India, March 3 -- The heart-wrenching story of Punch, the Japanese baby monkey abandoned by his mother, who struggled to make friends at the Okinawa Zoo, led to a massive movement across social media around the important issue of wildlife preservation. On World Wildlife Day today, actor Malavika Mohanan echoes the sentiment. "We need to be spectators, not intruders in our shared world," she tells us.

As an avid wildlife photographer, she adds that restraint is important: "The most important lesson is patience. You can't approach wildlife with entitlement. If you're truly in the wild, you have to respect that."

For the 32-year-old, this came from her own lived experience. "Photography started as a very personal journey in 2019. When I'm ...