Where the wild things are

A tribute to their sibling, Latika and Shloka Nath’s new book is also fundraiser for India’s wildlife conservation movement

A clouded leopard glares straight into the lens in the forests of Tripura. A scarlet finch munches on berries on a branch in Sikkim. A school of yellow-green snappers swims by in deep blue waters. These quick moments could fuel your next-door wildlife enthusiast’s monologues for weeks, but for Latika Nath, it’s photos that do the talking instead.

Hidden India , a new book by wildlife biologist Latika Nath and her cousin Shloka Nath, opens with pictures of stately tigers in Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks. But it quickly becomes about more than everyone’s favourite big cat. The coffee-table book, published by Academic Foundation, spotlights a range of India’s smaller wildlife gems, too, from mountain sheep to monkeys. You’ll find an Indian palm squirrel (mid-flight) within the pages, as well as many chapters dedicated to birds, landscapes and marine life.

Passion for the wild

It’s a book that didn’t take very long to put together. “These are photographs from the past two years, but it took us about three months to do the book. I didn’t take the pictures with the book in mind. I did the book because I had the pictures,” Latika says. She’s spent most of her life in the wild—first on family trips into the outdoors but later, doing conservation work. She’s studied the human-elephant conflict in Uttarakhand’s Jim Corbett National Park and Rajaji National Park, and done her PhD on tiger conservation. In the past, she’s consulted with NGOs like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). As a wildlife photographer, however, she’d always kept her work to herself. “About a year ago, a friend saw my photographs and said, ‘You’re nuts, you should be sharing this with the world. You can’t keep it all locked up on your computer’,” Latika recalls.

Hidden India is a tribute to Latika’s cousin, Kaveesh Nath. He passed away in a car accident five years ago, and she wanted to do something in his memory ever since. “I thought that this [book] would be perfect because he was extremely passionate about conservation as well,” Latika says. The book ended up becoming a collaborative project with Kaveesh’s sister, Shloka. Each chapter has short passages, written by Shloka, that are heavy with nostalgia. She delves into memories of spotting her first tiger, of growing up on a steady dose of The Jungle Book , of dealing with loss, and of family. “I like to say Latika went outwards, and I journeyed within,” Shloka says. As is clear in her writing, wildlife has always been an important part of Shloka’s life. “I remember my father teaching us to fish when I was about four years old,” she says, recalling her early memories of the outdoors. “Even now, I try to spend as much time on my plantation in Coorg,” she says. Shlokacurrently leads the climate, energy and environment work at the Tata Trusts in Mumbai, where she’s working as a senior program manager of sustainability.

Highlighting gems

This love for nature and wildlife is one that envelopes the book tightly. A first glance at the pictures will leave you wanting to know more about the animal or the place, and it’s this inspiration that is key. “[Travelling in India] is not just about the normal tourist routes. There is so much more.” Latika says. “We are the only real alternative to Africa [with regard to wildlife] and yet the government hasn’t capitalised at all on our environment, nature and forest resources.”

She hopes that the book will prompt motivation to keep our forests intact. “This is what conservationists like me are fighting to save. There are always two sides of the coin: One is the side that shows the poaching, the dead animals, the road kills. Then, there’s the side that shows the beautiful animals, alive in a pure forest that is untouched by development,” she says.

Hidden India , ₹10,000/- is available at academicfoundation.org. Proceeds from the book will be donated to Wildlife SOS’s Elephant Conservation and Care Centre.

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So You Want to Know About the Environment by Bijal Vachharajani

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