BENGALURU: Picture this: A lion perched on a wet, slippery bark of a tree, surrounded by 200-odd bloodthirsty buffalos. The lion tries to roar but that does little to ward off the predators. Suddenly, his paw slips from the branch and his face turns ashen as he slips down the tree. Time speeds up again as the large cat comes to his senses, rests his back against the tree and lands softly onto a lower branch – safe for the time being. He waits for 45 minutes; the buffalos’ patience wears thin and they eventually scatter. The lion jumps down, only to be joined by his two brothers, before he lets out a loud thunderous roar.
No, this is not a scene from a wildlife documentary. This is just Parag Kulkarni (51) describing one of the many memories he made during his first wildlife photography tour in 2018. “Now I know firsthand why the lion is called the king of the jungle – it takes valour and brains for that,” says the MD of AO Smith India Water Products Pvt Ltd.
While a camera has always been a part of Kulkarni’s travel kit, it wasn’t until May last year that he was involved in wildlife photography. In the past 12 months alone, he has planned five trips to Kabini, Tanzania and Kenya, to indulge his passion.
“I discovered wildlife photography in Kenya last year and my wife and I loved it so much that eight months later, we took a trip to Tanzania .Every experience from that trip – from watching a cheetah kill a wildebeest to venturing inside a volcanic crater and watching the sun rising behind its rim – feels surreal,” he shares. Is Africa on the cards next year too?
“Probably. We are hooked onto that place,” he says. Kulkarni expanded his toolkit during his Kenya trip and now carries with him a Nikon 750D DSLR camera, a wide lens, a 70-200 mm lens for close up shots and a 200-400 mm lens for zoom shots. He isn’t the only one who shares this passion either. Most of these tours are family trips with his wife and son sharing the same interest. Kulkarni’s next trip is in May with his son, where the duo hope to capture photographs of tigers at Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
Wildlife photography hasn’t just been a passion for this MD,who also chose to make enhanced efforts in protecting nature. “I incorporated smaller changes personally and professionally. For example, you won’t find dustbins in any of our cabins at work. If we have a centralised waste disposal system, people are more aware of how much they dispose and how much waste is generated. Wildlife photography made me realise it’s everyone’s duty to protect our world,” he says.