Tiger on track

One of Indiarsquos finest naturalists conservationists and writers Valmik Thapar has inspired an idea hitherto unknown in the country That of an ecological heritage railway station Sawai Madhopur the station that thousands of Indian and international tourists keen to catch a glimpse of the tiger embark at is now a virtual art museum that celebrates local painting talent and its most famous icon the tiger In an email interview ldquofrom deep within the forestrdquo Thapar speaks of a labour of love that forces tourists to rush out of their compartments and gawkValmik Thapar centre flanked by Gajanand Singh and Narayan Singh PicSanjana KapoorEdited excerpts of the interviewThapar acquainted the artists with the tigerrsquos anatomy and character PicAditya Dicky SinghQ How did the idea of an ecological heritage station come to youA Back in the 1990s Suresh Prabhu was heading the Ministry of Environment and Forests and he was a dynamic head Last year when he took over as Union Minister for Railways I shared an idea with him mdash why not paint Sawai Madhopur railway station in Rajasthan to showcase our rich natural heritage I met him and he agreed I picked Sawai Madhopur for its focus on tigers and Bharatpur for birds The train that takes visitors to both stations the Jan Shatabdi is also going to be decked up in images of tigers and birds Mr Prabhu okayed all three ideasWildlife paintings at the Sawai Madhopur station by a team of local artists led by masters Narayan Singh and Gajanand Singh original members of the Ranthambhore School of ArtPicAditya Dicky SinghQ How did the local communities and artists get involvedA In the late 1980s I created the Ranthambhore Foundation a nonprofit that seeks the natural integration of man nature and wildlife One of the many activities we envisioned was income generation through art and craft Back then a colleague and I came across a bunch of street painters who practiced a hyper realistic style of painted tiger art They would paint oncloth and sell the works to touristsPicAditya Dicky SinghWe gathered a group and housed them I educated them on the tiger and its contours In the decades that followed they gradually turned into masters of the art form Today more than 100 painters sell their art to tourists Two of the masters Gajanand Singh and Narayan Singh were ready to take on the challenge of painting 7000sq ft of Sawai Madhopurrsquos railway stationrsquos wallsAs the painters worked they amazed audiences of train passengers who rushed out of their compartments to see these painted sights says ThaparPicAditya Dicky SinghNext I had to find a sponsor I spoke to Ravi Singh Secretary General of WWFI World Wildlife FundIndia and he was on Seventyfive days later two masters with eight students completed the fantastic job It is breathtakingQ Why pick Sawai MadhopurA Ranthambhore is synonymous with Sawai Madhopur the land of the tiger So the focus is on natural heritage It is about the human spirit connecting with nature People from all walks of life in their thousands each day are being made aware of the richness and necessity of the process The railway station is a living art museum A public space has been converted into an openair interpretation centreThe branches of trees are dotted with squirrels peacocks woodpeckers kingfishers and bulbuls that look lifelike PicAditya Dicky SinghThe art works included darters treepies hyenas bears leopards and of course tigers PicAditya Dicky SinghQ How will this help the area with respect to heritage and ecologyA As the painters worked they amazed audiences of train passengers who rushed out of their compartments to see these painted sights Villagers rubbed shoulders with Indian and foreign tourists stunned by the nature scapes Local talent had created inclusive appreciation since thousands of tourists pass this station each day Itrsquos an effective way to build awareness and respect for wildlifeSections of a painted wall on one of the platforms at Sawai Madhopur railway station PicAditya Dicky SinghVisitors and curious passersby take a closer look of the mammoth tiger painting on one of the walls of the railway platform PicAditya Dicky SinghQ Will any other station join inA Sawai Madhopur will be the first heritage railway station of the Indian Railways and yes others will follow Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje learnt of Sawai Madhopurrsquos transformation and decided to sponsor six to eight more stations in Rajasthan based on cultural heritage including Bikaner where local painters will work on floral Mughal prints Jaipur will feature Jogi art Kota will display the Mughal school if art Udaipur will have Nathdwara art Jodhpur will see the Kotputli puppets and Ajmer will have calligraphy We hope these art scapes develop across all stations of India