Conservation Photography and Wildlife Documentation
Through my lens, I witness not just the beauty of the Indian wilds, but the sobering realities of our impact. These frames document the stories of wildlife struggling to exist alongside our expanding footprint.
A pack of feral dogs corners a Nilgai, India's largest antelope. The next morning, she was found dead. This is the stark reality of the threat these dogs pose to native wildlife.
A young boy wades in a waterway choked with plastic and garbage, with city buildings in the background. The debris of our wasteful lifestyles intrudes on every natural space.
The eerie aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in the Andamans. In the morning mist, a White-bellied Sea Eagle perches on a dead mangrove stump, a symbol of resilience amidst devastation.
A Purple Sunbird chick begs for water from its parent at a leaking tap. In the height of the Indian summer, every drop counts, and no one knows this better than the birds.
The chase continues as dogs pursue the Nilgai through the water. The precise data on this threat is not clearly realized, but it is huge, and it is rising.
The pack of free-ranging dogs relentlessly pursues the antelope along the water's edge. This is a direct and violent conflict between domestic animals and wildlife.
The Nilgai flees along a ridge with the dog pack in hot pursuit. Such scenes are becoming increasingly common at the interface of human settlements and wild areas.
The antelope is cornered by the dogs at the water's edge, a desperate and tragic struggle for survival. My photography must bear witness to these difficult truths.
A plastic bag and other trash float in a once-pristine wetland, mocking nature's wizardry with colors. As a people, we don't seem overly concerned, but we are letting a wonder fade.
A tribal boy in Mumbai's SGNP, sometime around 1985. He held a dead babbler, hunted with a simple arrow. He knew the living forest well, a sight you are unlikely to see today.
About A Fragile World: Conservation Chronicles
Every photograph here tells a difficult truth, from the struggle for water in Central India to the encroachment of plastic in our wetlands. These images serve as a witness to the friction between human lifestyle and natural survival, capturing the moments where nature is forced to adapt or perish.
Nature is not just the pretty picture we see on postcards. In my years of documenting the Indian wilds, from the mangrove forests of the Andamans to the wetlands on the outskirts of Jaipur, I have seen how our habits, our plastic, and our urban sprawl intersect with the life of creatures great and small.
My photography here is not about capturing the perfect light. It is about documenting the dazzling energy of a sunbird searching for a sip of water at a leaking tap and the tragic reality of feral dogs cornering an antelope. These images, often raw, act as a mirror to our own actions. Whether it is a tribal boy from Mumbai's SGNP in 1985 or the aftermath of the tsunami, each frame preserves a history that is rapidly fading.
For those interested in conservation photography, my work focuses on the ethics of the field. I aim to document without interfering, ensuring the story remains the priority. My limited edition prints and licensing services offer a way to bring these critical narratives into your own space, serving as a reminder of the fragility of our one earth. We do not just photograph the landscape; we protect the memory of what it once was and what it still struggles to be.
Sunjoy Monga
I am a naturalist and photographer who believes nature has a voice we must learn to hear. My work captures the raw, often uncomfortable truths of our wild spaces, blending scientific observation with the storytelling lens of someone who has spent decades watching these forests change.
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