Twitcher Atul Jain, on why you should be a bird-watcher

Atul Jain, 55, is a twitcher based in Delhi. He lives to spot rare birds. He will drop everything and hop on a flight at a moment’s notice, if word arrives that a rare bird has been sighted elsewhere in the country. He’s been doing this since 2001. 'I’d rather spend my money on nature than on a car,' is how he puts it. Last week, he spotted his 1,177th bird species, all the way south in Munnar. It was the rarer-than-rare Eurasian blackcap, a common warbler in Europe, sometimes seen in Kenya, but never seen in India before. Everyone should be a birder, he says. Here's why, and how to get started.