Photostory

We’ve been talking about human-animal conflict for quite a long time now. Because, the rights of humans precede animals and borders are demarcated; whereas, in reality, it’s not. The equation of planet Earth and the term we know as ‘natural’ is changing too fast. With the rapid urbanization and scarcity of food and living space, it’s not just the human millennials of the new era who are embracing co-living for sharing space, experience, and food. It’s the rising universal need on earth that along with humans, animals are also adapting to this reality very very fast! This photo story captures how the so-called conflict is gradually transitioning (if not fully) into a new normal of co-living that is beyond our imagination of being ‘natural’. It’s incumbent on us to see the changing world, accept the reality, and make provisions accordingly for humans as well as animals to live in harmony.

I attempted to document the adaptive behavior of the giants on the earth, a large group of wild elephants. They regularly traverse through the forests into the villages, towns, highways, and tea gardens of Assam (East of India). In this process, they go through an enormous amount of interaction/conflict with humans. However, their growing intent and persistence to adapt and live with adversities by sharing the land that has been taken away from them are quite apparent. The pressure is so high from the elephants that the local inhabitants, most of them have already accepted their presence as a part of life, they call them Baba (God) and Dangoriya (the elder one) and the people who are aggravated (for good reasons) are rethinking ways to adapt.

Above, a group of wild elephants comfortably crossing a road with houses on both sides. The urban dwellers on both sides have accepted the regular visit, they know the timing and cautiously step aside paving ways for the elephants to cross. Even the domestic cow in this image who joined the giants in the parade seems very comfortable as the cow knows them well. With the rapid urbanisation, the unpaved road is now under construction, and sand gravel is laid, which will soon transform into a concrete road (see the video).

As the forest cover is shrinking, their food resources are depleting. However, some of the food they seek is found only in neighboring villages and urban areas. I believe the reason is more than hunger and shrinking living space; the taste of paddy, vegetables, salt, and local liquor to feel high are some overarching reasons that are often ignored. They are new age 21 Century elephants with more and more proximity to humans. As the human and the elephant population together are thriving and the invasion of forests continues, the distinction between human areas and forest areas is fading. Hence, they choose to venture out, at times in broad daylight. So much so that they not only discovered their pathways but dares to walk through the houses on both sides of the road, some of those are no more dirt roads but well laid out and included highways as well.

The group is foraging on a paddy field and they can clear many acres in a few hours; this is the major reason for the conflict with villagers as they need to deal with the crop damage and income loss. Of late, the idea of community farming to offer crop to elephants near the forests are being discussed, so that they stop venturing too far away from their main habitat. (Image shot by Rahul Baruah)

Large groups stay united mostly during their ventures into the human world, a solid deterrent against any measures and effort to push them away.  For the elephants, it’s a new taste, the nutrition they need to add to live well. Hence, they are in a foray to expand their living space. Perhaps, it’s a sign that our forests are no longer remain as healthy as before. I named them garden elephants as they venture out from the forest to the tea gardens as their first safe habitat and then enter into the adjacent villages and the urban areas mostly at night. Once they are done with their mission they go back to the nearby forest cover every morning only to come back again, once the sun sets.(image shot by Rahul Baruah)

Ruling the road: They wait for the group to get together before barging onto this road all at once. The body language speaks for itself that we have the right on this path.

None of the houses, nor any objects are touched, the mission is just to peacefully cross path with humans. The end of the road is the forest where they spend the day and come back again in the evening by the same route.

The image below captures the last few in the group when they put up a power show once they reached the tail end of the road, thereafter the forest cover starts. By tightly holding each other the females in the group turn their faces towards the villagers and make a high-decibel grunt to show their authority as well as make it clear that together they are strong.

This stitch video above documents the story of this elephant group that chooses not to let go of its legacy and right on the land where they used to freely roam. Even though the natural dart track has been replaced with a concrete road with houses on both sides, elephants decided to continue their parade through it and made it clear that they wanted to co-live and live in harmony.

A Tawny Eagle is toppling Lappet-faced Vulture mid-air. These are the largest in Africa (~12.5 kg) with a wingspan of ~ 3 meters.

These images depict a fight for food, an effort by the tawny eagle to save its hard-earned rodent kill on the ground that hungry vultures spotted from miles away. There were two tawny’s and they were feasting on it hiding it well inside the long grass. I was doing photography inside Tarangire National Park, particularly focusing on elephants. On our 1st day, during the afternoon I spotted a pair of Tawny Eagle busy eating something hidden inside the grass and decided to wait. Wherein the pair didn’t show up and was busy eating, I sensed some movement in the sky, those were tiny spots and I took no time to guess that they are vultures.

Though nothing was visible to me inside the grass I was waiting to see Tawny’s response thinking they’ll have to leave it to vultures. But it wasn’t the case; before the 1st vulture was about to land one tawny took off towards the vulture and confronted; others eagle continues to feast.

Tawny was one-third of the size of the vulture but the ferocity it hit the vulture the scavenger lost its balance completely.

Looking at the lost battle rest of the vultures landed far away, but by that time tawny pair finished and carried away the smaller leftover of the kill and disappeared.

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Mountains in India are mightier and the secrets it holds are known to very few. One of it is a bird, for those who have seen it instantly voted as India’s Most Beautiful Bird, i.e., the Himalayan Monal.

About The Monal – the way I see it.

Monals are native of Himalaya; hence, they are mountain birds (a large Pheasant), mostly found in Mountain slopes. As we know name pheasant embodies beauty, and they are found worldwide in different forms and colours (I am showing Scotland pheasant side by side below). But, the Monal particularly the male one has a royal touch, so much so that it can stumble you with its glossy multicolored layer on the body and a crest on top of its head – truly royal, and hard to describe in words.

Why an expedition?

The goal of my wildlife photography has been to show nature’s beauty in the best possible way. Sounds simple, but it ultimately boils down to the choice of angle, light, locations, situations, courage, intuitions, patience, more so bite the dust, dirt, snow and what not :). With this backdrop and to accomplish my Monal dream, I set out for an expedition, not just to get a photo but to frame the royal bird on the snow, as I believed snow/white truly complements and brings out the features that this legendary bird is known for. But, it was easier said than done, Monal inhabits up to 14800 ft high and getting them on the snow means it has to be towards the higher altitude and during the peak winter months. The plan was chalked out for the end of December 2019 to venture in Kedarnath side of Himalaya covering Tunganath and Chandrasila peak. This was my 1^st wildlife trip wherein this time my backpack, hand packs all were filled up to the brim with not only camera gears but with mountaineering staff along with the shark teeth (crampons) as I was hell-bent to find the Monal on the snow :).

About the Journey.

The journey from Hyderabad was an epic arduous and never-ending one. The easiest part was a direct flight to Dehradun but that wasn’t the end of the story, there onward it was a 14-hour journey by car via Rishikesh and Rudraprayag. The good part was the beautiful view of the mighty river Ganga stayed along throughout the most part of it. The journey put me in my 1st base camp (Mandal Village) in a single day, from merely sea level to 8700 ft altitude, also transposing the body and my camera gears from 30* C to -10* C in a single day. The Chopta (popular hill station, Uttarakhand) area I crossed in the mid of the night was already under heavy snow. Looking at it I was a bit happy with the prospect, but little did I know there was more breaking the ice moment waiting ahead.

The mission.

The next day early morning, my guide Harish Maithani woke me up. His appearance was a voila moment like the eagle has got its eyes :). It is extremely important to have an experienced birder along. But, he had news that due to fresh heavy snowfall Monal might be difficult to find, they don’t get food easily on the snow, particularly the male one that I was interested in is relatively shy. I realized that finding the snow is one thing but finding the Monal on the snow is now going to be like finding a needle in the hay stake. Alas, we started our day to scan the grassland areas 1st, even though I may not get snow there, but I was desperate to see one.

It’s mainly the mountain slopes we started scanning using binos, moving from one place to another, and there it was, Harish pointed our 1^st but a female Monal.

Female looks big sized Frankolin, as I saw them live 1^st time, looks good but my curiosity for the male has gone up even further because that was my target. For the next three days, we kept searching like a miner looking for gold, but we got all female and female, then came the eureka moment as something colorful flew with big wing-flapping noise, that caught our attention. I looked at Harish and he whispered. . . it’s a male :). I hold my breath and crossed checked our strategy as I wanted to get a close shot, not the record shot. We decided to watch the movement 1st, bird landed on a slop little 100 meters away but immediately started moving up towards another slope with loud calls, I sensed what the meaning of those calls as there were females on the other slope, for that he needs to cross the road. I also knew, his road crossing will give me an eye-level shot if I can catch. The first time I realized my marathon skill will be so handy in birding as well, I actually sprinted lugging the camera gears along. I was completely hidden from the bird as it was on the lower slopes and I reached very closed. Somehow holding the breadth lied down flat on the ground for an eye-level shot I wanted, but the fortune didn’t favor, time was too less before I could even place the camera, the Monal appeared and saw me, 10 meters away. It was a magical bird, the glossy colors oozing out o the body. I knew any single movement or effort to fire the shutter will make the bird vanish. Without removing the eye contact, the Monal crossed being alert by holding its body and crest high towards the higher slopes. Next moment I snapped at least 100 images.

While clicking on the slopes I realized that the challenge was to get an ideal shot; grass obstructs, the background was not clear, more so, there was less snow. The 4th day I convinced Harish that we’ll go higher up and put up bird hide on the snow if required in the areas where Monal roams.

We trekked up the Tunganath area and curved out our 1st hide. It was -10*C, fortunately I was well prepared including having warm water with a thermos flask.

A short video describing the expedition

Moving higher up was the right decision, as the morning broke out, we saw several monals on the tree and stayed put on the knee-deep snow. After some time hide proven to be extremely fruitful as few of them crossed one tree to another walking over the snow. It gave me some time to work on my exposure, as shooting in snow is very challenging with the glittering white background with a glossy colorful bird the entire metering system gets confused. But, here is the best I could shoot at a groud level, full-frame, full-on snow.

More images from the Kedarnath area.

With success, I decided to move even further as there were chances of getting Snow Partridges that rarely come down below 13000 ft (4000 meters). Luck that day was enormous, I shot this from a very difficult snow-clad mountain ridge just before reaching the Chandrasila Peak.

Photographing in snow requires tremendous effort, and at times it goes beyond the camera & skill. I must thank Harish who was my eagle eye and himself is a very passionate, experienced super-fit birding guide who helped to figure out the probable spots/locations. Here is a video interview with Harish “Birding From a Guide’s Point of View”.