Chennai birder’s photo commended by London’s Natural History Museum

Sambath Subbaiah’s photo won appreciation as part of Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in the Birds Behaviour category.

Forces of nature The combat between the eagle and the snake; Sambath special arrangement

Their eyes are locked in fierce competition. Who will strike first? Chennai birder and wildlife photographer Sambath Subbaiah chanced upon a short-toed snake eagle and a rat snake in combat, in March last year at Senneri lake in Kanchipuram. He took out his camera to document the action and was rewarded with a series of images. One of them, that shows the bird and snake with their eyes interlocked, moments before striking, stands out: It was commended under the Birds Behaviour category in Wildlife Photographer of the Year award from London’s Natural History Museum, announced last week.

“This is a prestigious award and I’m thrilled,” says the 36-year-old who is an IT manager. It had started out as a regular day of birding for Sambath that day; he recalls heading to the outskirts of Chennai with his daughter and a friend. The sun was about to set and the light was falling when he saw them. “The five-foot long rat snake had coiled around the eagle’s tail and feet,” he recalls. It had seemed like the eagle was losing the battle.

Sambath Subbaiah

“It struggled,” says Sambath. By then, Sambath had begun clicking away his camera. “These are the kind of moments you dream of capturing as a photographer,” he says. “But it was challenging; it was almost 6.15 pm and the lighting was poor.” Minutes in, the eagle and the snake were about to strike each other at the same time. “The eagle won, of course,” says Sambath. After all, its main diet consists of snakes.

Sambath hopes that his award creates awareness on the importance of the grassland ecosystem. “As our cities expand at a drastic pace, we must remember to preserve our waterbodies,” he says. Grasslands around waterbodies, Sambath explains, are crucial for snakes to survive. “And snakes keep rats, that are pests for farmers, in check,” he says, adding, “If this chain is broken, the entire cycle will go for a toss.” Sambath adds that all these seemingly “small things, are interlinked” and contribute to climate change.

Another aspect that Sambath wants to highlight is that, while people travel thousands of kilometres to see and photograph wildlife, they often miss out on what is in their backyard. “There’s so much to explore locally,” he feels.

The photo won him the award, sums up Sambath, due to a combination of factors. The most important of them was simply “being at the right place at the right time.”