KRISHNAN:EYE IN THE JUNGLE

M. Krishnan (1912-1996) was endowed with a wide range of interests and amazing prowess as a writer in both his native Tamil and English. He wrote on anything that caught his attention, from dog-shows to cricket, local breeds of cattle to temple carvings, squirrels in his backyard to elephants, gaur and mouse deer of the forests. He did not just write occasionally, but wrote steadily and inspiringly for well over 35 years. A pioneer in the field of black and white photography, Krishnans contribution to wildlife photography and writing on natural history in India has no parallel. In this special compilation, an effort has been made to select lively and anecdotal text for which Krishnan has been recognized, to accompany images that he created which are in a class of their own. E.P. Gee, the eminent naturalist and Forest Officer, described Krishnan in the following words in his famous book, the Wildlife of India, first published in 1964: I think of M. Krishnan, one of the best naturalists of present day India. He is middle-aged, active and does a lot of writing on natural history for newspapers and magazines. He is an artist also and an expert wildlife photographer. Every Hair must be his motto, for his pictures show the finest detail of the coats of gaur, sambar, chital and the life and every wrinkle on the skin of a wild elephant. He is a bit of a lone wolf, one who does not care for meetings or advisory boards, but as a naturalist had no equal.