Chennai: Weary eyes and tired body, but this does not deter them to cherish the moments of spotting a wide variety of animals and birds. Having just returned from an expedition to Tadoba Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, Karthick Kumar and Swarup Kumar, founders of Naturographers, are no less excited to plan for their next trip to Jhalana Safari Park in November. News Today caught up with the duo to know more about their adventures.
About how it all started, Karthick, a 25-year-old Chemical Engineer says, “Our first expedition was to Gir National Park in November 2015. We signed up with Birdwings, a Bengaluru-based photography club. The entire journey was quite new for us, hence, we tagged with them. We were even clueless about reserving tickets and planning an itinerary. But the new-found interest soon became a passion which led to organising our own trips.”
“With no expectations, we took a train to Ahmedabad, a flight to Jungadh and reached Gir. We observed how the professional members were exploring and went with the flow. We got an opportunity to see several wild animals and birds. Slowly, the thought of initiating something for people in Chennai gained importance and the following year, we started our own club,” chips in Swarup Kumar, a 27-year-old Marine Engineer.
Their passion materialised in 2016 and they co-founded Naturographers, an exclusive club for exploring wildlife and photography and create awareness on conserving Nature. Recently, their dedication earned them a conservation award during the 2018 International Camera Fair.
“Though we formed Naturographers in 2016, we took a few months to do intense research on wildlife, plan everything and organised our first ever trip in 2018 to Bandipur Reserve Forest with three new people. The major challenge was in booking the safari. It has to be booked three months in advance and it has to be done a 12 midnight. It was all new to us, but somehow, we managed to make all the arrangements,” adds Karthick.
Unlike other initiatives, the duo wants to explore without distractions and limit the number of participants to three or four.
On the selection process, Karthick says: “We speak with people who apply and find out if they really are interested to explore nature and wildlife. It is not mandatory that the person should be knowing photography either. Just the enthusiasm to delve deep into the wild is the factor we look for.”
To ensure the safety and security of fellow travellers, they seek the help of forest rangers and local inhabitants.
About their recent trip to Tadoba, Swarup says, “Spotting Maya — the tigress queen of the sanctuary – within an hour of our journey on safari, was something that we did not see coming. The regal queen was treading on the muddy roads of Tadoba which left us in awe. Normally, it takes at least four hours to sight a tiger as Indian forests are dense.”
However, the duo opine that the learning is just not about forests and animals, but life, too.
“In Bandipur, we happened to see how the female elephant tries to safeguard its cub. We, humans, always feel that we are silenced and controlled when we are young. But only after witnessing such struggles do we realise how blessed we are,” adds Swarup.
The Naturographers plan to organise a tour every month in the last weekend. And here is the next set of list:
Jhalana, Jaipur, in November
Thattekad, Kerala, in December
Bharatpur, Odisha, in January
To tag with them, contact them at: 8124487585 and 8940234122.