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Frederick Walter Champion, an ex-soldier in the British Indian Army, an officer of the Imperial Forestry Service [Indian Forest Service] and a pioneering conservationist, took the first photograph of a tiger in the wild in India.
Frederick Walter Champion, a former officer in the British Indian Army and later a member of the Imperial Forestry Service (Indian Forest Service), arrived in India in the early 20th century and quickly distinguished himself—not by the number of animals he shot, but by those he chose to immortalise on film. Appointed in the 1921 batch, he served in the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) until 1947, eventually rising to the post of Deputy Conservator of Forests. It was in these dense, unforgiving jungles that Champion captured India’s first-ever photograph of a wild tiger, setting the stage for a seismic shift in wildlife documentation.
Hailed as the ‘Father of Camera Trap Photography’, Champion’s pioneering work laid the foundation for the modern techniques conservationists use today to track and protect India's most elusive predator - the tiger.
Shared with Corbett Champion's profound dedication to wildlife deeply influenced Jim Corbett, the famed hunter-turned-naturalist. The two became close allies in conservation, co-founding India’s first national park in 1935—a sanctuary that would later be renamed Corbett National Park in 1957, honouring Corbett's own contributions.
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Born on 24 August 1893 in Surrey, England, Champion hailed from a family of naturalists. His father, George Charles Champion, was a noted entomologist, while his brother, Sir Harry George Champion, developed the influential forest classification system still used in India. After a stint in the East Bengal Police and a commission in the British Indian Army Reserve, Champion joined the Imperial Forestry Service post-WWI, at a time when big-game hunting was a colonial obsession. He chose a different path.
Tripwire photography
Champion’s obsession with photographing a tiger in the wild spanned eight relentless years. In a stunning breakthrough, he finally succeeded in the forests of Kumaon, using a painstaking method called ‘tripwire photography’. As wildlife historian Raza Kazmi notes, “It took him 8 long years to finally get these images.” These unprecedented images were splashed across the front page of ‘The Illustrated London News’ on 3 October 1925, under the headline: “A Triumph of Big Game Photography: The First Photographs of Tigers in the Natural Haunts.”
Explaining the ingenious mechanism, Kazmi wrote, “A tiger (or any other animal) tripped on a wire carefully concealed below his usual walking path resulting in him taking his own image, usually by the night as the flashes connected to the wire went off simultaneously.”
Champion elaborated on the method himself in a letter to the magazine, “These photographs are quite unique, no satisfactory photographs ever having been taken before, to my knowledge, of tigers in their native haunts.” “The flash is so sudden that he probably takes it for a flash of lightning.”
He further chronicled his pioneering methods in his celebrated book ‘With a Camera in Tiger-Land’ (1927)—a landmark publication that shifted the visual narrative from dead trophies to living portraits of majestic creatures in their natural splendor.
A technique that transformed science
The method that Champion pioneered has since evolved into modern-day camera trap photography—a vital tool for tracking tiger populations and studying their behavior. Mahesh Rangarajan, historian and professor at Ashoka University, points out:
“Of the 200 camera traps placed by Champion, tigers came by on only 18 occasions… but this was enough to prove how each animal had distinct stripe patterns… This was a path-breaker in every sense.”
Even decades later, his work continues to inspire wildlife researchers. As renowned tiger biologist K. Ullas Karanth reflected:
“As I struggled with my camera traps… I marvelled at Champion’s tenacity with his archaic camera traps… I was astounded to learn… Fred Champion managed to get just nine high-quality photos of tigers.”
And for photography purists, Champion even shared technical details akin to today’s EXIF data:
“…although the photograph of the tiger pulling his kill was taken at 1-50 sec. on a special rapid plate; suitable exposures are from 1-150 to 1-200 sec., with f6.8 on an ultra-rapid plate…”
Beyond the Tiger
Champion was far more than a photographer—he was a vocal advocate for wildlife conservation in an era when shooting animals was a symbol of colonial valor. He proposed restricting gun licenses, banning motorcars in forests, and halting reward-based hunting. He even allocated “shooting blocks where there were likely to be no tigers for hunters to shoot.”
His work inspired C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), the last Governor-General of India, to abandon a proposed hunt and instead push for a sanctuary in the Shivalik hills. This vision materialised in 1948 with the creation of what is now the Rajaji National Park.
A Farewell to the Forests
After India's independence, Champion moved to East Africa, where the abundance of wildlife made the chase feel unearned. In a letter to naturalist Edward Pritchard Gee, he lamented:
“Animal photography here is too easy,” adding, he longed “for my friends, the tigers of India, which can at no time be photographed easily.”
Champion never ceased championing the idea that predators deserved respect and protection, not bullets. He asserted that
“every creature has its place in nature’s balanced scheme of wildlife.”
His book, ‘The Jungle in Sunlight and Shadow’, celebrated not just tigers, but lesser-known animals like pangolins, sloth bears, swamp deer, and dholes. He was also among the first to successfully photograph leopards at night—a feat that even today remains challenging.
When he passed away in 1970 at the age of 76, he left behind not just photographs, but a powerful conservation legacy. Many believe that India’s Project Tiger, launched by Indira Gandhi in 1973, is an extension of Champion’s early work. Even Kailash Sankhala, the project's first director, once remarked that had tigers been given a vote, Corbett National Park might have borne Champion’s name instead.
“Such pictures, hanging on one’s walls in subsequent years, bring back vividly, as no skin or head can ever do, what may have been the most thrilling moments of one’s life… Surely, looking at the photographs, one can half-close one’s eyes and see, not photographs, but real scenes.”
(Inputs from The Better India)
