Commitment To Conservation
After returning from the war, he was appointed Deputy Conservator of Forests with the Imperial Forestry Service in the United Provinces of India. Owing to his experiences during the war, he abhorred shooting and killing and blisteringly criticised sport hunting. He preferred shooting wildlife with a camera in the Sivalik Hills and pioneered camera trapping: in the 1920s he developed cameras triggered by trip wires. Using a flashlight as well, he obtained dozens of remarkable night-time photographs, which are among the first of wild tigers, leopards, sloth bears, dholes and other wildlife. He recognized that with good photographs of tigers, it was possible to tell individuals apart by their different stripe patterns.
Champion was a passionate conservationist, before conservation became fashionable, and campaigned hard for protection of tigers and their forest habitats. He strongly believed in the protectionist role of the forest department in India and championed the idea of limiting gun licenses, stopping motor-cars from entering Reserved Forests and reducing rewards for killing wildlife. His commitment to conservation inspired his friend Jim Corbett, among other hunter-turned-conservationists. Together with Corbett, he was a founding member of India's first national park established in 1935, which was renamed to Corbett National Park in 1957.
When India became independent in 1947, Champion moved to East Africa, where he continued to work as a forester until he retired.
Read more about this topic: F. W. Champion
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