PARI Contributors 

large_Book-of-Bandipur-Feature-1-week-14.jpg

medium_Book-of-Bandipur-Feature-1-week-14.jpg

small_Book-of-Bandipur-Feature-1-week-14.jpg

thumbnail_Book-of-Bandipur-Feature-1-week-14.jpg

Book-of-Bandipur-Feature-1-week-14.jpg

On World Photography Day, August 19, PARI showcases extraordinary images
from the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. See the forests, the
wildlife and people there through the eyes of local residents – who live in and
around the reserve – and not from a tourist’s or professional photographer’s
lens.
 
 These photo essays highlight how, through photography, individuals can tell
their own stories,
rather than serving as the subject of someone else’s
 
 .
 
 While there
is no shortage of beautifully-shot imagery of wildlife  on various media platforms, what about the
stories of people who spend their lives living
 
 
 
 with
 
 the
world’s most endangered, and also dangerous, animals? What is life like in this
landscape where both humans and animals have the potential to kill, and also be
killed, by one another? Who should tell those stories?
 
 This is what motivated the creation of the
 
 Book of
Bandipur. Over the course of six months in 2015-2016, six individuals – farmers,
labourers, wildlife experts, Adivasis and others – documented their daily lives
and experiences of living on the fringes of Bandipur National Park. This is one
of the most important habitats in the world for tigers, leopards and elephants,
among other notable creatures.
 
 Many of those involved in this effort had never used a camera before.
They did meet as a group to discuss the ways in which their daily lives
intersect with non-human life – through work, play and unexpected encounter. As
their essays document, Bandipur is a landscape of overlapping social words. A
motivating force for this project was to give visibility to these worlds.
 
 Some of the photographers featured here see Bandipur as land
historically appropriated from their communities by the state in the name of
wildlife conservation. Some see exclusionary protected areas like Bandipur as
the
 
 only
 
 way to protect
India’s endangered wildlife. Collectively, their photo essays push us to think
about what social justice can look like in the context of wildlife
conservation, and to whom we should turn as ‘experts’ in imagining the future
of conservation.

Jayamma Belliah

02-jayammaportrait-JB-When_Jayamma_spotted_the_leopard.jpg

Jayamma Belliah
 
 is a Jenu Kuruba Adivasi who lives in Ananjihundi village on the fringes of Bandipur National Park, one of India’s premier tiger reserves. She earns a living as a domestic worker.
 
 
 
 Read her story:
 <a id="2596" linktype="page">
 When Jayamma spotted the leopard
 </a>

Nagi Shiva

02-DSC_7376-portraitCrop-NS-We_have_hills_and_forests_and_we_live_here.jpg

Nagi Shiva
 
 lives in Lokkere village, located on the fringes of Bandipur National Park, one of India’s premier tiger reserves. She earns a living as a domestic worker.
 
 
 Read her story:
 <a id="3413" linktype="page">
 ‘We have hills and forests and we live here’
 </a>

K. Sunil

02-DSC_7374_portrait-K_Sunil-Home_with_the_harvest_in_Bandipur.jpg

K. Sunil
 
 is a Soliga Adivasi who lives in Kaniyanpura Colony on the fringes of Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. He works as a field guide for students of science.
 
 
 Read his story:
 <a id="3474" linktype="page">
 Home with the harvest in Bandipur
 </a>

K.N. Mahesha

02-DSC_7359-KKM-Close_Encounters_with_the_Prince_of_Bandipur.jpg

K.N. Mahesha
 
 is a trained naturalist and cultivator from Kunagahalli village; he works in Bandipur National Park, Karnataka.
 
 
 
 Read his story:
 <a id="3614" linktype="page">
 Close encounters with the Prince of Bandipur
 </a>

M. Indra Kumar

DSC_7382_portrait.jpg

M. Indra Kumar
 
 lives in Mangala village near Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. He works as the manager at a local wildlife souvenir shop.
 
 
 
 Read his story:
 <a id="3639" linktype="page">
 &#39;That is where the leopard and tiger attack&#39;
 </a>

N. Swamy Bassavanna

02-DSC_7351.jpg

N.
Swamy Bassavanna
 
 
 
 is a farmer who lives on the fringes of
Bandipur National Park, one of India’s premier tiger reserves.
 
 
 Read his story:
 <a id="3669" linktype="page">
 &#39;This calf went missing after I took this photo&#39;
 </a>
 
 
 This work was facilitated by Jared Margulies, in coordination with the Mariamma Charitable Trust, located in Mangala village, Karnataka. It was made possible with the support of a 2015-2016 Fulbright Nehru Student Research Grant, a Graduate Student Association Research Grant from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in-kind support from the Mariamma Charitable Trust, and above all, the participation, enthusiasm and efforts of the photographers themselves. B.R. Rajeev’s help in the translation of the text was invaluable, too. All copyrights for the photo are held by the photographers alone in accordance with PARI’s Creative Commons policies. Any questions about their use or reproduction should be directed to PARI.

Book of Bandipur

باندی پور کی کتاب

बखर बंडीपूरची

বন্দিপুৰৰ বহীখন

Chamarajanagar

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


चला, पारीची एक सफर करूया

पारीवर तुमचं मनापासून स्वागत

आमच्या वेबसाइटवरील सर्व मजकूर सर्वांसाठी मोफत आहे आणि तो कायम तसाच राहील. जर तुम्हाला आमचं काम आवडत असेल तर तुमचा वेळ द्या आणि आमच्यासाठी काम करा. या कामासाठी निधी गोळा करायलाही मदत करा.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

Book of Bandipur

See the forests, the wildlife and people there through the eyes of local residents – who live in and around the reserve – and not from a tourist’s or professional photographer’s lens

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit