The Pioneer brings to you the journey of one of the youngest wildlife conservationists, and filmmaker Suyash Keshari, who creates special moments with the wildlife.
Shikha Duggal
Every now and then, we see the work of a wildlife photographer and it blows our minds. One such lensman is Suyash Keshari, who is not just a wildlife presenter, but a filmmaker too. He creates moments so special with complete skills and patience that we couldn’t resist getting in touch with him!
He launches us straight into his journey and speaks, “My birthplace is close to the jungles of the country. As I was growing up — my inclination toward observing the creatures grew. That piqued my interest into capturing them from my father’s reel camera. As with any other photographer, they aren’t just images to us but would love to narrate a story through it and that’s what I thought of. Never took a professional course for becoming a wildlife photographer, attending workshops taught me the best way how to take a snap of the animals.”
It’s evident, once you start looking into his portfolio, you’ll understand how Suyash has a flair for capturing the wild in their most fleeting moments. He continued to tell us, “I was once working for the political advocacy department in Washington DC and after a point of time, started to get disconnected. I was missing the wildlife! Then there was news all around, a tiger was poached. I couldn’t resist myself and posted my views online. That made me realise, what will the internet do? I should get into the pot-hole and clean the mess myself. I quit political advocacy soon after that and began my journey as a wildlife conservationist.”
Conversing more about his experience, he said, “Recently had an exhibition set up just to bridge the gap between wildlife and humanity. Every day, I hear people calling them treacherous and it pinches my heart! This exhibition brought them up, close and personal to the wild animals and expressed to them the animals’ plight because that’s instead very menacing, not the animal. I have been in the wild myself, and most of the time those wildies don’t want any squabble. Whatever money came in from this exhibition, is used for raising funds for conservation projects.”
Just, by the way, what makes his images so successful? Well, he says, “You can leave a positive impact on nature too. Pick up the plastic, and go for cleanliness drives! Because wildlife is the most magnificent world to be in. It ignites my soul, and that’s what is visible in my pictures too. Wildlife grows from trip to trip — and have come to be known about their habits too. That’s a bonus for me.”
Wildlife photographers have another critical role to play here: they document what remains of the planet’s wilderness, with which humankind shares an intertwined destiny to let us know exactly if the animals are facing any emergency. “It’s high time schools must introduce a subject to wildlife and conservation.
Going into the wild is like a sense of mission! Don’t want an ecological disaster to appear anytime soon, but looking at the stats anything can happen. Hence, awareness is so critical,” adds Suyash who was once disgusted to see the animals being caged in his childhood.
