Hans Dalal
Hans developed a passion for the outdoors since childhood, with a love for the jungle kindled by a tiger encounter in 2007. Despite a career in sound engineering, he pursued conservation, founding the NGO PROWL to execute projects like wildlife monitoring, training forest guards, and uplifting local communities through initiatives like organic farming training near Simlipal Tiger Reserve. His efforts, even more remarkable due to his battle with cerebral palsy, have gained media recognition and conservation awards.
Hans' Story
Hans has had a passion for the outdoors ever since he was introduced to the Himalayas at the age of 8. Since then, he has been on numerous expeditions to various peaks and places in the mountains. But his true love lies in the jungle. He discovered this when he saw his first tiger in the wild in 2007.
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Up until then he was a sound engineer by profession, working with renowned artists in the Indian music industry, like Trilok Gurtu and Vishal-Shekhar, as well as with Discovery Channel producing sound for nature shows. However, after successfully completing a conservation course with Tiger Watch (TW) in Ranthambore and volunteering with a number of NGOs, including TW as a ‘Community Conservation Officer’ , and working as a naturalist, conservationist and a guide at Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, he spent the last few years travelling extensively through India’s forests, studying wildlife, animal behaviour, tracking big cats, and developing his skills in photography. He not only did a course in photography from St Xavier's Institute of Communication in Mumbai, but also returned to teach subsequent batches the nuances of wildlife photography. He also attended a wildlife photography workshop at Masai Mara, Kenya with Cannon and Nat Geo.
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In an attempt to provide an alternate source of income for local communities in Ranthambhore he combined his skills in sound engineering with his love for the wild and made a documentary on the Moghiya poaching tribe focusing on their talent in music. The documentary titled "With a little help" is available for viewing on YouTube.
His efforts in this field have been considered even more noteworthy because of his battle with cerebral palsy, and has been covered by the media with write-ups in Mumbai Mirror, Rediff.com and nh7.in. He was also felicitated at the 2013 Sanctuary Asia Awards for his conservation work. In 2013 he started PROWL an NGO registered under the Bombay Trust Act for conservation of wildlife and habitat.
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Through this organisation, projects like a first aid training for forest guards in the Sundarbans, camera trapping in Umred along with Sanctuary Asia, self purification water bottles distribution in Ranthambhore have been executed. PROWL is also involved in monitoring the movement of tigers with the help of camera traps between Maharashtra and Telangana and tracks conflict tigers for the Maharashtra forest department. They also extend their support to the forest department by conducting workshops for forest guards in camera trapping and monitoring. 230 forest guards in Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve, have also been provided with self purification water bottles to facilitate their work while patrolling the jungles.
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PROWL along with some partner NGOs were involved in uplifting the local communities in and around Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha. They conducted a training program covering 17 villages in organic farming and composting in order to give an alternate source of income and reduce the dependency on the forests.