Swagat Thorat is a wildlife photographer, playwright, painter, editor, and director. Known as the

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

Man of India, he published India's first registered fortnightly Braille newspaper in the

Marathi language Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and additional official language in the state o ...

, called ''Sparshdnyan.'' He has also directed plays with blind performers.

Career

Swagat Thorat was raised in

Chandrapur Chandrapur (earlier known as ''Chanda'', the official name until 1964) is a city and a municipal corporation in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra state, India. It is the district headquarters of Chandrapur district. Chandrapur is a fort city ...

in Maharashtra. In 1993, he created the documentary ''Kallokhatil Chandane'' for Pune Akashwani. As a theatre director he staged ''Teen Paishacha Tamasha'' and ''Apoorva Meghdoot'' with a cast of blind artists. He also published ''Sparshagandh'', the first Braille Diwali magazine, in 1998 and worked for some time as editor and publisher of ''Sparshdnyan'', the first registered fortnightly Braille newspaper in India (founded 15 February 2008). He has also been Chief Editor of ''Reliance Drishti'', the most widely printed and read Braille fortnightly newspaper in India, which was founded in March 2012.

Awards and recognition

* Real Heroes Award from CNN-IBN and Reliance

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Nature photographers Marathi-language writers Braille publications Chandrapur Blind musicians {{India-writer-stub