Shaaz Jung is a bit of a celebrity in the world of wildlife photography. The young photographer’s lens has captured elephant herds, tigers on the prowl, and panthers curled up on trees, but it’s the leopards that have earned him a reputation. Over the last decade, Shaaz has spent much of his time in the forests of Kabini, in the buffer zone between Nagarhole and Bandipur wildlife sanctuaries in Karnataka, where he runs a resort with his father and keen conservationist, Saad Bin Jung.
Shaaz has always loved forests, but he didn’t think his career would be so entwined with the wild. After he graduated from university, Shaaz was all set to join the corporate world. He had a job in hand and a few months to spare, so he decided to help out with his father’s stay in Kabini. It was during this time that he had his first leopard encounter, with a feisty young male called Scarface.
Something about Scarface captivated him, and he took to tracking the leopard with his camera in tow. It was a significant time for both the big cat and the budding photographer. Leopards are solitary hunters and leave their parents to find their own territory. Scarface had fought his father three or four times in the month that Shaaz tracked him. “I remember travelling into the jungle and seeing him sitting on a fallen tree, blood dripping from his wound. The fight had won him his territory and he was now king of his land.”
“A young leopard had fought for his space and won, and that was very symbolic to my life as well,” Shaaz says. “He was at the same stage in his life as I was in mine; both trying to find our paths and become independent. From then, he has allowed me to come into his territory as a guest in his home, and it has been an incredible journey.” Needless to say, Shaaz did not take up the job in the urban jungle, and devoted his time and energy to the wild of Kabini instead.
Today, he is part of the Buffer Conflict Resolution Trust of India (BCRTI), a non-profit organization that addresses conflicts within the buffer regions of protected forests. It aims to bridge the gap between the locals, officials, and private sector owners. Through vocational training among locals, the trust helps create jobs in the tourist sector, and build awareness about animal behaviour and protocol during man-animal conflict. This is crucial as a number of villages are at the periphery of the forests, where animal activity is frequent. In addition, very little compensation is received for crops that are destroyed and animals that are taken by the wild.
It’s not an easy task, but the BCRTI is bringing about a change of perception. “Our aim is to educate with films and other media, to create an emotional connect with wildlife,” says Shaaz. Since India has the Wildlife Protection Act but no conservation laws like those in Africa, the need of the hour is definitely to pursue conservation laws that can help us preserve and protect the beautiful forests of India”.