Pune, Oct 2 (PTI) A 72-year-old man from Pune has been using the unusual medium of paddy art to create awareness about the flora and fauna of Sahyadri range in the Western Ghats. Using his farmland on the outskirts of Pune as a large canvas, Shrikant Ingalhalikar has over the years created seven images of rare life forms of Sahyadri range with two varieties of paddy. Ingalhalikar has made Lord Ganesha, black panther, emerald dove, pit viper, gaur and leafbird and this year, a flying black eagle using paddy plants. "I am doing this to create awareness about rare species of the Western Ghats and trying to bring to people’s attention the flora and fauna of Sahyadri," Ingalhalikar told PTI. As a part of his annual practice, Ingalhalikar, who is an engineer and a graphic designer, created a flying black eagle, a predatory bird found atop the evergreen forests of Sahyadri, a biodiversity hotspot in the Western Ghats. "The bird has a yellow beak and legs, while the rest of the body is plain black. It hovers or even halts over treetops in search of prey, including birds, lizards, snakes and squirrels. It can be easily identified by its black feathers and peculiar flight pattern,” the septuagenarian said. The bird can be spotted on the hills of Bhimashankar, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar and Amboli. During monsoon due to lack of visibility, it can be seen drifting in the dry hills, he said. The paddy art piece, measuring 80 feet, has been created at Gorhe Budruk on Sinhagad Road and can be viewed from a raised steel platform. Explaining the process, Ingalhalikar said, "This is an annual practice, which commences during the season of paddy plantation in June with the arrival of monsoon. I use two varieties of the crop — green leaf plant and black leaf plant. In the first stage, seeds are sown somewhere else and the plants are later uprooted and sown on a muddy farm as per the design generated on a computer.” “The design is basically a combination of sketching, computer graphics and agriculture and I use all these three skills to create art,” he said. Though the image is created on a large landscape, computer graphics are necessary, he said."An image as per the size of the field (100 feet) is designed on computer and accordingly, the planting is carried out. And once the rice plants grow, the picture emerges and becomes clearer. So, it takes a month to view the art piece," Ingalhalikar said.Ingalhalikar’s journey into the world of paddy art, which originated in Japan, began in 2016 at a farmland in Gorhe, near Sinhagad after he discovered the black leaf rice variety."In Japan, they have five colours (of rice leaf variety) and they create very complicated and challenging images. But here, I can only use two colours. I can also make complex images, but it is expensive and time consuming. There is no commercial aspect attached to my endeavour, I cannot spend lakhs just to get more colours," he said.Ingalhalikar, however, is taking efforts to create interest among landscape designers and other professionals as paddy art is a group activity."In Japan, more than 100 people come together to join their fields and make larger and complete images," he said, hoping that the art form gains popularity in the country. PTI SPK ARU ARU