How did you start working with animals?
I was one of those children who loved animals. I would bring every sick, stray cat and dog home, much to the chagrin of my parents. I knew I’d become a veterinarian when I was six years old.
How did the Elephant Earth Initiative come about?
In 2007, I had travelled to Bikaner to learn about camels and research veterinarian medicine. While I was working with an animal welfare organisation in Jaipur, a baby elephant was born at Amer Fort. I had to examine it. This was my first encounter with elephants. I was mesmerised. One of the elephants there pulled my wrist and I found myself staring in her eye. In that moment, she had complete power over me. It left me astounded. Looking into that elephant’s eye was unlike any other thing in my life. That’s how the idea of working with elephants came about. The only other such experience I’ve had was when my wife and I were kayaking in Canada, a whale came right beside our small boat and looked at us.
What part does photography play?
In my exhibit, The Elephant Enigma, I wanted to create an experience, and portray the magnificence of these animals. There is also quite a bit of information of often little-known facts about elephants that encourage the viewers not just to go and look but to actually slow down and read these individual little texts on the wall and think about them. The idea is to give the viewer not only an aesthetic, emotional and inspirational experience, but also reach out to them factually and intellectually.
The Dalai Lama extended his support to Elephant Earth. How does support from a public figure help your cause?
Support from him has been hugely helpful. By criticising what has happened to the animal, the Dalai Lama hinted that ivory should not be used for religious purposes. Not just in Buddhism, ivory artefacts are a big thing for the Catholic Church. Some church officials have been smuggling ivory. If religious leaders say that practising religion at the cost of wildlife is wrong, that would help our work.
How can common people help conservation?
By looking after their backyard and neighbourhood so that the Earth doesn’t fall apart. Not cut trees around our homes, make sure our lifestyle doesn’t affect the environment badly. Preserve wild spaces for wild animals in our life.
