Profile

 

Introduction:
Indiawilds has been conceived to showcase the beauty of India’s wilds through Nature and Wildlife Photography. The site conveys the importance of preserving this fast vanishing wilderness.
I will strive to garner support for conservation of the last tracts of wilderness and wildlife through articles, personal experiences and wildlife photographs. These articles, photographs and personal experiences will help in increasing our understanding of animal behaviour. Not a single photograph in this site is taken under controlled conditions, as I detest the sight of animals behind bars.

 I am passionate about the Tiger and wildlife photography. My passion and love for my subject makes me persevere and strive that much harder to establish an unwritten bond with my subjects. Whenever, I have been able to establish this bond with a tiger or any animal, my photographs appear to have more life in it. I believe that logic and reason are not enough to stir us into taking action to preserve our environment. So I am striving to make my photographs full of life and emotion, which might compel us into acting in the interests of our wildlife. I would pray to almighty, that my wildlife photographs force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action.

My interest in wildlife was aroused through Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson’s books, which led to treks in the forests behind our school. This childhood passion for wildlife has merged with my passion for photography. I started photography on wildlife and natural areas in 1992 with a Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 camera. Currently using Canon’s professional Digital SLR camera EOS 1D Mark II and image stabilized lenses.

Exhibition:
Thirty-two of my Wildlife Photographs were exhibited in Wildlife Affairs 2005 conducted by Orissa Forest Department and Wild Orissa at Rashtriya Lalit Kala Academy in Bhubaneswar, India. In 2006, my wildlife photographs were exhibited in four towns in the State of Orissa.

BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition:
This is one of the premier wildlife photography competitions in the world organised by BBC and Natural History Museum London. Fourteen of my photographs had reached the Semi-Finals of this competition in 2008. There were 32000 entries from 78 countries making it one of the toughest wildlife photography competitions in the world.

Profession:

Pursuing left brained activities like engineering and MBA education (BE in Metallurgy from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India in 1992 and MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, India in 1997), didn’t come on the way of my photography – which is supposed to be a right brained activity. Infact, during my MBA days, I had shot all the photographs in B&W for our Year book.At present, I handle the Govt. Relations of Nokia Telecom SEZ in India.

 

 

Conservation Activities:
I have used my knowledge of wildlife and passion for conservation to start various projects under the umbrella of Corporate Social Responsibility.

  • Nokia-WWF tie-up for projects in South Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The project is for a duration of three years. This involves the Nilgiri Thar conservation, Anayrangal elephants, reducing human animal conflict and alternate livelihood projects.
  • Replacing the wireless network of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra to a GSM based system using Nokia phones. This is the first tiger reserve in India to have shifted to GSM from the archaic wireless system.The benefits include better coverage, two way communication between the office and field staff; no need for forest dept. officials to man and maintain wireless equipment, batteries etc.