“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction,” said Edward Osborne Wilson, the American biologist and naturalist.

Inspired by his words, Nidhyan Maniarasu, an electrical engineer of the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department (PWD), developed a passion for capturing the beauty of nature with his high definition Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera.

“It all started from my school days when I loved painting the landscapes with water colours. The amount of happiness I derived in spending time with Mother Nature cannot be described in words. This gradually developed into a keen interest in photography,”

Nidhyan said. Soon, he made it a point to go trekking in the jungles. Initially, Nidhyan captured only landscapes. Later, he felt that the pictures looked lifeless without animals, birds, or insects in them. Around that time, he got the acquaintance of an environmental group headed by N.I. Jalaludin of Nature Conservation Society.

Nidhyan accompanied the group on their deep-forest treks. From nature photography, he evolved to photographing the wildlife in their natural habitat. He captured pictures of herds of elephants and tigers, besides some rare birds at
different locations in Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, and Erode. Most of the wildlife photographs taken for Nature Conservation Society were taken by Nidhyan Maniarasu.

The society’s president, Jalaludin, used the best pictures for designing the wildlife calendars and posters, which were released by the Chief Conservator of Forests, Durairasu recently. The pictures are also displayed at numerous exhibitions conducted by Nature Conservation Society at different places on important occasions.

“I feel elated on seeing the smiles on the children’s faces, when they show interest in conservation of forests,” Nidhyan said.He has won many awards for the photographs shot at Thadagam, Bandhipur, Valparai,

Bargur, and Thekkady. His award-winning photographs include herds of elephant taken

at Pethikuttai, lone tusker at Thadagam, besides pictures of pelicans and painted strokes.

Nidhyan expressed his gratitude to nature conservationist N.I. Jalaludin for honouring

him by using his wildlife pictures for the calendars and posters.