A free-spirited excuse to add some wild to a beach holiday: Hawa Mahal on Visakhapatnam's Beach Road is currently hung with nearly 150 wildlife photographs, and there's one more day to catch them. The show, WildVizag 2.0, opened on Saturday as part of World Wildlife Week 2026 and runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on October 4.

Twenty-five photographers from four states have work on the walls, ranging from tigers in their forest strongholds to sweeping landscapes of Indian wilderness. Alongside the familiar big-cat imagery, the exhibition makes a point of spotlighting Andhra Pradesh's own forests and wildlife — an under-the-radar corner of Indian biodiversity that rarely gets gallery treatment.

The formal opening was handled by the region's forest establishment: Ravindra Dhama, Divisional Forest Officer for Visakhapatnam, cut the ribbon as chief guest, with Bobbili MLA Swethakumar Rangarao Bobbili as special guest. A team from the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve — one of India's largest tiger reserves, straddling Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — is also in attendance.

The NSTR presence is more than ceremonial. The team has set up a stall with wildlife rescue kits and field equipment, and staff are on hand to explain how the gear is used, what field protection involves, and what conservation work looks like on the ground. For anyone curious about what actually happens after a camera trap photo is taken, this is the interesting bit.

The opening day drew a healthy mix of school groups and walk-in visitors — around 85 students from Silver Oaks International School and 30 from St. Joseph's Women's College came through the gallery, alongside members of the public.

For travellers, the appeal is obvious. Visakhapatnam — Vizag to most — is best known for its beaches, the Kailasagiri hilltop park and the seafood along the promenade, but this exhibition adds a genuine cultural stop to a coastal itinerary. Beach Road is the city's walking spine, so you can combine a morning gallery visit with a stroll along the Bay of Bengal, and the 10-to-8 opening hours mean it fits around almost any schedule.

It's also a useful scouting trip. If the photographs tempt you toward the real thing, the state's wildlife credentials run deeper than many visitors realise — Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve is within reach of an extended Andhra itinerary, and the Eastern Ghats around Visakhapatnam hold their own tracts of forest and tribal country. An exhibition like this, with forest department staff on site, is an unusually direct way to get honest advice about where to go and what you might see.

Entry details aren't elaborate — this is a public awareness event as much as an art show — and the crowd on day one suggests word has already spread locally. If you're in Vizag on October 4, Hawa Mahal is worth an hour, whether you're a photographer, a wildlife enthusiast or just someone who'd like to see a tiger without the jeep ride.

Reported by The Hindu Travel.