trees dotting the boundary wall made the place a paradise for bird watchers. It was here that he first sighted and identified a powerful raptor, the crested serpent eagle, as a young boy in the late 50s. From Indian skimmers in the Chambal to sun birds in Darjeeling and the common shelduck in the Sunderbans, the photo sojourn takes a flight of fancy with these images.
Herbivores Did you know that elephants have matriarchal families? The leader of a herd is the most senior female and the rest of the elephants in the herd follow her commands. Strewn with several such basic facts, the book promises to make the photo sojourn more interesting. The 63-year-old conservationist recalls how, on two separate occasions, his car was chased by an elephant and a rhino — in Bengal's Jaldapara and Assam's Kaziranga, respectively. At Kaziranga, the author recalls, the rhino had even banged the vehicle's rear with its horn. "Giant, yet gentle" — this is how Biswajit describes the powerful herbivores. A striking image in this section is that of a Markhor, an endangered wild goat, in a forest in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lesser cats The author expresses concern at current conservation efforts that are centred only around tigers and lions. Indian forests also harbour 15 lesser wild cats, he reminds readers. He recalls how fishing cats were once seen regularly around the wetlands of Panchla, a village in Howrah. "Caracal sightings were not rare in Panna or in many places in Rajasthan. But now, sighting lesser cats has become very difficult in Indian forests," he rues. To drive home this point, he uses several images of lesser cats, including that of a Binturong — the largest member of the civet family — in the forest of Darjeeling's Singalila. The images of a snow leopard in Ladakh and a clouded leopard in Meghalaya's Balphakram are worth a special mention.
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