One Man, Many Landscapes: Tehzoon Karmalawala’s trailblazing exploration of India’s wilderness

(July 5, 2023) “I am still trying to adapt to urban life,” says entrepreneur and photographer Tehzoon Karmalawala as he connects with Global Indian for an interview. Fuelled by his love for the environment and passion for conservation, he is back from an unprecedented journey, unmatched by any Indian before. Over a span of 18 months, Tehzoon covered an astonishing distance of 63,000 kilometres, visiting national parks, sanctuaries, tiger reserves, and world heritage sites. He returned two months back, with 30,000 pictures from his trip and is currently working on a new coffee table book. Along the way, he was also inspired by the resilience of a tribe in Odisha and their seven-year battle with the government and a mining conglomerate. Tehzoon is collaborating on a documentary with an Academy Award-winning director to showcase their remarkable story. 

I have explored the maximum of India’s environmental treasures, including 104 national parks, 17 biosphere reserves, 54 tiger reserves, and 32 elephant sanctuaries in my epic journey.

Additionally, Tehzoon had the opportunity to visit over 40 world heritage sites. He proudly shares, “Apart from the 40 confirmed world heritage sites in our country recognised by UNESCO, there are 52 sites which are considered as tentative world heritage sites, and I visited 50 of them.” 

Tehzoon Karmalawala

On October 19, 2021, the Pune based entrepreneur embarked on his expedition, traveling in his own vehicle and trekking in select areas. He successfully completed the entire journey on April 30, 2023. His remarkable achievement has earned him a place in the India Book of Records and the World Records of India as the title-holder of the “longest continuous exploratory expedition.”  

Tehzoon has visited every state and union territory of India, except Lakshadweep, as it does not has a world heritage site, national park, or forest reserve. “I am in the process of seeking recognition from the Guinness Book of Records,” tells the maverick traveller. 

Rich repository for reference 

Reflecting on his transformative journey, Tehzoon remarks, “It has been a life-changing experience for me.” Throughout his expedition, he meticulously tracked his route using a GPS device, saving the data on a cloud server in the form of a KML file, providing evidence of his extraordinary feat. Additionally, Tehzoon has entry permits for most of the parks and world heritage sites he visited, ensuring documentation of his solo journey.  

The avid nature photographer is in the process of selecting 300 out of the 30,000 pictures he captured to create a coffee table book that showcases the incredible diversity of India’s ecosystem, eco-tourism, indigenous tribes, climate, wildlife, handicraft, culture, art, and landscapes. “Notably, the Union Cabinet Minister of environment, forest, and climate change, Mr. Bhupendra Yadav, has agreed to write a foreword for the book,” he says. 

Tehzoon’s has extensively documented his journey through videos as well and is working on a 12-part series that will offer viewers a visually captivating and compelling narrative of his experiences.  

“All this would prove to be a repository for future reference with the purpose of preserving the indigenous elements that are diminishing in India, including handicrafts, art, tribal culture, and rituals that are on the verge of extinction,” he remarks. 

Stories of the epic quest  

During his 18-month odyssey, Tehzoon encountered countless fascinating stories about the wonders of nature and humanity. Some of his stories are enchanting, while others evoke disbelief or fear, such as the time a group of elephants gathered around his tent in Kaziranga National Park in Assam.  

However, there were also stories that led to deep introspection. In Odisha, Tehzoon encountered a tribe that fought for seven years, selling their land and gold to fund their legal battle against the government and a business conglomerate’s mining activities in their forest. Inspired by their struggle and triumph, the entrepreneur is in the process of collaborating with an Academy Award-winning director to produce a documentary on the powerful success story.  

Finding a purpose 

Though Tehzoon embarked on his journey with the intention of exploring the wonders of India, he discovered two purposes that he would like to pursue in the future. He noticed that the front-end staff of the forest department lacks basic necessities such as proper shoes and equipment to combat poachers. “They are our green warriors and we have to empower them,” he remarks. 

Additionally, he wants to raise awareness about road safety on highways due to his personal experiences. “Though there are laws in our country, enforceability needs to be better. I have had two near-death experiences without any fault of mine,” he says. His aim is to improve enforceability of road safety laws and preventing the country from becoming prone to road accidents. 

Building awareness on biodiversity  

The photographer emphasises the decline in the presence of bird and butterfly species that were once common during his childhood. He explains that their habitats have changed, leading to their disappearance. As a volunteer associated with the Anandvan Foundation in Pune, he has been assisting in addressing the issue.  

The foundation works with the purpose to build biodiversity and restore disappearing species of plants, birds, animals, and butterflies by creating four forests in the vicinity of Pune. The forest near his house, which used to have only 20 bird species seven years ago, now boasts 60 species due to efforts such as planting 150 indigenous plant varieties on a former dump yard. “Anandvan Foundation’s effort is now a case study for forest departments, attracting delegates from across India and even Bangladesh,” he shares. 

When Tehzoon embarked on his journey, over 100 volunteers of the foundation flagged off his expedition. Throughout his journey, Tehzoon took every opportunity to create awareness about the importance of planting trees and improving the green cover of urban areas speaking to people in places like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, and Shillong. “We as citizens should do our bit for the environment instead of being solely dependent on the government,” he says. 

Getting richer in eighteen months 

Tehzoon works in his family’s real estate development business. As an entrepreneur, he considers the travel cost of the journey insignificant compared to the missed opportunities in the work front during the one-and-a-half years of his travel.

The trip has made me the richest man in India due to the invaluable experiences I have gained, encountering indigenous tribes, exploring their culture and belief systems, and witnessing the beauty of nature.

“It has changed me as a person, made me more humble, understanding, and taught me to embrace the concept of minimalism,” says Tehzoon inspired by the happiness quotient of people in rural areas who live without gadgets, LPG, or internet. “This realization itself is worth billions of dollars,” he remarks. 

Then and now 

Tehzoon has always had a love for traveling, previously exploring fascinating destinations in Europe, Dubai, Africa, and New Zealand during short trips while working as a mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry abroad. It was in 2016 that he had relocated to India to join his family business. 

During the lockdown, when there was enough time in hand to introspect on life, he realised that he wants to do something different. Motivated by an American traveller named Meyer, who had visited every national park in the United States in a single journey, Tehzoon aspired to do the same in his own country. It took him six months to curate the places he wanted to visit. 

Throughout his expedition, Tehzoon traversed diverse terrains, ranging from arid deserts to lush forests, and explored the majestic peaks of the Himalayas and the ecologically rich Western and Eastern Ghats. His journey also took him from the Central Plateau to the enchanting Andaman Islands, exposing him to the ever-changing weather conditions across the country.  

Describing the power of nature, he remarks, “In the forests I used to get into a meditative zone, it’s a different world altogether, it acted as a teleportation funnel into a different world. Oh! don’t remind me more,” he laughs. 

The travel maverick wants to go on more such exploratory trips in future and is thankful to his family for their understanding and support. He is also thankful to the ministry of wildlife and forest resources conservation to support him with forest personnel and approvals for visiting even those national parks where eco-tourism is not allowed and to the ministry of culture for special permission to take photographs of world heritage sites.  

“India is such an incredible country that even if I take another 18-months-trip, I would not be able to cover the vastness and beauty of it in totality,” he signs off. 

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