Beyond Borders: Inter-species Cohabitation and Cooperation

Beyond Borders, Mixed Media: Video, Photography, and Animation. 2025.

Each year, hundreds of birds migrate to the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (officially titled by the UNESCO World Heritage as Keoladeo National Park, located in the state of Rajasthan, India. The park holds between 350 and 400 different species of local and migratory birds from cranes, pelicans, storks, geese, ducks, to eagles, peacocks/peahens, and many more. Known as a major watering ground in the Central Asian Flyway (large continental area of Eurasia covering a span of over 30 countries) Keoladeo has become a birding hot spot for breeding and feeding, and a global tourist hub for bird enthusiasts. Keoladeo is a representation of harmony, where birds of over 400 species reside amongst one another, along with various other species such as 15 varieties of snakes (5 of which are lethally poisonous), monkeys especially the Rhesus Macaque, deer such as the Spotted, Sambar, Nilgai, and the Indian Hog, a variety of turtles from the endangered Crown River turtle, to the Indian Softshell turtle. Keoladeo hosts thousands of insects and fish, along with a range of wild boars, mongooses, blackbucks, jackals, hyenas, monitor lizards, and the rare and occasional jaguar. While there are predators and their preys, the ecosystem encourages humans to understand the value of diversity, and the multitude of ways different species practice cooperation and cohabitation with one another to advantage each other’s growth and existence. For example, the Rhesus Macaque monkeys are often in the company of a variety of deer, dropping berries onto grounds from which deer feed. Having the advantage of climbing to great heights, they have the advantage of warning animals of nearby predators. At a time where human species are building walls, borders, banning migrations, and cultivating fear and hate of the other, Keoladeo is a reminder that despite humans’ hate and fear for one another, the Orient Magpie Robin, known as the national bird of Bangladesh, is a welcomed treasure across borders of human created hate and division between Bangladesh and India. Wars, political rivalries, religious intolerance and hate, migration and immigration bans cease to exist in a statehood of mutual harmony and cooperative existence.

Hinduism Striptease