Mumbai-based photographer and conservationist Nayan Khanolkar has won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award in the Urban Wildlife category, in a contest conducted by the Natural History Museum, London, and BBC Wildlife. The award is regarded as one of the most prestigious in the world, reported The Hindu. Captioned, ‘The Alley Cat’, the photo was captured by Khanolkar in the Aarey Milk Colony, which borders Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP)in Borivali, Mumbai.
In his bio on the NHM website, the conservationist discussed how he wanted to depict the symbiotic relationship that the Warli people share with leopards that live in their vicinity. So loved are the cats that they have become an intrinsic part of their culture and are even depicted in their traditional paintings.
Currently, the photographer works as a Research Fellow with the Bombay Natural History Society and is focused on photographing big cats in urban areas to raise awareness about conserving India’s rich wildlife. His winning photograph which shows a lone leopard walking down a quiet lane between two mud-splattered houses, is lit dimly by a yellow bulb. The jaw-dropping photo was the fruit of four months of labour to find the perfect shot. He also faced much difficulty to convince the locals that the project was aimed at mitigating human-leopard conflict.
Speaking to The Hindu, Khanolkar said, “I wanted to convey that if coexistence with predators is possible in the centre of a metropolis, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be possible anywhere else in the world.” After a year of research on the movement of leopards in the national park, he set up a ‘camera trap’ where the camera’s shutter is triggered by movement within its focus area.
These photos highlight the sad state in which the leopards currently live in the area where they are sandwiched between rapid urbanisation and deforestation. With leopards being in the news for all the wrong reasons, these conservation efforts are more than necessary to ensure that they do not fall into the risk of becoming endangered, like other big cats. WWF lists their status as ‘Near Threatened,’ which means their population is quickly declining--bad news for the eco-system all around. It will be interesting to see whether the State Government or Central Government will make any efforts at conservation given the publicity that this issue is now receiving thanks to work of people like Khanolkar.
Another Indian photographer, Ganesh H. Shankar, also won the award in the Birds’ category for ‘Eviction Attempt’ and American photographer Tim Laman was named the wildlife photographer of the year 2016 for his image of the endangered Bornean Orangutan.
All the images will be displayed at the Natural History Museum in London from 21 October. To check out more of Nayan Khanolkar’s work, check out his website.
Feature Image Courtesy: Nayan Khanolkar/ NHM