Tiger on the wall

Even as Relief Art Gallery in the city will host Wild Apart, Sanjeev Siva, the photographer remembers a time when he was a consultant with an IT company, for whom photography was a mere passion. He tells us, how some years ago, during one of his visits to the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve along with his friend, he was struck with the idea of capturing the moments and behaviours of tigers in forests.

Though it is a task that needs a lot of patience, Sanjeev has been doing just that for the last five years. The photographer, who’s travelled far and wide to places such as Ranthambore, Tadoba, Bandhavgarh, Pench and Kanha in search of this elusive cat.

Tiger, tiger burning bright
Wild Apart is Sanjeev’s second exhibition on tigers, which showcases unique frames of tigers on metal on archival paper. “This is the first time an exhibition on tigers is being done on metal (allure) in the entire country. The idea is to provide the viewer with an immersive experience,” says Sanjeev.

One of Sanjeev’s reasons for doing these exhibitions and displaying tiger pictures is to create awareness on tigers and to save them. “Generally, there is a misconception among the people that tigers kill human beings they spot, which is totally wrong. If tigers encounter a human, their first aim is to walk away from the human and not attack the human,” explains Sanjeev.

But what about news that claims tigers have killed people? “Those are all accidental. If you try to harm a cat in a room, it tries to attack you, but if you leave it, it will go. So it is with a tiger, too,” explains Sanjeev, who has captured around 150 individual tigers from various Indian forests.

Tiger, the saviour
Another reason for him to do Wild Apart is to appeal to the people to help save the species because saving the species might even help us save the planet. “Worldwide, tiger has become synonymous with conservation, particularly after the extinction of three subspecies. But tigers are among the most important animals in the field of conversation because it is one of the keystone species that plays a crucial role in the functioning of an ecosystem. In fact, even in India alone, more than 600 rivers and rivulets originate in one tiger forest. Thus, saving a tiger would mean saving the forest. Then there are other aspects about a tiger being the national animal of India, which is a matter of national pride,” he says.

Incidentally, tigers are also crowd-pullers and generate a lot of tourism. “Because of that tourism, locals living in and around the forest would benefit a lot. In fact, just Ranatamhbore National Park earns Rs 33 crore revenue every year because of tiger tourism. That is the kind of earning potential a live tiger brings,” explains Sanjeev.

State of the tiger
Sadly, Sanjeev’s experiences in the Telangana tiger reserves have been near dismal. “First of all, we don’t have extensive tourism, and to add to it, the timings and the routes are bad. So, compared to states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, which are doing a lot to promote tiger tourism, we lag far behind,” he observes.

That being said, Sanjeev has big plans for the near future. He plans to come up with a book extensively on tigers, with chapters on how to save the species and how tigers are helpful for everything on this planet. The book would largely talk about tigers being an umbrella and keystone species, which are indicators of the health of the forest.