Techies in Coimbatore turn the spotlight on Lion-tailed Macaques

Techies during weekdays, naturalists over the weekend — their film on the Macaques turns the spotlight on conservation

The Malabar Whistling Thrush, a glossy black bird, sings beautifully at dawn in the forest. A series of mystical whistles that go ‘tseee’, ‘tseee’ resembling a whistling school boy float out of rainforests in Valparai as the documentary Save the Macaquesplays on the big screen. We are at the Bosch Global Software Technologies campus in Saravanampatti to meet the members 360° Pixtures, a photography community formed by engineers with a love for Nature and conservation.

They are out with their first production — a film on the critically endangered lion-tailed macaques, a primate that can be found only in the rainforests of the Western Ghats. “This entrancing melody of the thrush takes over the valley and follows you wherever you go,” says Harigokul Shanmugham, a software engineer and one of the core members of 360° Pixtures. Other members include Samuel Victor from Udhagamandalam, a birder since his childhood while Shakti Bala Krishna, a new entrant to the community, has shifted gears from street and portrait photography to wildlife. Srikanth Santhinathan is fondly referred to by his colleagues as ‘man of the forest’ and Periyarmathi Mahalingam is considered an encyclopedia on birds of Coimbatore.

Says Samuel, “I started a Nature Club and introduced birding at campus. As part of CSR activity, we documented slender loris in Dindigul over a period of three years. We trained tribal people in plumbing, carpentry and electrician work, helped women formed self-help groups.”

Constant awareness brought down the number of road kills and the lorris population increased considerably. “It was heartening,” explains Sam adding that icing on the cake for the team was when the Tamil Nadu Government declared the Kaduvur slender loris sanctuary covering 11,806 hectares in Karur and Dindigul in 2022. 

 “People are happier,” says Naved Narayanan, Center Head of Bosch Coimbatore, adding that such communities initiated by people connect people to the physical world. While the FitForFuture — Fit.Kovai Strategy steered by Naved drives home the message on staying fit, the 360° Pixtures community uses photography as a tool to keep the buzz around environment, conservation, and biodiversity protection. Started in 2022 with nine core members, it has grown to accommodate 1200 members. During workshops at the campus on photography techniques using DSLR, mirrorless cameras, and even mobile devices, they share compelling stories from the wild, fostering a deeper appreciation for nature and the need to preserve it.

 “Outings in the jungle can be addictive,” chips in Rekha Varma who heads the community, adding that the company of her team makes a perfect setting for travels in the wild. “During our Valparai trip, it was raining and the leeches were out, giving us a hard time. While we followed an elephant with our cameras, we almost missed a sloth bear. After a few anxious moments, we spotted the bear walking towards the elephant. And sambar deers grazing on the hills went on an alert mode after seeing the predator approaching. It was a perfect goosebumps moment, a frame any photographer would love to capture.”

The team also puts together an annual photo exhibition titled ‘Avni: Our Mother Nature’ where they display wildlife and nature-centric photos of members for sale. The proceeds, routed through CSR, are used to publish a bilingual booklet on wildlife of Tamil Nadu for students of Government School in Keeranatham.