MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

On the edge of a remote mountain slope in northern India, a secretive cat becomes part of village life

- PUSKAR BASU

THE SUN HAD YET TO APPEAR ON THE horizon and I was already settled in position, concealed behind a boulder, my gaze fixed on a small stone house with an open window.

I rarely head into urban environments to photograph wildlife, but this was a special occasion. I had travelled to the village of Hanle, in Ladakh, northern India, which sits at an altitude of 4,500m in the Himalayan mountains. Life in this remote village, home to about 1,000 people, is not easy. From December to March, the landscape is locked in ice and snow, with temperatures dropping to -20°C and lower.

The treeless plateau and surrounding peaks appear hostile, yet nurture surprising levels of biodiversity. Sporadic areas of marshland and gurgling mountain streams, fed by snowmelt, support a variety of species adapted to cope with the challenging conditions. There are wolves, foxes, marmots, pikas and raptors. There is also an elusive feline that claims the dubious honour of being the world's grumpiest cat. The Pallas's cat, known locally as Ribilik, is one of the most secretive small cats in India. Named after Peter Simon Pallas, the Prussian naturalist who described the species in 1776, it is exceptionally shy and rarely seen on this desolate plateau, with only a handful of chance sightings reported from Ladakh and the neighbouring state of Sikkim.