Across The Himalayas: Fill & Download for Free

The beginnings of Yoga were developed by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India over 5,000 years ago. The word yoga was first mentioned in the oldest sacred texts, the Rig Veda. The Vedas were a collection of texts containing songs, mantras and rituals to be used by Brahmans, the Vedic priests. Yoga was slowly refined and developed by the Brahmans and Rishis (mystic seers) who documented their practices and beliefs in the Upanishads, a huge work containing over 200 scriptures.A number of seals and fossil remains of Indus Saraswati valley civilization with Yotic motives and figures performing yoga indicate the presence of Yoga in India.In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a god, but as the "Adiyogi" or the "first yogi" - the originator of yoga. He was the one who first put this seed into the human mind.Several Thousand years ago, on the banks of the lake Kantisarovar in the Himalayas, Adiyogi poured his profound knowledge into the legendary Saptarishis or "seven sages”. The sages carried this powerful yogic science to different parts of the world, including Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa and South America. Interestingly, modern scholars have noted and marvelled at the close parallels found between ancient cultures across the globe. However, it was in India that the yogic system found its fullest expression. Agastya, the Saptarishi who travelled across the Indian subcontinent, crafted this culture around a core yogic way of life.

Alexandra David-Néel: First European Woman to Travel to the Forbidden City of LhasaAlexandra David Neel at the Villa NicoloIn 1924, at the age of 55, Alexandra Neel David became the first European woman to cross the Trans-Himalayas in the dead of winter.[1] Scaling 19,000-foot peaks without supplementary oxygen and wearing crude leather boots, she eventually entered the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet. Yet, this was merely just one episode in the century long life of a woman who refused to acknowledge geographical, social, religious and gender based borders.To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment. Alexandra David-Neel[2]Writer and explorer Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David was born on October 24, 1868, in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, in between the Bois de Vincennes and the defensive wall surrounding Paris.[3] She had an unhappy childhood, the only child of an unfortunate marriage, whose parents viscously fought continually. Her father, Louis David (a distant relative and namesake of the renowned artist, Jacques-Louis David[4] ) was a Hugenot Freemason, left-leaning journalist and teacher, and her mother, Alexandrine Borghmans, a Catholic native of Belgium.[5]Alexandra David-NéelFrom the age of two, David-Neel repeatedly attempted to run away from home and battling parents. She reported her earliest memories were filled with visions of wanderlust and a deep seeded desire for adventure. “I learned to run before I could walk!”.[6] As a child, her father used to take her to the Gare de Vincennes and Gare de Lyon to watch trains come and go. They would walk together through the ongoing demolition created by Baron Haussman's reinvention of Paris, the city from which she longed to escape.[7]Her only solace came from immersing.herself in the imaginary worlds of science fiction and visionary ascetic saints. Since before the age of 15, she had been exercising a good number of extravagant austerities: fasting, corporal torments, recipes drawn from biographies of ascetic saints found in the library of one of her female relatives, to which she refers to in Sous des nuées d'orage, published in 1940.[8]“Ever since I was five years old,” David-Néel wrote in My Journey to Lhasa, “I wished to move out of the narrow limits in which, like all children of my age, I was then kept. I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown. But strangely enough, this ‘Unknown’ fancied by my baby mind always turned out to be a solitary spot where I could sit alone, with no one near.”[9]As a teenager, she independently criss crossed European countries, including a bike trip across Spain. At the age of 15 while spending school holidays with her parents at the Belgian city of Ostende on the coast of West Flanders, David-Neel ran away and reached the port of Vlissingen in the Netherlands before turning back.[10] In her 17th year, with the maxims of the stoic philosopher, Epictetus, in hand, she took a train destined for Switzerland and managed to walk across the Saint Gotthard Pass in the Swiss Alps to Lake Maggiore in Italy.[11] A year later she tied all of her possessions onto the handlebars of her bicycle and set off for a discovery tour of Spain.[12]The following year, under pressure from her father, she enrolled at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels to study music and voice.[13] Coming into her inheritance at the age of 21, David-Neel travelled to Sri Lanka, financing her travels as an opera singer. She would spend the next fourteen years wandering through French Indochina, the Middle East and North Africa.[14]Alexandra David-Néel in 1886Indifferent to her bourgeois upbringing, she was intuitively drawn to Buddhist mythology, particularly the life of Siddhartha Gautama.[15] In her room she had both a figure of Christ and the Buddha. In an age when even those sympathetic to the East were mostly dabblers or lovers of the occult, David-Néel distinguished herself both as a scholar and a practitioner. The style of her day was to examine things dispassionately and objectively, but David-Néel experienced them personally and, in such books as My Journey to Lhasa[16] and Magic and Mystery in Tibet[17] , wrote about them the same way.David-Neel spent her early 20s, travelling to London, where she studied Theosophy with Madame Blavatsky, while honing her English language skills.[18] When the Gulmet Museum Asian Art opened in Paris, she returned and steeped herself in Buddhist sacred art, spending all of her free time there.[19] Concurrently, she audited courses in Hindu philosophy and Chinese Taoism at the College of France and the Sorbonne.[20] At that time women were not permitted as degree-earning students. Undaunted, she became a Buddhist, in 1889 and made her first spiritual journey to India.(Philippe Neel est la marie d'elle. Elle avait lui rencontre en Tunis dans l'annee 1900 puis lui marrier en 1904. Mais, elle ne … | Alexandra David-Neel)In 1900, during her last touring opera engagement in Tunisia, David-Neel met the wealthy Philippe Néel de Saint-Sauveur, manager and engineer of the local railway system.[21] They soon became lovers, then were married in 1904, when she was 36. She did not want children, aware that the charges of motherhood were incompatible with her need of independence and her inclination for education.[22] Seven years later, David-Neel returned to India, beginning an extensive correspondence with Philippe that continued for decades.David-Neel promised Philippe to return to him in nineteen months: but only fourteen years later, in May 1925, did the two spouses meet again, separating days later.[23] Though they lived apart for the rest of his life, he remained supportive, both financially and emotionally, until his death in 1941.[24]David-Néel’s relationship to men was enigmatic throughout her life. Her biographers have variously said that she was repulsed by sex because she didn’t receive enough physical affection as a child and that she detested all things masculine.[25] It is an undeniable fact that when she finally married she spent almost no time with her husband. Yet it is also true that all her spiritual teachers were male, and that the closest thing she ever found to a lifetime companion was a young lama, thought by some to be her lover (although there is no concrete evidence of this), whom she eventually adopted as a son.[26]It seems possible that she was repelled not by sex or men but by the sexual mores of her culture, in which women functioned as decorative appendages for men, and in which men raised families with their wives but found sexual gratification elsewhere.[27] What David-Néel may really have wanted—even before she knew it—was a spiritual connection with a man, which she didn’t find until she traveled to the East. Her acceptance of marriage before that may have been an attempt to find the financial stability that she needed for her studies.Aphur Yongden — WikipédiaIn search of enlightenment, David-Neel became a disciple of Gomchen of Lachen, the abbott of a small monastery in a mountain village near the Tibetan border just outside of Sikkim, with whom she spent two years.[28] It was there she met her future traveling companion, 15-year-old Lama Aphur Yongden, whom she would adopt in 1929.[29] Both decided to retire to a hermitage cavern at more than 12,000 feet.above sea level in northern Sikkim.Two years later, the Maharajah of Nepal had a small hut built for her.[30]“Of yellow skin and short stature, he was wearing an orange brocaded dress. A diamond star glowed on his cap. It seemed as if a celestial being had descended from the mountains around. I had heard that he was a reincarnated lama and the crown prince of Sikkim.”[31]David-Neel wrote her assessment about prince Sidkeong Tulku, who would later become the king. The French woman had met him here, in 1912, when she had come to this land of Buddhism and eastern mysticism. Sidkeong Tulku was a reincarnated lama, but he also had an Oxford degree. He and Alexandra became great friends, perhaps also fell in love with each other.[32] Together they had come to this monastery and stood here, on this very ground, in this heart-thumping forest of prayer flags. Tulku was thirty-two then, Alexandra over forty.Locals believed Gomchen could fly through the air, kill men with a glance and command demons.[33] His occult knowledge formed the basis of her 1929 book, Magic and Mystery in Tibet. From him Alexandra learned Tibetan. The disciplines Gomchen taught her such as tummo, a breathing practice to create heat, helped her survive the Himalayan snows during her journey to Lhasa, Tibet’s capital.[34] At the end of her retreat she learned that Sidkeong had died mysteriously, presumably poisoned.[35]Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama 1910 (The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso)Rarely constrained by the deference expected of her gender in either Western or Eastern cultures, David-Neel studied Sanskrit in Benares, India, the Hindu holy city. To further her study of Buddhism the following year she traveled to the royal monastery of Sikkim, where she befriended Sidkeong Tulku Namgyal, the spiritual leader of the country.[36] Their mutual understanding and attraction was immediate and he became the great passion of her life. Sidkeong organized a one-week expedition for her into the high mountains of Sikkim with the Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup as a guide and interpreter.[37]Upon returning she sought and received an audience with the 13th Dalai Lama (1876–1933), the first European woman to be accorded this high honor. Born Thubten Gyatso, the Dalai Lama had recently fled Tibet when Chinese troops invaded.[38] David-Neel surprised him by telling him she was the only Buddhist in Paris, and that the Gyatcher Rolpa, a sacred Tibetan book, had been translated by Phillippe-Édouard Foucaux, a professor at the College of France.[39] She received his blessing, and later followed his advice to learn Tibetan.Lhasa Tibet (Tibet (1912–1951) - Wikipedia)In 1916, David-Neel and Yongden illegally crossed the border into Tibet, hoping to reach its capital, Lhasa. The country had been closed to foreigners for several decades by then because its leaders feared the encroachment of the Russian and British Empires, which would have destroyed its unique character.[40] British colonial authorities, who had jurisdiction over Sikkim, soon learned of the transgression and attempted to deport Alexandra and Yongden back to France.Unable to return to Europe due to the outbreak of World War I, they fled and traveled over 5,000 miles by yak, mule and horse to Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and China, finally arriving at Kumbum Monastery (considered the birthplace of Tibetan Buddhism) in Tibet in 1921.[41] Immersing themselves in the study of rare manuscripts for three years, they painstakingly translated the Prajnaparamita (Sanskrit doctrines dating from the 2nd to the 6th centuries AD), the famous Heart Sutra, into French.[42]Kumbum Monastery, (Kumbum Monastery | Ta'er Temple – Wendy Wei Tours)The story of David-Neel and Yongden’s epic journey from the Monastery to the forbidden city of Lhasa in 1924 is almost too incredible to believe and too fascinating to summarize. At the age of 56, David-Néel colored her face with charcoal, braided her hair into don yak hair pigtails (posing as the servant of Aphur) and finally entered Lhasa.[43] It was thus that she became the first Western woman to enter the place which had been entirely forbidden to foreigners.After spending two months hidden from detection, British authorities discovered the pair, ordering their immediate expulsion.[44] They descended to India, proclaiming their triumph before British officials in Calcutta, then sailed for France. The magazine articles she wrote about this journey later became the book, My Journey to Lhasa: The Personal Story of the Only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City, which caused a sensation when it was published in 1927. The New York Times reviewer commented:“…(Alexandra’s) journey reveals amazing and almost incredible powers of physical endurance. In peasant homes she slept on floors on greasy sackcloth and drank nauseating, evil smelling broths from her bowl that she must later cleanse, native fashion, by licking with her tongue.”[45]She disguised herself as a Tibetan woman and managed to get into the city of Lhasa, which at that time was off-limits to foreigners. She became fluent in Tibetan, met the Dalai Lama, practiced meditation and yoga, and trekked through the Himalayas, where she survived by eating the leather off her boots[46] and once saved herself in a snowstorm with a meditation that increases body temperature. The locals thought she might be the incarnation of Thunderbolt Sow, a female Buddhist deity.[47] She became a Tantric lama in Tibet when she was 52 years old.(Alexandra David-Neel)And she documented each and every milestone, adventure and misteps, in Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1929). David-Néel would describe the improbable and wonderful world she’d found in Lhasa. It was one endowed with surprising, magical elements, phenomena such as telepathy and many other extraordinary practices. She described the asceticism in monks who ran uninterrupted through the mountains for days and recorded her experience with pre-Buddhist shamanistic rituals, like a spell that could supposedly revive the dead.[48]She wrote:"Then it was springtime in the cloudy Himalayas. Nine hundred feet below my cave rhododendrons blossomed. I climbed barren mountain-tops. Long tramps led me to desolate valleys studded with translucent lakes ... Solitude, solitude! ... Mind and senses develop their sensibility in this contemplative life made up of continual observations and reflections. Does one become a visionary or, rather, is it not that one has been blind until then?"[49]In her book Magic and Mystery in Tibet, published in 1929, David-Néel would describe the improbable and wonderful world she’d found in Lhasa. It was one endowed with surprising, magical elements, phenomena such as telepathy and many other extraordinary practices. She described the asceticism in monks who ran uninterrupted through the mountains for days and recorded her experience with pre-Buddhist shamanistic rituals, like a spell that could supposedly revive the dead.Samten Dzong (Fortress of Meditation) (Maison Alexandra David-Néel - Villa Samten dzong)In 1925 David-Neel returned to France a celebrity, and was awarded many honors, including the Grande Medaille d'Or of La Societe de Geographie, and in 1924 the French Government made her a Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur. [50] With the proceeds from her book sales she bought a house in Provence in the village of Digne-les-Bains, seeking a refuge full of sunlight. Four years later, she began to enlarge the house, called Samten-Dzong or "fortress of meditation", the first hermitage and Lamaist shrine in France.[51] There she wrote several books describing her various trips. In 1929, she published her most famous and beloved work, Mystiques et Magiciens du Tibet (Magicians and Mystics in Tibet).Over the ensuing years, David-Neel and Yongden continued to travel. She wrote many more books, including Buddhism: Its Doctrines and Its Methods, published in the United States in 1939, and The Secret Oral Tradition in Tibetan Buddhist Sects[52] , published by San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore in 1964.Sadly, on October 7, 1955, Yongden passed away, seized by a strong fever and sickness, which David-Neel attributed to a simple indigestion. During the night, he lapsed into a coma and died due to complications of kidney failure.[53] In the following years, Alexandra suffered from articular rheumatism that forced her to walk with crutches. She was frequently quoted as saying "I walk on my arms".[54]Alexandra David-Nee. Age 100 (Le fabuleux destin d'Alexandra David-Néel)David-Neel passed away in 1969, just shy of her 101st birthday, a few months after renewing her passport for the prefect of Basses-Alpes.[55] In 1973, her ashes were brought to Varanasi by Marie-Madeleine Peyronnet to be dispersed with those of her adopted son into the Ganges.[56]David-Neel was a skilled and objective observer whose intimate knowledge of Tibetan and Sanskrit languages enabled her to interpret and convey to Western readers much concerning Tibet that was hitherto hidden behind a veil of ignorance and misinformation. Her account of her journey to Llasa ranks among the great travel stories in literature. Her sense of humor is illustrated by her reply to a woman who wrote and asked her to kill her husband by magic. She replied, "Dear Madam, if I had to kill all unfaithful husbands, the world would be populated only by widows."[57]Her teachings and writings influenced a generation of beat writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg who credited his conversion to Buddhism to David-Neel, the populariser of Eastern philosophy Alan Watts and the esotericist Benjamin Creme.[58]Footnotes[1] The Way of the Warrior Priestess[2] Alexandra David-Néel's Awe-Inspiring Midlife Adventures | Later Bloomer[3] Paris Day Trips: Chateau de Vincennes, Just off the Metro Line 1[4] https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jldv/hd_jldv.htm[5] Alexandrine (Borgmans) Borghmans (1832-)[6] Alexandra David-Neel[7] How Haussmann Rebuilt Paris in the 19th Century[8] http://Brodeur, Raymond (2001). Femme, mystique et missionnaire : Marie Guyart de l'Incarnation : Tours, 1599-Québec, 1672 : actes du colloque organisé par le Centre d'études Marie-de-l'Incarnation sous les auspices du Centre interuniversitaire d'études québécoises qui s'est tenu à Loretteville, Québec, du 22 au 25 septembre 1999. Presses Université Laval.[9] Alexandra David-Néel[10] Alexandra David-N�el: Auf der Suche nach dem Licht[11] Alexandra David-N�el[12] Alexandra David-Neel[13] Tantric Rites and Wine Racks[14] Andrée Viollis in Indochina: The Objective and Picturesque Truth about French Colonialism[15] The Buddhist World: Gautama Buddha[16] Alexandra David-Néel: My Journey to Lhasa - The Culturium -[17] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://selfdefinition.org/tibetan/Alexandra-David-Neel-Magic-and-Mystery-in-Tibet-hardback-scan.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjM6Kjs5NblAhVCPawKHfoeAaYQFjASegQIChAB&usg=AOvVaw1A2pMXHdMKajPkH8pb_6V7&cshid=1573084647540[18] David-Neel, Alexandra (1868-1969)[19] Kimono- Au Bonheur des Dames: The History of Kimonos at the Guimet Museum[20] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.academia.edu/39848960/_Alexandra_David-N%25C3%25A9el_s_Travels_in_India_Interview_and_Discursive_Self-Representation._&ved=2ahUKEwir2s356tblAhWhneAKHWOaCUcQFjAXegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw2eAzKw6HoTUCnRsgYkmW-i[21] Alexandra David-Néel[22] http://Brodeur, Raymond (2001). Femme, mystique et missionnaire : Marie Guyart de l'Incarnation : Tours, 1599-Québec, 1672 : actes du colloque organisé par le Centre d'études Marie-de-l'Incarnation sous les auspices du Centre interuniversitaire d'études québécoises qui s'est tenu à Loretteville, Québec, du 22 au 25 septembre 1999. Presses Université Laval. [23] http://Biographie officielle d'Alexandra David-Néel (5e partie), on the site alexandra-david-neel.org[24] Alexandra David-Néel. Une aventurière au musée[25] Alexandra David-Néel[26] Marcel Duchamp and the Art of Life[27] Farewell to the Muse: Love, War and the Women of Surrealism[28] Sikkim...Alexandra David Neal & Her Enlightenment In Sikkim[29] Aphur Yongden — Wikipédia[30] Alexandra David-Néel's Awe-Inspiring Midlife Adventures | Later Bloomer[31] The King and the Mystic[32] The King and the Mystic[33] The Amazing Tibetan Adventures Of Alexandra David-Neel[34] Tummo Meditation | Your Inner Fire and the Wim Hof Method[35] White Lama[36] The Monastic Guidelines (bCa’ yig) by Sidkeong Tulku: Monasteries, Sex and Reform in Sikkim 1 | Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society | Cambridge Core[37] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_2008_01-02_07.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj6gqHDjNflAhUyjK0KHeveDqsQFjAQegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1IYOR13W6vAuLiQusf9Dyu[38] The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso[39] Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism[40] The National Geographic Magazine[41] A story of struggle and intrigue in central Asia[42] The Heart Sutra: Prajnaparamita-Hridaya-Sutra[43] Alexandra David-Néel: the extraordinary experience of a spiritual traveler - Aleph[44] Alexandra David-Neel[45] Woman Explorers[46] Letters to India[47] ASTRTAL BODIES AND TANTRIC SEX[48] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/The_nameless_religion:_an_overview_of_Bon_shamanism&ved=2ahUKEwjyyvfcvdjlAhXEUt8KHfJUCm8QFjACegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw0GHGVQEBH0S_pFpNp5X8oB[49] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://selfdefinition.org/tibetan/Alexandra-David-Neel-Magic-and-Mystery-in-Tibet-hardback-scan.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwihq5yC-NblAhUuHjQIHdfWCxUQFjASegQIChAB&usg=AOvVaw1A2pMXHdMKajPkH8pb_6V7&cshid=1573089769794[50] ‘Named a Chevalier of the French Legion? Me?’ — Reporter’s Notebook.[51] Maison Alexandra David-Néel - Villa Samten dzong[52] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/download/Buddhism-Philosophy-and-Doctrine/en/Alexandra%2520David-Neel%2520-%2520The%2520Secret%2520Oral%2520Teachings%2520in%2520Tibetan%2520Buddhist%2520Sects.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjk4cPt_NblAhWBd98KHQRrAjoQFjAJegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw0ysmr9VxNBQ_ELy1Kp-20Q[53] http://Brodeur, Raymond (2001). Femme, mystique et missionnaire : Marie Guyart de l'Incarnation : Tours, 1599-Québec, 1672 : actes du colloque organisé par le Centre d'études Marie-de-l'Incarnation sous les auspices du Centre interuniversitaire d'études québécoises qui s'est tenu à Loretteville, Québec, du 22 au 25 septembre 1999. Presses Université Laval.[54] http://Chalon, Jean (1985). Le Lumineux Destin d'Alexandra David-Néel. Librairie académique Perrin.[55] The Inspiring Life of Alexandra David-Neel, and the Enchanting World of Death She Discovered in Tibet - Digital Dying[56] Alexandra David-Néel - Wikipedia[57] David-Neel, Alexandra (1868-1969)[58] Alexandra David-Néel: the extraordinary experience of a spiritual traveler - Aleph

Wildlife photography is widely believed to be one of the most challenging and rewarding genres of photography, in that the subject of the photograph is dynamic. Animals move, they blink, they turn their heads or they fly off in some cases. Every encounter comprises a thousand bad photograph opportunities and if you’re lucky, a couple of good photo-ops. Photographers have to be vigilant enough to be able to capture the perfect moment. Wildlife in India is abundant and diverse, to say the least. The sanctuaries and national parks across India provide wildlife photographers an incredible outlet for their work and wildlife photography is far more significant than a majority of us realize. Their work, whether purposeful or not, are a visual representation of the much larger cause of wildlife conservation. Several species of animals are dangerously close to extinction and documenting these animals ultimately leads to the masses being educated about issues that inevitably throw the eco system out of balance.Homegrown introduces you to a few Indian wildlife photographers that are actively participating in raising awareness for the cause using their wonderful work as vehicles.I. Rathika RamasamyDD National has featured Rathika as the first woman wildlife photographer in India. Based out of New Delhi, she started her stint in wildlife photography in 2004. She was quickly drawn to bird photography and now she specializes in the field. Over the last decade, she has traveled to most national parks and sanctuaries in North India and Africa to document some of the rarest bird species – many of which are endangered. Her work is an endeavor to educate people about the rich natural resources this country possesses and the importance of preserving them. Ramasamy has also had her work showcased by numerous domestic and international publications. She went on to be I. selected as one of the top bird photographers in 2008 and her work was exhibited alongside several other bird photographers. Her first book, ‘Bird Photography’ was published in 2010.II. Jayanth SharmaLike Rathika, Jayant Sharma took up photography in 2004. Before he became a full-time wildlife photographer, he was an IT professional. He is best known for combining elements of nature with those of fine art and portraying them in never seen before perspectives. His experience spans the world – from Southeast Asia to Brazil, Canada to Eastern Africa and Norway to East Russia. He is also tremendously knowledgeable about the Indian subcontinent. His abstinence from postproduction and digital manipulations is, perhaps, what makes his work seem not contrived.III. Kalyan VermaKalyan Verma is a wildlife photographer, filmmaker, naturalist and explorer specializing in environment, science and ecology in India. He works a as a freelancer with many of the world’s leading publications and broadcasting networks, such as Nat Geo and BBC. Over the last 8 years, Kalyan has worked on several landmark wildlife series for the aforementioned channels. He founded an online community for wildlife photographers, called India Nature Watch, which ultimately became the largest online portal for aspiring and upcoming wildlife photographers in Asia. He has also worked on a number of documentaries and books concerning conservation actions and activism in collaboration with scientists, conservationists, policy makers and educators. Verma’s unique blend of journalism and an artistic eye is what draws people to his work, and compels them to look beyond just the visual.IV. Sandesh KadurSandesh Kadur’s first interaction with wildlife photography happened at a relatively young age, when his father gifted him an SLR and a number of Nation Geographic films for his birthday. He spent most of his early life extensively studying and researching the biodiversity in India, Mexico and South America and even has a degree in wildlife photography from the University of Texas. As a professional wildlife photographer, he has immense expertise in India, especially the Western Ghats and the Himalayas.His work, whether still or video, is a means to inspire wildlife conservation, which is something he is deeply passionate about. His impressive repertoire has been showcased in various books and magazines all over the world, while his documentaries have been aired on channels such as BBC and Discovery. He has also racked up a number of awards over the years, including the CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year as well as being nominated twice for a Green Oscar.V. Shekar DattatriShekar Dattatri was enthralled by wildlife from the age of 13, which is when he joined the Madras Snake Park as a student volunteer. This fascination soon turned into a passion for photography and eventually, wildlife filmmaking. He is a 3-time National Award winner with his first film, ‘’, winning the National Award for Best Scientific Film in 1987. His next two documentaries also won the same award which led to a decade more of allegiance to film as Shekhar continued to work on films in association with some of the top broadcasters of wildlife programs such as the Discovery Channel, Nat Geo and the BBC Natural History Unit. In the year 2000, he decided to change paths, which is when he started working in close proximity with conservation NGOs in India.VI. Sudhir ShivaramSudhir Shivaram is a Karnataka native. His journey in wildlife photography began in the year 1993 when he left his job as an engineer to pursue photography full-time. He is extremely devoted to the cause of wildlife conservation and strictly follows ethical practices while photographing animals. His work is a marriage of his skill and his passion and concern for the depleting natural resources. A lot of his work ethos is based on the feeling that in order to truly comprehend the message behind a photograph, a profound understanding of and concern for wildlife is vital. He is one of the founding members of India Nature Watch, along with Kalyan Verma and is also an esteemed member of the Canon Professional Photographers Panel.VII. Sunjoy MongaBorn in Mumbai, Sunjoy’s love affair with wildlife began at a very young age. Having been gifted a pair of binoculars and a Roliflex camera by his father, his exploration into and development as a nature watcher and wildlife photographer got the head start it needed. He has authored a number of books including the highly acclaimed ‘City Forest’ and penned innumerable columns in newspapers on the need for conservation and the dangers of poaching and decrease in the city’s flamingo population. He has also been a consultant on a lot of projects. To propagate his cause further into the youth, he has initiated an environmental awareness drive called the ‘Young Rangers’.Read More http://homegrown.co.in/these-7-incredible-wildlife-photographers-are-some-of-indias-best/