Dawn and morning mist in the Bilgiri Hills. Southern India.
My experiences in India have become an important reference point for my views on many topics. From an environmental perspective, India is an unfolding tragedy, a victim of severe overpopulation. As a direct consequence of population pressures, very little habitat remains intact. What does remain is thus all the more precious. This is a land that boasts a fauna of elephants, leopards, peacocks, pythons, cobras, tigers---the tropical setting of Kipling's Jungle Book: the remnants of this natural heritage are rapidly vanishing, however. The native tigers, for instance, are now isolated in small populations (most too small to remain genetically viable in the long term), confined to islands of preserved wilderness in a sea of humanity. Within their supposedly protected preserves, tigers are falling rapidly to poachers. Backward Chinese superstitions and growing Chinese wealth create a strong demand for tiger parts, and corruption and indifference in India allow poaching to thrive. We may well see the last wild tigers exterminated in the next twenty years, and what is true of the tiger is true of much else. India, in short, is devouring itself---a concentrated example of a global phenomenon.
My time in India has been scattered over the past decade. Much of that time has been spent visiting with my wife's family, but I try to spend as much time as possible away from the cities, in the rural areas and in the remaining tracts of wilderness. Getting suitable access (for purposes of professional-level photography) to the few wild places is difficult for a non-native without the right connections. Fortunately, I have been aided by some devoted local conservationists who have been extremely generous with their time. A growing number of Indians are becoming environmentally aware, and many are fighting to preserve what remains of their natural land. Some of these people have risked their lives opposing illegal logging, poaching, and governmental intransigence (or complicity).
