When Naseer N. A. travels to the forest, he has no preconceived notions, no expectations, makes no preparations and does no research. All he carries with him is basic food and sometimes, his camera. The forest is an experience for Naseer, a wildlife photographer, writer, and martial arts expert. Lying on his back, with his eyes shut, on the still-wet leaf bed of an evergreen forest, he listens to the sounds of the forest. He smells the smells of the forest. And that is when the forest reveals itself to him.
He almost always travels alone and believes the forest understands him and acknowledges his presence. “There is a silent communication between us,” he says.
For over 35 years now, Naseer has been on his nomadic trips to the many forests of Kerala, exploring the depths and photographing the life in them. Photography was an acquired interest, but the forest always evoked a deep, intrinsic longing in Naseer. “Right from my childhood, I have always been fascinated by it. I have never been scared of it. On my numerous trips to the jungles, each trip has revealed a new facet of the jungle,” he says. Naseer, who was born and brought up in Pallipuram, near Cherai, trained to become a martial arts expert, learning Karate, Kalaripayattu, Tai Chi, Aikido and Chi Kung. It all began with a Bruce Lee movie. “There was this unbelievable guy who could do anything he wanted with his body. I was determined to learn it,” Naseer says. In Dubai, where he taught yoga and Tai Chi for a while, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri were among his students.
The 52-year-old believes his knowledge of martial arts, especially Tai Chi, has helped him understand the forest better. “In fact, I would say it is my training in martial arts that got me so far,” he says. Photography in the wild needs a lot of patience and inner strength. “If your subject is the tiger, you have to move as stealthily as the big cat. A small sound can scare the animal away or anger it.” Tai Chi, which is characterised by soft movements, especially helped a great deal in understanding the energy fields in the forest and not disturbing the equilibrium. “The animals also understand these energy fields and that is why sometimes, I feel, they pose for me,” he says.
Naseer’s books are full of such unexpected encounters with rare animals. In his Kadine Chennu Thodumbol, a compilation of his articles for a contemporary Malayalam weekly, Naseer recounts an episode in which he came face-to-face with the extremely rare Nilgiri Marten, a shy animal found in the forests of Nilgiris and some parts of the Western Ghats. His photograph of the Marten was clicked at the Periyar Tiger Reserve. He later clicked a few more at Pampadum Shola. He describes the sighting thus: “ There he stood, bigger and stronger than a mountain squirrel, a beautiful creature. His body was a mix of brown and black, the patch of yellow fur on his neck shone like gold in the early morning sun… ” (translated from the book).
Naseer enjoys the process of photography irrespective of the subject. “It is the same emotion, whether it is an ant I’m about to photograph or a tiger,” he says. He has a collection of about one lakh photographs of the Great Indian Hornbill alone. He has countless frames of the bear, too. Snakes, tigers, elephants, insects, and other birds are part of his collection. Naseer has spent most of his time in the forests of Kerala and he hopes to travel to forests in other parts of the country. “Photography in our rainforests is extremely challenging. The light is poor and these forests are infested with leeches,” he says. But Naseer does not wear shoes, unless of course, the terrain demands it. He doesn’t mind the leeches either. “They drink as much as they want and then fall off,” he shrugs.
He has slept on tree tops and rocks. “To take pictures of the hornbill, I have spent three days on a tree. You know, if you hug the branch on which you are sitting, you would feel no hunger or thirst.”
A voracious reader, Naseer could not resist the lure of words. Apart from columns for Malayalam weeklies, Naseer has authored Kaadum Photographerum, certain chapters of which havebeen included as study material for B.Com students and Plus One students in Kerala. He is working on other books on the forest and on music, too, another of his long-time interests. Naseer’s series of photographs in a Malayalam magazine, titled Pinnile Aanachandam, won him much acclaim. The series, which had heart-rending visuals of elephants in captivity, speaks louder than words about the plight of the animal.
A wildlife photographer should also be an activist, he says. “Don’t just click pictures for Facebook. Spread awareness. Treat the forest with respect. A forest should remain a forest. If you cannot spend a few days in a forest without the luxuries of a city, then please do not go,” he says.
