Writer’s Corner: How a young Bengaluru photographer captured 35 bird species in city

Chuk-chukiya, Anvita Trivedi's coffee-table style book is devoted to 35 of the different species of birds one might expect to see around Bengaluru city.

For all that Bengaluru is known as a Garden City, not everyone looks closely into what lives in the greenery.

But for Bengaluru-based photographer and writer Anvita Trivedi, the avian life of the city is everywhere if you know where to look.

At the age of 20, Trivedi has already been taking photographs around the city for well over half her life; a practice that served her well with the first book, Chuk-chukiya.

The coffee-table style book is devoted to 35 of the different species of birds one might expect to see around the city.

Chuk-chukiya has been four years in the making for Trivedi, who is passionate about writing as well.

A limited initial edition of the book was launched in 2024, with some copies of the current edition also available at Blossoms on Church Street.

Centred around photographs of birds taken by Trivedi, the book contains descriptions of the birds and their calls, anecdotes, and even local folklore.

Recalling where her interest in nature comes from, she said, “I live in a household that prioritises environmentalism and sustainability…we don’t use chemical fertilisers and pesticides (in gardening), and keep bird baths around.

That influenced my perspective on what the world around me looks like.” Her interest in photography began early, too, when she picked up her father’s camera at the age of eight.

Around the time the pandemic started, she became an avid birder.

One might imagine that a birder would have to run up and down the city to see birds inhabiting different patches of greenery – but it seems that has not impeded Trivedi.

She says, “The thing is, you don’t really have to step outside and do something special to see the wildlife around us…..you can just look outside and see what is around you.

Almost 90 per cent of the pictures I have taken for my book are from the area in and around my house in Whitefield.” She has even photographed an Indian paradise flycatcher in the city – a sighting that a birder might travel far to see.

Incidentally, as Trivedi was speaking to The Indian Express at a street in Koramangala this weekend, she noted that five different species of birds could be heard there alone.

At this point, she estimates that she can identify around 200 species by sight, and roughly half of those by call alone.

Aside from finding a formal publisher for the book going ahead, Trivedi hopes that she can conduct talks at schools or in bookshops, as well as guided walks to create interest in nature around the city.

Readers interested in ordering a copy can do so at the link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdZ7XKJDiibSzFj3Ar9ZBpsOyGV5B-sXISvzxsbHaY_2Yr45A/viewform (can please hyperlink this through the word link in the copy).

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