From sketching to photography could be considered a natural transition, but switching from land acquisition to bird photography and conservation is a paradigm shift. Kiran Poonacha from Bangalore has not only made that shift but also crowned it with international laurels and appreciation from the world’s best bird photographers.

Known as the raptor man of India, Pooncha is a born conservationist, rescuing and carrying out documentation work on raptors, especially eagles in various corners of India. It also gives him an opportunity to capture the majestic birds in action. Says Pooncha, “I love their temperament, their style, their enormous power and majesticity. I want to share my moments with these powerful yet graceful birds with everybody.”

Unlike visualisation by other photographers, his image of the winged wonders stands out because they are captured when in action and that is what gives life to the pictures. The birds taking off, flying, diving, swooping, hunting, feeding, nurturing, he has caught all these with the right background and foreground, surreal lighting, great precision and artistic imagery. “Capturing birds in flight is technically very challenging but it is such rare movements that interest people and also stays in their memory. I’m also pursuing my passion in my hometown Coorg. This is a tribute to what I have been exposed to during my early years while growing up in Madikeri. I sincerely hope my photographs will help influence people conserve birds by restoring their natural habitat,” says Pooncha with a smile.

Hailing from a family of nature lovers and born and bred in the hill district of Coorg, a place abounding with rare and beautiful species of birds, Pooncha was inspired to start birding at the tender age of seven. Chikkaballapur, where he did his schooling and a nearby place called Gudibande with rocky terrain and scrub forests that support a variety of avians, played an important role in igniting his interest. Midway for 15 years, he missed nurturing these winged wonders in their habitat as he was busy with his education and professional duties but now nothing seems to stop him in his pursuit.

“I patiently bided for the time when I could go back to the world of birds. In 2006, Neeta, my wife and birding partner, gifted me a camera and that is when my passion for capturing my love for birds began. Coinciding with this, I met a couple of people through a social networking website who shared similar interests. These incidents gave me a second chance to pursue my passion to visualise birds in a permanent frame,” says Pooncha.

Pooncha became a member of India Nature Watch that supports well-known photographers from across the country for sharing their work on their website. This exposure played an important role in helping him to improve his photographic skills. He purchased his first DSLR camera in 2007 and his dear friend and boss Kumar Babu gifted a zoom lens and that is when he started concentrating on his chosen hobby, bird photography.

“I have done extensive studies on birds since childhood. I have raised pigeons, kites, parakeets, and sparrows, looked after injured birds, tending to their broken wings and spoon-fed them. Not all survived, however, one injured black kite would not part from me even after two years,” says the raptor man. Pooncha proudly adds, “I can tell you the spots where ea gles can be found, where they hunt, breed and Bangalore is filled with raptors—tawny eagles, snake eagles, boneless eagles, Indian spotted eagles and many more species.”

Now, every holiday and weekend is taken up by trips to scrub forests and wetlands around Bangalore in search of eagles. His favourite haunts on the outskirts of the city include Hessarghatta, T G Halli, Bannerghatta forests, Gudibande and Hoskote.

Over the years, his portfolio on raptors has attracted international attention and awards as some of the images are pretty rare, hitherto never captured on camera. Dedicated to studying these birds, Pooncha says, “My social life is a big zero as all my time is taken up either following them through thorny jungles or standing in slimy wetlands for days together, hoping for the best shot.”

Recollecting his experiences, he says, “Once I was following a Bar Headed Geese near Talkad near Mysore when a snake wound up around my leg. My position was so treacherous that neither could I leave my subject nor ignore the reptile. But fortunately, after two hours, the snake slinked away. Another time, I had to sit in the water for hours together to get a Little Grebe in action. Some images like two snakes fighting for territory at Hessarghatta, a snake eagle hovering between death and new life and falcons at Kolar for whom I waited for three years are still fresh in my mind.”

Pooncha’s dream project, a birding resort on a 30-acre land surrounded by Pushpagiri Hills near Madikeri will soon be a reality. He is hoping to bring renowned experts like Arthur Morris, popularly called “father of bird photography”, Doug Brown and others for workshops on bird photography apart from giving an opportunity to youngsters to know more about birds.

Decrying the nation’s obsession with big mammals, Pooncha appeals, “Birds need our help. They play a very important role in the food chain, pollination and of course, they are the natural scavengers of the earth. We have to look beyond tigers and elephants as India has thousands of species that needs protection at all levels. If I can convince hundred people to conserve nature in and around Bangalore, it will be a small beginning to save these helpless avians.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Magazine / by Meera Bhardwaj / March 31st, 2013

Caption: 1) F. M. Khan with SOM Editor-in-Chief K.B.Ganapathy 2) Garden in front of the house with a fountain.

It was a fortuitous visit. Being Sunday, I decided to drive to Kodagu with a couple of my friends with a double intent — visit the coffee estate, this being the coffee picking season and to enjoy God’s rest day Sunday with good food in one of those innumerable resorts and holiday homes. And on our way back via Madikeri, at Boikeri, about 8 kms on Mysore road, I saw a frayed, grayed wooden sign-post with the legend Balayatrie Estate with a colourful flex board announcing the flower show. Instantly, I knew what it was — the annual flower show conducted by the owner of the estate F.M. Khan, a former Congress Rajya Sabha member and a good friend of former Chief Minister of Karnataka R. Gundu Rao.

For courtesy, I asked my friends if we could visit the show even as I swerved the vehicle to the kachcha road into the estate. A few metres inside and there were nearly 20 cars parked in two parking lots. Men, women and children were there enjoying the flower garden in front of the house with a dysfunctional fountain surrounded by angelic figures (see picture). There were many burqa-clad ladies among others. I wondered if there would come a day in our country when a fatwa would be unleashed to prohibit growing of certain varieties of flowers, as it happened in Kashmir where a fatwa was issued prohibiting playing of certain kind of songs and music by an all-girls band!

Poor Rock Band girls and their families are in hiding now. What a secular country this. Sometimes, I wonder if secularism in this country is applicable only to Hindus and not to other religious groups. A re-look into the definition of this nebulous word ‘secular’ or ‘secularism’ is needed because this word finds a place in our Constitution following an amendment, which was not there otherwise. Let it be.

To revert to F.M. Khan’s flower show, I have nothing but admiration for his efforts, a labour of love. I learn he has been holding this private flower show since 1998 and people are enjoying it thoroughly, for, after all, who would not love flowers. Flower saplings too were there for sale but when I went much of it was sold. Khan’s youngest daughter, who obviously must have taken total responsibility for the show, too was there at the sales point with a receipt book and a visitors’ book.

The name F.M. Khan was as familiar in Karnataka as in Delhi in the late 80s — during the period of Emergency — like R. Gundu Rao then and Shah Rukh Khan today in Bollywood. F.M. Khan and Gundu Rao were two names the Congress (I) party members in Karnataka respected as much as feared for they really did matter in politics of the day — thanks to their intimacy to Sanjay Gandhi the Terrible of the Emergency days. In fact, these two from Karnataka were the blue-eyed boys of Sanjay Gandhi.

It was Gundu Rao who went to the Bangalore Race Club and ‘trapped’ photographs of a few IAS officers who should have been in the Vidhana Soudha. And it made all-India news. I was in Poona then.

As for F.M. Khan, he was like a young stallion, a rising star. Sadly, he faded into oblivion as fast as he rose in politics. If my memory serves me right, I think he was also the Treasurer of the party.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi had visited this house and stayed there after she lost power, post-Emergency and it was big news. I was looking for a plaque somewhere outside the house commemorating the visit of such a great leader but could not find one. I also forgot to ask Khan or his daughter about Indira Gandhi’s visit.

The house, a typical British bungalow with tiled roof, is rather old, may be a hundred-year-old and looked its age needing restoration. The surroundings with service buildings too looked as if in need of care and maintenance. As I strolled around, I was mentally visualising the old glory and the flamboyant life the family, including F.M. Khan, led in the past as one of the richest coffee planters of Kodagu.

Times have changed and the young, debonair F.M. Khan too has changed — has become old like me, but a senior.

In his heydays in politics, he was confident and assertive. Always on short fuse. But now he seemed to have mellowed. He still carries that aristocratic bearing on his feeble shoulders. Heard, he was once mortally sick, but has bounced back. As visitors were trooping into the garden, he was standing at the steps giving a gentle welcome smile with a twinkle in his eyes, apparently feeling happy and nice about what miracle he has done with the flower show spreading happiness and fragrance.

My friends did not know him though they had heard his name. As a courtesy, I acknowledged his presence and wished him simultaneously introducing myself. He seemed to have recognised me. “Would you mind if I took a picture with you?” He smiled in approval (see picture) and as I took leave of him he said, “I am extending the show by a day till tomorrow. Would you publish it in your Kannada paper Mysooru Mithra?” I kept my word, of course.

Yes, I met our own F.M. Khan and reminded myself how nature and time, together, ravage man and all his creations.

Tailpiece: If only R. Gundu Rao had not overplayed his role and got expelled from the party at a critical time after losing the State elec-tion, I am sure, both he and F.M. Khan would have risen in the party and F.M. Khan would be playing the role of another Khan from Karna-taka, the present Minister for Minority Affairs K. Rehman Khan in Congress. With the sudden tragic death of their Godfather Sanjay Gandhi, their political fortunes faded for ever. Sadly, Gundu Rao too died young.

e-mail: kbg@starofmysore.com

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / Home> Abracadabra…. Abracadabra /by K. B. Ganapathy / February 09th, 2013