Natasha Mhatre, 29, counts herself as one of a growing tribe of people called the “wild-lifers”. “I was always on bird-watching trips and spending a lot of time outdoors,” she said. “I did get my leg pulled for it.”
Mhatre is now working on a book that documents some of the creatures on the 450-acre campus of the Indian Institute of Science. “I’m an urbanite from Bombay and walking into this campus was an absolute treasure,” she said. “The diversity of wildlife on campus became truly apparent to me only when I started photographing it.”
Also, she said photography helped her pay attention to the various species and taught her great levels of patience. “It [photography] forces you to focus on nuances, on every small thing that is part of a whole,” Mhatre said. Mhatre cautioned that the book she’s working on, Secret Lives: Biodiversityin IISc is not meant to be the final tome on all the biodiversity in IISc: “This book covers about 187 species on campus, namely 34 birds, 106 insects, 24 plants, 8 fungii and lichens, 6 mammals, 5 snakes, 2 amphibians and 2 snails. IISc is home to an estimated 161 species of birds, 96 species of ants and 87 species of butterflies.”
Mhatre’s book will be released during the Centenary celebrations of the IISc, Sat Dec 13-Tue Dec 16, 2008. Her favourite animal on campus is the Slender Loris, the most primitive extant primate in the world. Joshua Muyiwa
Source : Time Out Bengaluru ISSUE 1 Friday, July 23, 2010
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