JAIPUR: Prominent wildlife conservationist and photographer Aditya ‘Dicky’ Singh, who died at his home on the outskirts of Ranthambore tiger reserve in Rajasthan on Wednesday morning at the age of 57, quit a career in the civil services to relocate to Sawai Madhopur, the town adjacent to the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, in 1998.
After quitting the IAS, Singh took a government property on lease. He continued to buy the adjacent farming land of nearly 40 acres to turn it into a reserve on the edge of the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. This land later became the Bhadlav Tiger Reserve, an extension of Ranthambore Park.
Apart from his conservation efforts that included guided safaris through the vast richness of Ranthambore National Park, Singh co-authored a book titled ‘Noor: Queen of Ranthambore’, covering different aspects of tigress Noor’s life through photographs and stories.
Born to an Army family in May 1966, Aditya had a background in sciences, earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering, subsequently cleared the Civil Services exam and worked as an IAS officer. However, it was not long before he realised that his interests and calling lay in working with wildlife.
He moved to Ranthambore and spent the rest of his life there, working on wildlife documentaries, photography and conservation projects. His wife, Poonam Singh, an artist, also shared his passion for the wild, and together they started their journey that would reshape their lives and the destiny of the local wildlife and people around the tiger reserve.
Aditya’s transition to wildlife photography became much-admired for his knack for capturing moments in the lives of tigers and other jungle creatures. Poonam established the Ranthambore Bagh Lodge to provide visitors a chance to experience the peaceful co-existence of humans and tigers.
Aditya worked as a field assistant/line producer for over a dozen wildlife documentaries for the BBC Wildlife Division, National Geographic Film and Television, Japan’s NHK Broadcasting Service, Irish television and many independent productions. He also assisted some of the best names in wildlife photography in the world.
Aditya was also the recipient of the prestigious Carl Zeiss Award for Conservation (2012) and Sanctuary Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2011), among other accolades. He was also known to keep one of the largest collections of still images from the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, clicked over two decades. Singh’s demise is the end of a remarkable journey that spanned decades, marked by dedication to the protection of tigers and the wilderness.
His contribution to tiger conservation extended beyond building a tiger reserve and photography. He passionately advocated for the protection of these predators, through several controversies. His dedication to preserving the tiger’s natural habitat remained unwavering until the end, and he will live on through the forests he helped restore, the communities he empowered, and the countless people he inspired to join the cause of wildlife conservation.