Every time photographer Raj Mohan witnesses India’s great flamingo migration, he is completely spellbound.
“They leave me bewitched. Honestly, words can’t describe my feeling,” Mohan told The Epoch Times, talking about how the vast flocks form into sprawling patterns.
The 32-year-old Indian IT specialist travels to Pulicat Lake in Tamil Nadu, South India, for the annual flamingo festival, a three-day event promoting ecotourism. Every January, thousands of vibrant pink birds gather at the 60-km-long lake to breed.
Deploying a drone, Mohan captures their striking formations.
“The fact that these birds migrate from different continents in search of warm lands was inspiring enough to pay a visit to this place,” Mohan said.
The long-legged, web-footed birds feast on an abundance of tiny plants and algae that grow in the lagoon’s shallow waters. Crabs, snails, and small fish also provide tasty snacks, and the paddy fields surrounding the lake are rich in worms and insects.
An avid traveler and explorer, Mohan spent hours observing the sea of pink flamingos and when he noticed interesting movement, knew he had to fly his drone to see what was happening from above, capturing a series of award-winning images.
“I learned that no matter what,” he said, “they always stick together and move together in colonies to protect each other. They are very social birds.”
Around a decade ago, the computer science engineering graduate began snapping images on his phone whenever he traveled. Later, after progressing to cameras, he developed a liking for the aerial genre. Learning the medium took patience and perseverance—he lost his first drone in the sea in 2018—but his persistence paid off.
Scoring a win in the Nature inFocus Photography Awards for his picture “Heart of Pink,” Mohan says he was honored to feature on such a prestigious platform and got “unbelievably positive responses” for his images.
“Some said they didn’t know Flamingos can be found in India, some said this is the best drone shot of flamingos they have ever seen and so on,” he said.
Besides his iconic flamingo shots, Mohan has captured the “dangerously beautiful” roads in the Himalayas of India and a train passing along the “Green Route of Karnataka” with its thick green hills and tunnels. Both went viral, and Mohan was also selected from 26,000 entries to win a prize in a top drone competition for his work “Boon to Bane – 300 acres of Dump-yard.”
“Every place is beautiful and every place is important. All you have to do is look around and show the beauty of the world to as many people as you can,” he said. “Dream it, do it, achieve it! That’s what I believe in.”
Video: Green route Railway Trek of Karnataka, India:
(Courtesy of Raj Mohan)
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