KOCHI:Travelling was his favourite hobby for a decade, but two years ago, he felt the urge to photograph his visits, to share with others the locations and things he sees. This is how Amal George’s love for wildlife photography was born.Though working as an IT professional in Bengaluru, Alappuzha native Amal’s camera has clicked breathtaking pictures of tigers and other wild cats.“I have covered almost all the forests, including Jim Corbett, Tadoba, Kabani, Bandhipur, Sathyamangalam and many more in both south and north India. I am most interested in tigers, leopards, panthers, and also elephants and birds,” said the self-trained photographer. He added he was afraid initially while setting out on the journey to capture tigers, but later got the knack of it.
“Though I have had apprehensions, I knew the animal won’t attack unnecessarily. If we don’t provoke them, they will simply pass by and we can take their pictures while sitting in the safari jeep,” said Amal. He mentioned the jeep driver is also trained, so there was no need to worry and they ‘capture’ the tiger as soon as they get the right gap.
His first experience with a tiger was at Bandipur two years ago. “ I was all excited and got to click a male tiger. But as I used a basic camera then, the photo quality was poor,” he noted.Amal remembers a journey to the Kholsa Zone of Tadoba, the habitat of a tiger pair and their two male cubs. “It was always on my wishlist and finally I got to tick that off. I went there in a gypsy and spotted the young tigers at a watering hole. Though the older one walked away, the younger tiger sat there playing comfortably,” he said.
He said that for some time he was caught up in enjoying the beauty of the tiger when his friends reminded him about the picture, and he then took the photos. “After a while, the tiger started roaring and we stepped back and it disappeared into the bushes,” he added.
Amal noted his favourite quest remains the black panther experience at Kabani. “As it is an elusive animal, I pursued it for four years. And finally I could get a glimpse of it and freeze it in my camera,” he said.
He said other animals like the deer communicate with each other when they sense the presence of a tiger, which also helps them in knowing that the animal is nearby. Amal travels to a forest in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu once in a month during the weekend. But though he has tried to get permission to enter forests in Kerala for photography, nothing has worked out so far.
Along with continuing wildlife photography as a hobby, Amal also runs a trust, Karnataka Indian Wildlife Explorers. He noted he decided to come up with a trust when he felt that the conservation of endangered species is vital. “Our trust founded a year ago works for the conservation of wildlife animals. We take awareness classes for tribals and villagers on the need to preserve the species and on how to resolve the man-animal conflict,” he said.
He mentioned that with consistent efforts of forest officers and conservation officials, the number of tigers has gone up in the country. “As I was out of station this year, I could not be part of tiger day programmes of our trust, but generally we conduct a tiger photography competition and other awareness classes,” he added.
Amal also writes articles for travel magazines on his wildlife photography encounters and in his Facebook post. “I am now gearing up to travel and capture our national animal Bengal tiger by going through its roots in Nepal and Bhutan,” he added.