On the occasion of World Tiger Day, artist and illustrator Sudarshan Shaw, who has been painting tigers in different art forms of India, joins us for a conversation.

Know more about his wonderfully illustrated book When a Forest Wakes Up, as Sudarshan will converse with Shashwat DC about the process of incorporating India’s rich artistic heritage for nature conservation. 

Sudarshan Shaw is a visual designer from Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He approaches design as an intensive, research-driven process that culminates into something simple and sensitive. His art style is a unique combination of both biological and cultural, symbolic and descriptive, and wild and decorated. 

He is also a self-taught birder, an avid wildlife photographer and an inventive sculptor, and loves to draw wild creatures and paint them in mud, water and primary colours.

Walks in Indian forests, interaction with raw and rooted communities and their ancestral ways of communication re-educated him about folk art’s history, inventiveness and effectiveness. 

He hopes to shift focus back to local folk art as the language of the land, for the land.

Nature writing for children is a field that has grown vastly in recent years, with many authors, old and new, contributing a fascinating array of books aimed at diverse ages, from toddlers to young adults. 

To deepen our collective engagement with this genre, Azim Premji University brings you a Webinar series #SeekingSustainability: Nature Writing For Children. The series will be of special interest for aspiring writers, parents, educators, and book lovers everywhere.