A chance discovery by a wildlife photographer in the backwaters of Godavari near Nandipet (Nizamabad) may soon become wildlife lovers’ new favourite destination.
Kyatham Santhosh Kumar spotted an exclusive ‘home’ for the endangered black bucks in the backwaters of Godavari near Nandipet in Nizamabad and went on to share them on social media.
IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao tweeted the pictures, praising Santhosh whose joy knew no bounds at being the one to discover the locale. The 49-year-old who works as the correspondent of Navyabharathi Global School in Nizamabad says he first spotted the black bucks about a decade ago but mistook it as a routine sighting in any fringe forest area. “It was only when I started dabbling in photography, especially bird watching in the past two years, that I realised the importance of these wonderful species. It was a terrific experience when I saw them jump over my car on the vast dried-up bed of the river project. Then, I decided to freeze them in my camera. I am glad to have discovered the amazing locale,” he says.
Interestingly, the whole terrain will be inaccessible except during summer because of the water level which keeps rising through the monsoon and the dried-up bed is visible only from February, says Santhosh.
“I must say thanks to my respected good friend and DFO Sunil S. Hiremath (IFS), for creating massive awareness in the last couple of days in his circles across India. In fact, I got a call from a senior IFS officer and he couldn’t believe there are so many black bucks in Nizamabad,” he said.
“Now, the onus is on all of us — nature lovers, Forest officials and villagers — to ensure that the numbers of the black bucks here only grows and that we make this a destination for all nature lovers,” says Santhosh, adding that he also found 200 species of birds in and around the same place.
