I was lucky enough to have my photo feature published in Republica’s “THE WEEK” on July 31, 2015. Below is the excerpt of the small article I had written along with the photo feature.

        Lots of people tell me why I always take photographs of insects when there are so many beautiful people around. I guess I love to see the intricate details nature and evolution have given to these insects which many will be saying as pests or is it maybe because I just love to see the world closer (macro) instead of evaluating it from a general perspective?

Insects can be found in almost every place where the temperature is warm and moist enough for them. They are the backbone of the ecosystem and they provide both the invertebrates and the vertebrates with the nutrition needed for survival. It is not just the food source, insects also play a massive role as pollinators, decomposers, and nutrients provider to the soil and all that grows on it.

When people think about insects, they generally think of the pest that destroys crops but these are just a fraction of the ones that exists in the total population which are much more beneficial and equally important. As we humans work our way towards a more developed world we are also helping in weakening this fragile ecology by destroying nature and installing well-groomed concrete surroundings. There is a quote by Jonas Salt ” If all the insects were to disappear from the earth within 50 years, all life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from earth within 50 years all life on earth would flourish”.

Being an avid insect photography hobbyist it makes me sad to see flower fields being sprayed with insecticides to kill the caterpillars which in turn diminishes the number of butterflies a key pollinator.

Bradley Miller rightly puts it ” Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar “.

Being superior in the food chain we humans should help in protecting the ones at the bottom of the chain so as to help in keeping the ecology in balance.

Ajay Narsingh Rana