Wildlife

BBC Earth Explorer : Lion-tailed macaques

You remember the Chasing the Monsoon expedition? Paul has been very efficient and has been both writing and putting together video snippets from the trip. BBC has finally put up one of the stories from the expedition which I presented on the Lion-tailed macaques (Filmed by David, Paul and Mandanna). Lion-tailed macaques are the most fascinating primates from the Western Ghats and are also one of the most endangered in the world. I have been following this group for a while now when I did the photo essays, and it was a pleasure to see them again and thankfully doing…

Snake Bites Production

I’m off on a month-long assignment to film snakes at the Madras Crocodile Bank. Its an Icon Films production for the BBC. 
What’s the film about ? World Health Organization estimates suggest that over one million people are bitten by snakes in India each year; between 20,000 and 50,000 of these prove fatal, as many as the rest of the world combined. Although shocking, these statistics are still just estimates and as such sadly hold diminished weight. There is presently no conclusive data that confirms exactly what the situation is. But this is all set to change later this year…

Revisiting Nilgiris’ Peaks and Passes

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of an expedition team led by Dr AJT Johnsingh. The trek was from Mukurthi National Park in Tamil Nadu to Silent Valley National Park in Kerala and the primary purpose was to evaluate the importance of the two national parks in the conservation planning for large mammals. A delightful and detailed account of the expedition has been written by Dr AJT Johnsingh in the Frontline magazine. While I had no scientific expertise to add to the mission, I did have ulterior motives. This route goes via the famous…

Expedition Monsoon : The Water Monster

We are back in town for a day to dry up, and have managed to put together a quick clip of our tryst with a mugger crocodile at Ranganthittu. This is the clip where Paul has for the first time in his life seen and even got this close to a big Croc. He was in for quite a surprise when this happened. Presentation: Paul Williams, Direction: Kalyan Varma, Camera: David Heath, Production Manager/Sound: Mandana Dilan. Lot more stories coming up soon. We are heading to the more familiar jungles of BR hills and Nagarahole for the big wildlife and…

Leopard next door

Mandanna came running and said he just saw a leopard next to him, relaxing on a wall with its legs on either side of it. He had gone to pick up something from my Scorpio which was right next to this wall. We all rushed out and went back to see the leopard get up and jump into the tea bushes next to it. We got excited but got back to our work and Mandanna went to drop off our friends at a home stay. When he got back again after an hour, he came in and said that he…

Wet and Cold

The last few days have been tough. Tough not because we could not find what we wanted to film, but because it has been raining almost non-stop and because of the high altitudes, it has been bloody cold too. To make matters worse, our cameras froze up – both my still camera and the Sony XDCAM video camera. Both the cameras could not take the continuous 98% humidity, wetness, and I guess, partly the cold. Both of them are back in order now, but not up to their full capacity. We are going ahead, but these things slow you down…

Frogmouths of Thattekad

We are at the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary at this moment to photograph and film the Srilankan Frogmouth. We tried last evening, but it rained cats and dogs and we did not find any either. This morning however, the rains held on and we managed to find two pairs roosting in their regular spots Finding them ourselves is next to impossible. Eldose was with us, who is the best bird guide in south India. He pretty much can find you any bird you ask for. Its pouring as I make this post and I hope the rains settle down soon and…

Following the Rains of Life

If you are from India, you know that the monsoons are the lifeline of the country. It brings joy and celebration to the land, the people, and most of all, the wildlife. Over ten meters of rain falls in the Western Ghats in this season transforming the land completely. Many plants fruit now, all the frogs emerge out, mate and lay their eggs and all the birds would have finished nesting just in time so that the hatchlings have plenty of insects to feed on. Every year, I spend the monsoons up in the hills to really experience it fully….

Great Hornbill Scape

I have always wanted to photograph hornbills with the rainforest canopy in which they live in. I am in general a fan of animal in its habitat kinda photography and yesterday I was lucky enough to photograph this in Anamalais tiger reserve. There were two of them and they kept on hopping from one tree to another. Because of the rains and the clouds, the light was very low and this is one of the sharpest photograph that I could actually manage. Frankly did not expect to see too many Great Hornbills during the monsoons, but wildlife always throws those…

Trip to MP

Starting tomorrow, I’m on a 10-day trip to Central India visiting Bandhavgadh and Kanha. Being summer, I hope to see quite a few tigers and hopefully get some decent photographs. I’m also excited about staying at Taj Safaries and doing the Tiger Photography Safari. Since LJ is no longer most convenient blogging tool, I try my best to post live updated on my twitter feed. On that note, once I get back, I hope to move my blog from here to WordPress on my site. Has anyone figured out how to export all your LJ archives to WordPress along with…

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