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Vijay Cavale: Bengaluru’s favourite bird man did not believe in making Nature a commodity
Birder and bird photographer Cavale was not just a pioneer, he was also a mentor to several in the field
Monday, August 31, 2020, was a Black Monday for the birding and bird photography community of India. It was the day we shockingly lost Vijay Cavale (fondly known as VC), the man who made bird photography a household name in Bengaluru and beyond. As I write these words with great grief, all I wish for now is another jaunt with him in an Indian jungle.
VC was arguably India’s top modern bird photographer. He raised the bar in bird photography so high in the early 2000s that it created a new standard of excellence for bird images, unimaginable even today. He was a blazing pioneer, creating his own rules for whatever he did. In just a few months after he quit his plum job in IT major Infosys (he was one of their early employees), he added 500+ stunning bird portraits to his personal website, which he had meticulously built during the early days of the Web.
As a long-time birder who had just picked up bird photography in 2000, I had the good fortune of stumbling upon his images on his website. Each bird picture was more stunning than the last—the clarity, the colour and the eye-level capture were masterly. Even more importantly, the quality and quantity of documentation about each bird species were exceptional. He had also painstakingly recorded the call of each bird from the field and tagged it along with the picture. The never-before experience of encountering these birds on my desktop is etched in my memory for life. The urge to meet him and understand his work made me track him down through my Infosys contacts. All this when I was living in Chennai.
Unlike other photographers (including myself), Cavale started out mainly photographing birds locally before beginning his travels to the rest of the country. He was a master of all the birds in his neighbourhood of south Bengaluru, and had acute knowledge of birding and bird photography spots all the way to Kanakapura and Mysore.
Vijay, warm and welcoming, used to drive around beginners, including visitors like me, locally, and help us photograph birds from his SUV. This got most bird photographers to a great start. To me, he was the one who truly opened up the world of bird photography.
He had a fabulous technique for shooting birds from his vehicle as well as hideouts without disturbing them (or their nests!) and it was inspirational. Most of these trips ended with a simple yet sumptuous meal cooked by Vijay at his farm house at the outskirts of the city. I became so comfortable with his SUV that I ended up buying it when he decided to upgrade.
After I moved to Bengaluru about 20 years ago, thanks to proximity and our shared love of bird photography, I could hang out more with Vijay and his circle of wildlife-lovers. We did countless field trips together—from the jungles of South India to the landscapes of the Northeast. Each trip, with endless conversations and arguments, was a treasure of great memories. His wife Hasmitha was always a cheerful host whenever we landed at his house. You could tell that her silent support and encouragement kept him going.
VC was incredibly selfless and generous to anyone needing assistance. He gave his images for free to those who needed them for non-commercial use. He never sold any of his images, as he strongly believed in never making Nature a commodity. He created India Nature Watch, the first (and the best) free online forum for photographers across India to post their pictures on. It was hugely popular as all photographers (young, old and new!) could have their own portfolios on it. He funded the project in its entirety and had other young photographers architect it. He also funded Oriental Bird Images, an ambitious ongoing exercise, which is the largest repository of bird images for the entire Oriental region.
He was a true nature lover and an astute naturalist. While he had arguments with his conservationist friends (accusing them of ‘playing god’!), VC was against the cruel sport of bird nest photography and strived to rid photographers of that practice. He succeeded by showing them a better technique that resulted in better images. He banned photographers from adding nest images on the popular forums he had built. Soon, most wildlife photography awards also completely stopped accepting nest pictures. This was a very significant contribution and behavioural change he brought about in India’s bird photography landscape.
Not the one for awards or spotlight, Vijay was in the background, being an inspiration for thousands of photographers. He leaves a massive void, which will be impossible to fill. I am still trying to wrap my head around his death, unable to accept that I will never be able to see him or travel with him. A quick-witted man of one-liners, his oft-repeated remark will keep ringing in my ears—“God will allow you to do what you want to!”
Gone too soon and too sudden, dear friend. Here’s wishing you a great adventure, wherever you are!
Ramki Sreenivasan is a Bengaluru-based wildlife photographer and the co-founder of Conservation India
