February 14, 2023
By Habeeba Fathima and Chandrasekar Das
Biodiversity Conservation programme
On February 13 and 14, we conducted a two-day workshop for the students of Light and Life Academy, Coonoor. The first day engaged the students in a theory session on an overview of the behaviour of birds and how to understand birds in order to photograph them. An important part of this workshop was to train young and upcoming wildlife photographers on the ethics of wildlife photography. The next morning, we conducted a birding trail through Sims Park to observe how different bird species occupy different niches of the environment, and techniques on how to spot them. We identified 16 bird species in just a span of one hour!
Nilgiris has become a big hotspot for wildlife photography and there has been a high amount of photographers spilling in to try their luck at capturing rare birds. This has led to an exponential increase in unethical practices, like baiting, venturing too close, and playing recordings of bird sounds, and other activities that disturb natural behaviour can have adverse affects on bird populations, altering their behaviour over time. Call backs and playing recordings can also result in a failed mating season. It is extremely important to raise awareness on ethical methods of photography.
