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Wild Week
This year, India Wildlife Week and World Wildlife Week stretch between 1-8 October  GO!
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Leave me alone!
Sanctuary Asia, India's flagship environmental and wildlife conservation organisation, Save the Tiger, the Facebook tiger conservation social media platform, along with the Society for Heritage & Ecological Researchers (SHER), supported by 2.7 million citizens, have come together to launch an education, awareness-building, and activist campaign to save India's iconic national animal, the tiger.
The campaign will make clear to the public and to decision-makers the crucial role the tiger plays in protecting forests, and hence the Indian population's needs for clean water and a stable climate.
Bolly star Dia Mirza who is known to be socially active and supports many causes which are close to her heart. “Over the years, the national animal has been on a rapid decline and if necessary steps aren’t taken to conserve them, they will soon be extinct, “said the star. The talented actor has come on board and is now supporting the ‘Leave Me Alone’ campaign which aims at Saving the Tigers. Veteran actor Om Puri has also been an active participant in this campaign.
To sign the petition and help the tiger voice its call “LEAVE ME ALONE” click below. http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/save-the-tiger-heed-its-leave-me-alone-call
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Nature Photographers tend to discrepect the very object of their art
Click, ethically
Meera Bhowmik
AUGUST 2013
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| Shooting to kill: Passionate wildlife photographers can do much harm to environment as to the animals they seek to capture digitally. Unlike casual tourists, who may visit a sanctuary once or twice in a lifetime, the ardent photographer grabs a digital SLR, and drives off for a stress-buster weekend shooting her/his favourite fauna/flora. He/she may do this regularly - even every week! Obviously, this leads to an enhanced carbon footprint, too. |
The advent of digital cameras has seen a surge in photography enthusiasts. And these budding photographers are showing immense interest in wildlife photography thanks to the intrinsic beauty and ‘wow’ factor of nature. This has led to a ‘getting the picture at any cost’ attitude, where ethics are discarded in a quest for the Golden Shot. These amateur photographers do more environmental harm than even the average tourist does.
Bittu Sahgal, founder editor of Sanctuary Asia enlightened Kolkatans (Calcuttans) on ethical aspects of wildlife photography at the South City International School, with a symposium titled ‘Ethics of Nature Photography,’ which was organised by SHER (Society for Heritage & Ecological Researchers), Sanctuary Asia, in association with ‘ACT’ (Association for Conservation & Tourism).
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The Nature Club of South City International School, welcomes everyone with a softboard on the tiger.
Starting on a note of apology to the youth of today, on behalf of the previous generation for having failed to conserve our natural riches, Bittu got in full swing on his talk. Compelling a wild creature out of its natural habitat and introducing it in an alien environment, in captivity or pretending that it is in its natural environment is a big no-no when it comes to ethics. Similarly, baiting animals, not maintaining safe distance, disrupting the regular behavior of the animal, or even using editing software to manipulate the photograph should be taboo for wildlife shutterbugs. These unethical behaviours not only risk the lives of the wild but also put their subsistence in jeopardy.
Rather, Bittu emphasised that conservation photography should be the purpose of clickers - where the photographs help send a message to stop illegal actions like mining, road kill, etc and in the process helps nature from being ruined. "You must not merely respect your subject, but protect them too”, says Bittu. Even the regular phone cameras can be used for conservational photography – the object is to invoke/provoke action towards conservation.
A panel discussion moderated by Bittu followed. The panel consisted of Chief Wildlife Warden N C Bahuguna, additional principal chief conservator of forests Pradeep Vyas, wildlife writer Shilanjan Bhattacharya, WWF Sunderbans chapter head Anurag Danda and conservationist Dr. Raj Basu, who shared their experiences working in the wild and problems triggered by due to unethical photography.
The message of these conservationists was ‘our eye is our camera’ and in the process not disturbing the wild was loud and clear. Dr. Basu particularly barbed out of photographers who put ethics at stake for a few hundred ‘Likes’ on social networking sites. With amateurs running amok with fancy cameras, this unfortunately is the bitter truth.
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