Bird Man Sarwandeep Singh: Showing the World the Birds of India
Sarwandeep Singh is the MD of the Indian Birding Company.
A successful business sourcing garments for top outlets in the UK and the US has transformed into a successful business taking foreigners and Indians on Birding Tours; Bird Photography and wildlife adventure tours in India and its neighbouring countries.
Birding, explains Sarwandeep, is going to wildlife sanctuaries and national parks to watch and see bird species only found in India. Some people want to watch and observe, they are called Birders. others want to see and take photographs; they are called Bird Photographers.
“India has 13% of the world’s bird species, so people interested in birds have to go there if they want to see them,” Singh explains. “In England you have more Birders than Bird Photographers; out of the whole of Europe the British are the keenest at Birding. Birders love to go and look at the birds’ plumage, colour, juvenile or baby birds. The Americans are very keen too.”
Early Business Background
In the early nineties, Sarwandeep was busy working for a sourcing company representing US companies Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy Stores in India. Every three months or so, he would come and spend time in the UK or the US so he became very at home in England.
From 1996, he set up his own sourcing company providing Adam Children’s Wear, manufacturing garments in India for Miss Selfridge, BHS and others, so the UK relationship continued.
“Slowly my interest in wildlife got the better of me, I wound up my garment company and went full time into Birding and Wildlife Photography,” he says.
Singh’s approach to anything is always scientific and logical, so to complete a mission he makes a practical plan and works to that.
For example, he has just co-authored a book, Birds of India, published by Om Books. The other four authors are Bikram Grewal, Sumit Sen, Sarwandeep Singh, Nikhil Devasar and Garima Bhatia. It has 4,400 photos, 800 pages, and displays all 140,00 all the different bird species of India.
He has three more single-author books of his own lined up for those interested in Birding. This trio looks at topics like ‘where to find birds’ and ‘how to differentiate between them.’
But he also handles the Bird Tours, along with his team. How does he do it all?
Sarwandeep Singh spends 150-200 days a year travelling around the sub-continent, touring India, Nepal and Sri Lanka for instance, and 160 days a year in Delhi. When he is in Delhi, he spends 9-10 hours a day writing. In his spacious airy Noida living room, he sits at a big oval table with seven to eight reference books spread out in front of him. Fiercely disciplined, but nice and sociable with it, he does the work. Sarwandeep is a great host; he is not reclusive, and he entertains with passion. He loves his cricket too.
Typically, overseas Birding clients arrive in Delhi, spend one night planning and briefing with Sarwandeep, then head off on whatever package they have chosen; seven star, five star, medium or budget tour. “Certain birds are only found in Ladakh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, or the eastern part of India; Assam, Arunachal, Manipur. Some tours are just looking at birds from the forest, or the birds of the ocean, or birds of the desert. All our trips are customised,” he explains.
Ambition
If you look Sarwandeep up online you will likely find numerous beautiful photographs of birds of India where you see his name.
Yet this expert always has desires and ambitions of his own. Currently he wants to locate the Sclaters Monal bird that is to be found on a small patch of land in Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern corner of India, close to the Chinese border.
“I went there in the summer, May 2016, spent time there, but did not see any Sclaters Monals. They’re so rare. Very few exist because they have disappeared over the years, due to deforestation, pollution, or hunting. So it’s not too easy to find these birds, and you have got to be lucky to see this little fellow,” he says, smiling, the love he has for the wildlife of the air showing clearly.
