Meeting passionate people from various walks of life has always been amazing and after lot of other meeting, we recently met Mr. Devender Kumar Dhadwal who is a wildlife professional in Himachal Pradesh and I like to call him a Wildlife Conservation Activist, who believes in ground work. This PHOTOJOURNEY is dedicated to Mr. Dhadwal whom we met at Pong Wetland of Himachal Pradesh, India...
In very first photograph, we have Devender Dhadwal on left side and Mr. Satish Gupta, DFO Hamirpur, on right. The second photograph show Mr. Dhadwal who is usually found around Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh, India. Mr. Devender Kumar Dhadwal is a great Wildlife lover and he considers Pong as his home. His love towards these migratory birds is incomparable. The Book 'Wild Wings - Pong and It's Birds' is a result of his extreme passion about Birding. Probably he is one of the most knowledgeable Birder in Wildlife department of Himachal Pradesh, as I noticed almost all the officials to consult him for anything related to Bird Counting, Identification of species or behavioral queries. He is very well respected by Local Folks of Pong, his junior and senior wildlife professionals of the department.
He has been serving at Pong for last 9 years and keeps doing some activities to make socialites aware about birds. With that he educate local people about various birds they see, respect birds around them, don't litter on banks of Pong Dam Lake etc. At the same time, he tries to motivate folks to think positively about these guest birds from different parts of the world. He has been very active in making these people aware about other opportunities they can explore due to these migratory birds, rather doing illegal things like trying to capture birds...
Apart from awareness programs, he is main source of inspiration for Wildlife Department in Himachal Pradesh to conduct annual Bird Counting program during winters. This is a time when lot of birders for various parts of the country join hands to do census of migratory birds in Pong Wetland. His passion towards his work and wildlife is really amazing, which also motivates others around him.
He is M.Sc., B.Ed. and M.Phil. in Enviormental Sciences and belongs of a village called Pragpur in Distt Kangra of Himachal Pradesh. We shall share more details about his book soon...