The spirit of the mountains

HAVING grown up in the Himalayan foothills, we inherited our love of nature from our father, the late Dr Ramesh Bedi, winner of several national honours, including the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Award, for his contribution to the field of conservation.

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After making films on gharial, tigers and elephants, we turned to Ladakh for more challenging projects in 1993-94, making two films. We were the first to record the breeding cycle of the bar-headed goose and were lucky to film the Tibetan wild dogs and lynx. But films on Ladakh without the supreme predator felt incomplete. After spending three winters, we got some footage of snow leopards, but not enough to make a film. We had decided then that we would come back and complete our quest to film these rare and elusive cats.

It took us almost two decades to return to the mountains to fulfil our dream project. In our mid-seventies, we decided to make a film to reveal the unseen life of snow leopards.

Often referred to as ‘ghosts of the mountains’, snow leopards can be extremely hard to find, let alone film. ‘Spirit of the Mountains’ recently premiered in Delhi and has been shot in the Spiti valley over five years. We worked in the most challenging conditions — hazardous terrain of high altitude, icy winds and temperatures of -30ºC.

Snow leopards are the least studied or understood among the big cats. Also known as ‘Shan’, they have evolved to live in arid, barren mountain habitats of Central Asia. Solitary in nature, they are usually found at 3,000-5,000 metres, or even higher, in the Himalayas. It is estimated that only 4,000-6,000 survive in Central Asia, with their numbers continuing to fall. Between 2008 and 2016 alone, one snow leopard was reportedly killed and traded daily — 220 to 450 cats per year. Many are killed for their valuable fur and body parts, while others are killed in retaliation by the locals for losing their livestock.

In 2014, we heard snow leopard sightings had improved in Spiti valley and made a reconnaissance trip in March that year. In the two weeks of camping in higher valleys, we couldn’t spot a single snow leopard but were lucky to get a beautiful clip on our camera trap, which made us decide to make a more intimate film about them. No broadcaster would commit to a project with many uncertainties to get enough content. So, we ended up self-financing the project. We worked in small groups and with essential equipment to save costs.

We chose Chicham as our base. Situated at a height of 4,120m, it is a small village that remains cut off during winter due to heavy snowfall. Initially, the villagers were surprised by our enthusiasm to see and photograph a snow leopard. Many had never seen one. With their support, we assembled a team, including a senior shepherd, a teacher and some young men. Using their familiarity with the mountains and extraordinary fitness, we trained them to track the big cats. Trackers would look for signs of a snow leopard every day, covering about 20 km. Our camera traps, placed beside their favourite scent-marking rocks monitored over several months, revealed that there were only three-four snow leopards in the vast mountain landscape around Chicham and Kibber. They included an elderly male, which we named Karma.

The team tracked leopards through the changing seasons, year after year. Progress was painfully slow, and there were many disappointments. Weeks and months passed without sightings. The snow leopards continually roam their large territories. Depending on the availability of prey, a male may have territories of 220 sq km and females 130 sq km.

Finding snow leopards was one issue. But once you find them, they don’t do much activity; most of the time, they sleep and become active only in the evening. Hence, getting enough activity of them was the real problem. A sighting, once in a fortnight or a month, did not help much. Frustration set in when we had to pass the time looking at a barren landscape with no animals. Despite all the frustration, our passion and commitment kept us going.

It is complicated to convey the real challenges and hardships faced during filming, but capturing the vastness of the mountains and deep gorges was a big challenge as the real impact of their sheer size and depth was lost on a small flat screen.

In spite of suitable winter clothing, feet and hands would become numb. Walking or climbing a few steps would render us out of breath. There was no horse or mule in Chicham or Kibber. In the past, locals were involved in trading horses. The road network in the area has destroyed this age-old trade, and villages don’t keep them for the fear of wolves and snow leopards as they are easy targets.

We were surprised that Chicham has about 300 donkeys, three times the households. They are used for agricultural work and collecting yak dung from the hills as winter fuel. We had to ride them on a few unavoidable occasions, but it was no fun. They are small, and our feet touched the ground when we rode on them. The villagers keep yaks, which are also a status symbol. They are left to graze unattended in the high pastures. Villagers don’t use them for riding, but arranged the animal for our expeditions. Riding an untrained yak with no saddle was tough. They can be unpredictable: on two occasions, the yak threw off Rajesh. Luckily, there were no serious injuries.

Most wildlife films are shot without sound because it is impossible to get clear sounds in a noisy atmosphere. We, in India, don’t have sensitive ears for sounds as we live in a highly noise-polluted atmosphere. But sounds are an essential part of the film. For the film’s final sound mix, we had to turn to professionals in Bristol, UK, to do justice.

We collected about 120 hours of material edited into two programmes. ‘Chasing Shadows’ is in two parts, each an hour long, and ‘The Spirit of the Mountains’ is a one-hour comprehensive version capturing the life of snow leopards in the stunning high-altitude desert landscape of Spiti. The film follows an elderly male snow leopard named Karma and his harem of a few females. The engaging story of Karma, his decline and death and the new male taking over his territory make the film unique. This film and the two-part version will soon be aired on the Indian National Geographic channel.

The film is narrated by voiceover professional Jitendra and edited by Rahul Malkoti. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the people of Chicham, especially the Gompo family.

Despite all the difficulties, we feel privileged to have realised our crazy ambition. We wish we had more luck filming the close relationship between the mother and cubs, but sometimes, you end up chasing shadows.

— The writers are wildlife filmmakers