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. 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. When I'm working on sets, I'm around 300 to 400 people on average. So whenever I get time off, it is meditative to go into a forest; no people, just calm," she says. Over the years, she has captured wildlife in Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), Ranthambore National Park (Rajasthan), and Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra): "For 12 hours, you're just in the wild, seeing it in its most primal form. You'll see what you see - it all depends on luck. You can never predict what you'll find, that's the beauty of it." On her bucket list now is spotting a snow leopard in the Himalayas. "This connection with Nature is essential, especially living in an urban jungle like Mumbai," she signs off....