Timeless Wonders-India, where mystical time still passes
As the seventh largest country in the world, India is a world unto itself. From tropical rain forests to coniferous forests, from mangrove swamps to dusty plains, India�� range of natural environments is home to some of the planet�� rarest and most precious wildlife, including an astonishing variety of large mammals, such as the Bengal tiger, the Indian rhinoceros, the Asian elephant, and the Asiatic lion. For this calendar, Mitsuaki Iwago, a renowned wildlife photographer who regularly crisscrosses the globe documenting its natural treasures, traveled to India three times, venturing deep into the rugged jungles with his Olympus E-1 digital SLR camera. These shooting sessions marked Iwago�� first trip to India in nearly ten years, and served to renew his conviction that this timeless land is home to an extraordinary array of wild animals whose lives glitter like precious jewels on the surface of the planet.
Rolling topography, diverse climates provide habitats for many different animals
Bounded in the north by the Himalayas and to the east, south, and west by the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea, the Indian subcontinent is cut off from the rest of Asia and has developed its own unique ecosystems and wildlife. Several major rivers, including the mighty Ganges and Indus, flow through India. About one-fifth of the country is covered by forests. These range from the dense tropical rain forests of the northeast to the alpine forests of the Himalayan foothills and the lush mangrove forests of the coastal regions. With a topography that ranges from the soaring peaks of the Himalayas to the flat tablelands of the central Deccan Plateau and a climate that includes hot tropical conditions, arid desert conditions, and even alpine tundra, India is blessed with some of the most diverse wildlife on the planet. Take the magnificent Indian peafowl, for example. The national bird of India, this beautiful creature boasts iridescent blue-green plumage and is considered sacred in Hindu mythology. It is also a natural enemy of the mighty cobra. But beautiful birds aren't the only unique creatures India is known for; it is also home to an impressive number of large mammals such as lions, tigers, and elephants.
India�� rare large mammals are distinctive from their African cousins
Tigers are found only in Asia and the Indian variant is known as the Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans delta, a sprawling landscape of dense mangrove forests and lowlying wetlands that lies at the mouth of the Ganges, is the largest tiger habitat in the world. India is also the only place outside Africa where lions still survive. Yet despite the fact that these rival claimants for the title "King of the Beasts" both reside in India, there is little chance of a decisive encounter ever occurring as tigers live in the denser jungles while lions prefer open, lightly wooded areas. In the wetlands that extend along the west bank of the Brahmaputra River, another great mammal -the Indian rhinoceros -makes its home. Unlike its two-horned African cousins, the white rhinoceros and black rhinoceros, the Indian rhinoceros has only a single horn, giving the species its official name -rhinoceros unicornis. And, of course, there is the elephant, the largest land mammal alive today. The Asian elephants of India not only have smaller bodies and smaller ears than their African counterparts, they are also distinguished by two hemispherical bulges on their foreheads.
Today the threat of extinction continues to stalk many of India�� rare creatures
India's Bengal tiger population is estimated to have numbered about 40,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. By the 1970s it was down to just 2,000. This sharp decline was caused by deforestation and the development of farmland, which resulted in fewer animals for the tigers to prey on. Poachers also killed tigers for their pelts, further contributing to the decline in the tiger population. Faced by this grim situation, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched one of the most ambitious wildlife conservation projects in the world. Called Project Tiger, this scheme helped increase the population to more than 3,000. Despite these efforts, however, the Bengal tiger remains an endangered species. Similarly, the Indian rhinoceros was decimated by poachers who sought its horn, which is believed by some to have aphrodisiac properties. In the early 1960s, there were only about 600 of these magnificent animals, but since then the population has recovered significantly, now numbering more than 2,000. As for the Asian elephant, there are between 35,000 and 50,000 living in India today. They too are under pressure due to encroachment of farmland on their habitats and the persistence of poaching for ivory. In western India's Gir Forest, a mere 300 Asiatic lions still survive. The land they inhabit today is minuscule compared to the vast areas they once roamed. As India struggles to balance development with conservation, we cannot help but hope that the forests of India, which have supported such a rich tapestry of life for eons, will continue to provide a home for the world's most precious wildlife.
