Animal Instinct

He enjoys walking on the wild side of life. Spending weeks in jungles,national parks,wildlife sanctuaries,Jaskaran Sandhu is a photographer with a mission — through his pictures,he means to spread awareness on the need for wildlife conservation,to save both jungles and animals. Victims of Mankind,an exhibition of as many 50 photographs taken by Sandhu over the years,many in South Africa,is another step towards sensitizing the common man,especially children,towards saving forests and animals. For Sandhu,it’s been a total role reversal,as his first tryst with the jungle and animals was as a hunter. “Now I have turned saviour,and can’t even bear the thought of hunting these animals,” Patiala-based Sandhu,recalls how hunting trips with his father were a frequent affair and brought him close to nature and he had a deep urge to share the beauty of various wild species,especially the endangered ones,with the world. It was almost a decade back that Sandhu realized that more efforts need to be put in to save this asset. “Not just hunters,poachers need to be checked with an iron hand. The problem plagues not just India,we are losing our forests and wildlife all over the world,” Sandhu points to a beautiful picture of a cheetah walking around in a forest burnt down in South Africa. “Where do they go,they are the victims of our greed and insensitivity,” this is Sandhu’s third exhibition.

Many of the photographs have been taken in the Kruger National Park in South Africa,where Sandhu camped for weeks,and agrees it’s a tough job to capture animals,as there are considerations of light,there has to be a proper distance,though in this exhibition you can almost feel many of the animals like the painted stork,spotted deer,white rhinoceros,double-horned Burchell’s Zebra,cheetah,black langoor…posing for Sandhu. He also captures rare moments like the peacock staring at his shadow in the water,African Elephants,Neelgiri Thar staring into the oblivion.

Organized by Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi,the exhibition is on at Government Museum & Art Gallery,Sector 10,Chandigarh,from June 27 to 30,between 10 am and 6.30 pm.