On the Back of a Dream is my maiden video production and I’m really excited to share it because it is as much a culmination of a dream as is the trip that made it possible.Videos, specifically well-compiled montages and slickly-edited films, have fascinated me for a long time, and ever since video-equipped DSLRs became…
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Tiger Wars: A New Hope
On the occasion of tiger reserves being reopened to tourism after a three-month ban… The Banbehi female cub in hot pursuit of her brother at Sita Mandap, May 2012 I can smell the wet earth and lap up the dew again. I can breathe the whispering wind and watch a virginal dawn crack again. I…
In the Good Books
This picture is featured as a full-page spread in Valmik Thapar‘s latest book, “The Tiger – Soul of India,”published by Oxford University Press. I thank my naturalist Mukesh Burman and my driver Vikas for making the image possible.
Winner – NDTV Tiger Photo Contest
I’m pleased to announce that this image has been chosen as the winner of the NDTV Tiger Photo Contest from a whopping 6000 entries, and will feature in their 2011 calendar. In connection with this, I was featured in a brief interview with NDTV anchor Swati Thiyagarajan on their mega 12-hour ‘telethon’ yesterday on NDTV…
The Sole Seed – BBC WPOTY 2010 Finalist
From the precinct of the passionate heart arose a dream to shoot at the stars. The aim was high, the challenge was daunting and the reward not slight. The distance was great but the dream pressed on relentlessly, blissfully blind to the light-years in between, and fuelled by the motto that to pit oneself against…
Black Kite with a Bull Pup
Yes, the bird certainly is “only a black kite” but it was enough to show how excellent the 200-400’s auto-focus performance is, but the exercise, quite in the physical sense of the word, also illustrated how, although black all right, the lens is certainly not a kite, in that it offers not any of the…
Public Misdemeanour
In May 2009, my dear friend and tigging cohort whom I’ve christened ‘Scotchie’ for such perfectly unimaginative reasons as his singular love for scotch and Kenneth Anderson, was scheduled to accompany me to Bandhavgarh for what would have been a third time. But thanks to official summons, Scotchie instead ended up more northwest, as the…
Esprit de Corps
Auntie with Dhitti (left; now called The Rajbehra Female) and Chhoti (top; now called Kankati) This sight was very common in that magical summer of 2009 when Auntie and her two female cubs were seen almost every afternoon at the Rajbehra Dam. Sometimes she’d lead the way and the cubs would follow and at other…
Mama’s Boy – Solitary or Social?
The Kachida male cub is a part of a litter that exhibited compellingly intriguing behaviour in the summer of 2008. Aditya Singh of the Ranthambhore Bagh reports that this litter of two and a half years had split from their mother last winter but lack of wide-spread availability of water and other essentials in the…
Enter the Goddess
The Banbehi female, after descending a hill and crossing the road, walking as though on a mission without once pausing. Our conjecture was that she was out to fetch some breakfast for her tiny tots. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see them, but when she first appeared on the hill in the bushes, betraying her…
Sashaying to Immortality
With her sinuous gait, she will sashay down the ramp and ease herself into your heart’s precincts. You pinch your skin and rub your eyes in disbelief, for this is too wonderful to be true. But she is real, like the moon, beautiful, large and glowing. You try to explain her away as a…
My Interview
Futloose.com have published an interview of mine on their blog, which may be read here: http://www.futloose.com/blog. Santosh
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
The Chorbehra male cub smells a tree on the heels of his sister’s departure from the same spot a few seconds before. One hopes that despite their mother’s crippling injury and eventual demise, they’ve learned life’s lessons during their teen months and can pull themselves through this extremely critical period when they must face…
Less Equal than Others?
This Republic Day, I wish that we can offer our magnificent felines, the symbol of our natural treasure, the same liberty and protection that we, the simian citizens of this country, enjoy, so that, amongst other things, they can cross roads without the fear of being mowed down by mindless juggernauts. Happy Republic Day!
TIGGA TALES 