Celebrating World Wildlife Day – A joyful photo journey!

Its World Wildlife Day today. UN has been celebrating this day since last year. This year theme for the World Wildlife Day is “The Future of wildlife is in our hands” and it also has a sub-theme “The future of elephants is in our hands”. What an immense joy this nature gives us in form of these beautiful creatures. Few rare and many around us! Wildlife is a photographer’s delight. SO here are some images of few rare wildlife creatures that we need to preserve or we are going to miss them for ever. A journey of a photographer all these years and through many terrains, starting with our sub-theme of the day on elephants.

A kid is all ears to some important life lessons from mother elephant

UN agrees that world’s wildlife, whether charismatic or lesser known is facing many challenges. The mankind is becoming vultures to wildlife and actual vultures have gone missing.

A pair of rare red headed black vulture in Desert National Park, Jaisalmer

Its not the innocuous looking animals, that are in danger, also the seemingly fearsome ones.

A crocodile in the Ranthambore national park, Rajasthan which has been famous for fights between its tigers and crocs

And a gharial in the Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, bordering Nepal

A (Bengal) monitor lizard in Ranthambore national park. Myths make them friends of humans and they are really harmless

This preserved wildlife consists of many of rare and migratory birds, like these Australian Flamingos near Rameshwaram

Or this black-necked stork on a Gangetic island in western UP, which is native to this region

… and another one at Dudhwa National Park. In Australia, it is called as Jabiru

A Woolly-necked stork at Dandeli sanctuary in North Karnataka

But these Great Indian Bustards at Desert National Park in Jaisalmer are real endangered

This (earless) Little Owl (Athene noctua) might be safe in Gir national park in Gujarat…

….but this one seems to be lost in urban jungle

This one is fearless. This Treepie in Ranthambore national park is said the feed upon the flesh struck in jaws of a tiger…

Deers are always the most beautiful creatures, whether it is a black buck in Jodhpur like this one…

…or these Himalayan Bharals near highest village in the world- Langza, at the altitude of more than 4,400 metres…

…this Nilgiri Tahr is special and endangered (near Munnar in Kerala)

These hog deers in Dudhwa national park in Uttar Pradesh look so cute…

…the pair below is not just distant from the camera, but also at the altitude of almost 5,000 metres, right at the base of the Mount Trishul in Uttarakhand Himalayas. Are they himalayan musk deer?

These are seemingly crooked ones… a jungle fox near Almora, and

a shying away himalaya fox near Sinthan Top in Kashmir (spot me if you can)

Dolphins are the most loved ones among fishes but too tough to capture when in their territory, like this Irrawaddy Dolphin in Chilika lake in Odisha…