Age was telling him to relax. Be happy. But he was not ready to rest at all. To be happy, he was enjoying his whimsical work. He seemed ready to jump anywhere for a good photo. Whether it's cold or sweltering hot! He was indifferent.

Chungba Sherpa, a 63-year-old senior wildlife photographer from Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality-3 Chaur Khark, Solukhumbu, will never be seen in such a hurry again. Nor can you hear many anecdotes in the experiences he has collected in wildlife photography . Because he has left this world forever .

Chungba was such an insect of wildlife photography, which was always touched by other things in the world . He was engrossed in his own work for years. With his death, wildlife photographers have lost a great mentor and conservationists an invaluable asset.

Chungba could not always follow the path of his own desire . He was interested in photography from a young age. But to run the household and educate his children, he was engaged in the tourism business . Even though children can stand on their own feet, their desire has wings. And then he started working in wildlife photography .

Ornithologist Hathan Choudhary shared his experience of being saddened by the loss of a guardian of wildlife photography. Wildlife photographer Raj Adhikari also has a similar sad experience . Raj remembers him as a committed wildlife photographer and someone who likes to take on challenges.

In a meeting some time ago, he said that he had recently bought an expensive Arwan camera released by the Canon company . It was said that the body of this camera alone will be around ten lakhs . And Chungba also told the plan to go from Chitwan to Shuklaphanta and abroad with this camera . But leaving all his plans unfinished, he left this world on Sunday.

When asked to take a picture of a tiger, Chungba always looked surprised. He said that he saw 65 tigers in Chitwan, Bardia and Shuklaphanta in 6 years and took 46 pictures of tigers. He used to say,  "When you go to take a picture of a tiger, the fear disappears." When he was about to go after the tiger, he was going to take pictures of the tiger's many poses. Chungba, who also took pictures of 7 tigers with a drone, always happily narrated the excitement of having a tiger in the camera's framing for 15 minutes and taking pictures of 4 tigers at the same time in Chitwan .

Chungba's photo archive has everything from a tiger crossing a river to a rare photo of a damaru going hunting after feeding it with milk. Senior wildlife expert Hemsagar Baral said that the behavior of the tiger can be known from the photographs taken by him. He said, "His death is a matter of great loss". He took pictures of more than 300 species of birds from plains to high mountains. He used to say, "taking pictures of birds requires a lot of patience". Second-to-second movements matter.

He reached from Gokyo to Kalapathar to take many attractive pictures of more than 35 species of wild animals. He collected many experiences from the exciting experience of photographing Jharal, Naur, Kasturi and Deer to the excruciating wait while photographing tiger, bear, leopard and rhinoceros. He often shared the joy of taking fascinating pictures of peacocks, arna, chauka, rate, nilgai, krishnasar and baharsinga. And remembering the hard work he had done to achieve that happiness, he always felt respect for him.

It had been half a decade since I was associated with Chungba . I did not even think that the last meeting on 13th of June would be the last. At that time, he was preparing to go to Dadeldhura to take photographs.

He came to Kapilvastu for that trip. And the ornithologist Krishna Prasad Bhusal and I had reached the circle of Arghakhanchi with him. Reaching there, we planned to take pictures of the world's rare bird chir . Chungba had taught me many things during that trip.

A good teacher like the little things he taught me were very meaningful . We shared with each other the fatigue of not being able to take a photo of Chir even after staying for three days. But on the fourth day that tiredness disappeared . On the fourth morning, we were very happy to take lovely pictures of Chir . Chungba was probably the happiest.

He was very dynamic and liked to use new gadgets. He used to buy modern cameras from the world market. Last December he bought a Canon Arwan camera. Son Chhewang said, "Father was planning to go to Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand with the same camera." But Chungba's plan remained incomplete.

Sometime Ghi remembers what he said during a two-hour meeting at his house near the shoe factory in Dhumbarahi, Kathmandu. "The dream of becoming a wildlife photographer has come true," he said. I will capture the whole of Nepal in a holistic picture . And I'll just take a break.' Saying this, he kept his dream in the middle and went on.