A lensman with a passion for wildlife

For B N Nagaraj who had a taste for wildlife and nature photography since 1982, his recruitment to the Forest Department in 2000 only turned out to be a blessing in disguise since here was an opportunity to traverse the length and breadth of the forests and absorb nature's beauty to your hearts content.Believe it or not, B N Nagaraj who is the assistant wildlife warden in the Silent Valley National Park has taken 20,000 photographs on Silent Valley alone in the last one-and-a-half years since his posting there. He has a collection of 256 flowers, most of them rare species.Some of the flowers are yet to be identified. The collections include the Inpatiens Muunrnini and the Sivaranjini found in the Swiss Para area of the Silent Valley which bloom only for two or three days in a particular season by which time one should take the photograph.There are 42 types of butterflies, 40 types of birds, 16 varieties of animals and five varieties of snakes.Some eye catching photos include the sunrise taken from the Kuchipura area and the Kozhipara waterfall, which is the orgin of the Kunthipuzha in the Silent Valley.B.N.Nagaraj, hailing from Thiruvananthapuram now has a collection of more than 50,000 photographs.They were taken from different locations like Kodanad, Chinnar, Morayur, Arippa, Kuluthupuzha, Thekkady, Eravikulam, Peechi and Nilambur.Nagaraj says that he wish to publish the photographs with the help of the Forest Department so that they benefit the future generation.The photographs taken by Nagaraj were displayed at the Statelevel Forest Sports and Games meet which was held in Palakkad recently.

The New Indian Express, 29^th October 2008