Ecotourism is practised across national parks in the country, as well as Nature reserves across the Nilgiris and Western Ghats. While most tourists are curious to spot tigers and lions, over 14,000 leopards roam the country now, with dedicated spaces devoted to their conservation, offering a chance for wildlife enthusiasts to watch them in their natural habitat. As International Leopard Day is observed on May 3, we take a look at how these majestic cats comfortably cohabit urban and jungle milieu around humans.
At Kabini, in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, Mithun Hunugund, a wildlife photographer, conducts eco-tours through the wild. “My father worked with the Forest Department, and so I’ve grown up in these forests, now spending close to 20 days every month in the wild,” he explains. Having tracked leopards in the reserve, as a photographer first, he worked on a documentary, The Real Black Panther, for National Geographic Wild, documenting Saya, a melanistic leopard that wears a rich black coat and roams through Kabini. Since 2017, Mithun has taken visitors at The Bison Resort in Kabini, on eco-safaris. All guides have to first receive training with the local forest officials as naturalists. “It’s important to note that every visitor comes in with a set of expectations. Once we enter the reserve we explain the dos and don’ts for the duration of the tour, and then dwell on the flora, fauna and the importance of heighting your senses to be fully present during the safari.”
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