66 Sanctuary Asia, February 2019Sanctuary Asia, June 2019Sanctuary |Commentary
Photographer: Sanjaya Mariwala
Location: Zone 6, Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan
Details: Camera: Canon EOS 5DS R, Lens: Canon EF 100-400 mm. f/4.5-5.6 L IS II USM,
Shutter Speed: 1/800, Aperture: f/6.3, ISO 500, Focal Length: 400 mm,
Date: April 21, 2019, 6:50 a.m.A PIXEL ON THE PLANET
Some of my fi nest life-moments have been
spent in quiet wildernesses outside Anchorage
in Alaska, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the
Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and the
exquisite Table Mountain and Kruger National
Park of South Africa. Here, more than brown
bears, mule deer, gorillas, penguins, sharks or
lions, it is the sound of silence that enriches
my existence.
I have spent my life struggling, ant-like, to
staunch India’s insensible human hurtle towards
ecological dead-ends. Some understand why.
Others believe that protecting tigers and even
the ticks on the backs of tigers is a quirky,
irrelevant obsession.
Neither distracts me from the compass I
instinctively follow.
In truth, I started out in the 1970s, seeking
the wild for the most selfi sh of all reasons – I
was (am) happiest where humans were (are)
not. Like a fl y on the wall, I would (still do) play
games, seeking out landscapes unmarred by
the faintest trace of human existence, conjuring
time travel images of life as it must have existed
before Homo sapiens crashed into the biosphere.
Acutely aware of my own transience, the
inviting moan of a tiger seeking the attention
of its mate (look... it’s there!) completes the wild
and sends a wash of serenity through my being.
I did not create the near-perfection around me.
I contribute nothing to the magic. And a lifetime
spent trying to keep Earth wild, has had nothing
to do with altruism. It is selfi shness personifi ed.
Nature infuses me with a comforting
humility, an elixir that mysteriously enhances my
‘ego’ because I am but a pixel on a planet, whose
systems will cycle on when I am turned into yet
another perfectly-fi tted pixel in the grand opus
of life.