Freezing fauna

So when four close friends — DCP Pravin Pawar,Sushil Garje (Deputy Commissioner,Sales Tax),Dynanesh Hinge (Deputy Commissioner,Sales Tax),Sanjeev Bhor (Assistant RTO),got together at the University’s Jaykar library and decided to nurture their passion,there was no looking back. From taking bumpy six-hour-long rides to flying in hot air balloons,the quartet shed the luxuries of officers’ lives to don the hats of adventurers. And their companions at every step,Vipin Goje,director,Focal Photo Studio and Manish Patel,a businessman together brought the whole experience to its full circle. Goje a professional photographer who accompanied the quartet and Patel on every Safari witnessed the growth – from amateurs to professionals,the five-year period before they came up with their first exhibition at NCPA Gallery in Mumbai this year in February had been an experience of sorts.

A yearly ritual for the group of five since 2003 – a safari had been termed as a waste of vacation by not just colleagues but even family members. “Every year since 2003 we have been going for safaris. Till now we have made over 15 trips of every national park and sanctuary in India. We have also visited Kenya and its national parks. The irony is our trips were not appreciated much,especially by colleagues,” Sanjeev Bhor shares. But bonded by their love to preserve wildlife with their efforts the four did not budge and so the trips to the nature continued. “Altogether we have made more than 700 trips in last five years. We have more than 80000 photos from which we are putting up 73,” says Vipin Goje.

The group has been frequenting the sanctuaries and national and is quite dissatisfied with the kind of preservation work. “ We clicked the biggest tiger Banda at kanha national park at one of our trips but just after three months we went back to click him again and we found him missing. The officials say he died his age bur the carcasses are still to be found,” says Goje.

Sushil Garje agrees,“Gir national park has a railway line runnig across it. The villages are encroaching in its territory. The essence of the wild is missing from the place. How do you expect the animals to be growing properly there.”

The exihibiton opens today at Bal Gandharva at 10 am to 9 pm and is on till September 22

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