HABRI Central

Latika Nath is a conservational ecologist and a wildlife photographer. She was awarded the title of ‘The Tiger Princess’ by National Geographic in 2001 which featured her work. She is the first woman biologist in India with a doctorate on tigers. She has spent over twenty-five years working for the conservation of cats. She is the recipient of multiple scholarships. Moreover, she has been awarded for her work in the field of Eco Tourism by the ATOI and the Karamveer Puruskar. Latika Nath’s talk at the TEDxBITSPilani 2020 event was about her experiences in her profession as a wildlife photographer. She began by narrating the extreme conditions she has worked in. Then she goes on to mention what makes cats unique and how photography captures the aesthetics of cats, something which science fails to do. She then spoke about Sharjah, a playful yet stealth tiger, and about their nature to avoid conflict. The next cat mentioned was the leopard. Leopards think and are very cunning, though they are the most successful with humans. Lions are beautiful group animals, though their fights are a sight to look out for. Females share exceptional bonds. She then spoke about jaguars, who have some of the most powerful jaws in the world and are very individualistic. Cheetahs, on the other hand, are fragile and delicate. They don’t roar and are gentle family creatures. The puma is also a family cat, and Latika Nath recounted walking alongside them for hours. The snow leopard, the grey ghost of the Himalayas, and the clouded leopard were spoken of next. The latter is an elusive difficult-to-locate beast, mainly found in the North East. She concluded her talk about the apex predators highlighting how their preservation will lead to a preservation of habitat, water and the genetic heritage pool. Dr. Latika Nath, bestowed with the title 'The Tiger Princess' by National Geographic, is the first woman and Indian to have a doctorate on Tigers from The University of Oxford. She has spent over 25 years of her life, working at the grassroots level for tiger conservation to working with the tribal communities in the buffer zone of Kanha Tiger Reserve. Her work has been featured on National Geographic in a documentary called ‘The Tiger Princess' and on the Discovery Channel on the program ‘Wild Things’. She has also contributed to films on the BBC, as well as the cover story on tigers for the "Year of the Tiger" by National Geographic Magazine. She has spent the past few years of her life photographing the cat species and exploring the myriad wilderness.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Animal roles
2. Cats
3. Conservation
4. Jaguars
5. Leopards
6. Lions
7. open access
8. photography
9. Wild animals