Pune: Shrikant Ingalhalikar creates ‘Black Eagle’ through Japanese Paddy Art

Pune, 19th September 2022: Shrikant Ingalhalikar, known for his outstanding work on flora and fauna in Sahyadri, has been creating images using the Japanese Paddy Art on the ‘natural canvas’ since 2016. For the seventh year he has continued the unique event and this time has created ‘Flying Black Eagle’, using rice plants.

Black Eagle is a predatory bird found atop evergreen forests of Sahyadri. It has a yellow beak and legs while the rest of the body is plain black. It hovers or even halts over tree tops in search of its prey such as birds, lizards, snakes and squirrels. It can be easily identified by its black feathers and by its peculiar flight pattern. It can be seen in the hills of Bhimashankar, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar and Amboli. In the rainy season due to lack of visibility it can be seen to drift in the dry hills of low rainfall.

The 80 feet long Black Eagle has been created at Gorhe Budruk on Sinhagad Road and can be viewed at ‘Lexon Winders’ near Donje village.

An entrepreneur by profession, Ingalhalikar introduced Paddy Art, an agricultural art form originating in Japan, in India for the first time in 2016 at a rice field in Gorhe, near Sinhagad.

Large images are created by using rice plants of different coloured leaves. This annual event creates images of rare life forms of Sahyadri, the biodiversity hot spot in western ghats. Starting with Ganesh, images of Black Panther, Emerald Dove, Pit Viper, Gaur and Leafbird were presented in the previous years.

While making this Paddy Art, the rice field is used as a canvas and the image is created by planting paddy. Ingalhalikar said it was a task to plant paddy while standing in rain in knee deep mud in the fields.
About Paddy Art – The art was founded in the small town Inakadate village in Aamori in south Japan. Rice plantations are done in the areas without using any machines. The farmers decided to celebrate 2000 years of rice cultivation and through it the Paddy Art also known as the Tambo Art became popular in Japan in 1993.