Friday, 3 July 2009
A Russian photographer who spent a month living alone in a Siberian nature reserve said on Friday he had proved there was no need to cull the park's bear population.
Alexander Kuptsov, 51, pitched his tent on the rocky summit of Mount Takmak in the Krasnoyarsk nature reserve of Stolby at the start of June to protest local activists' plans to "slay all bears in the area due to their aggressive behavior."
"I have already begun to descend," he told RIA Novosti by phone. "All I have with me is a big backpack, the most positive impressions and a sea of emotion."
"Despite a cold and rainy month, I can say precisely that it is possible and necessary to live in harmony and peace with nature, and then it is comfortable and warm and absolutely not terrible," Kuptsov said.
The photographer, who plans to publish a book with pictures and an account of his adventure, spent the first two weeks completely on his own, but later in the month had to return to Krasnoyarsk for a few hours each day to work.
He said that his time in the wilderness had made him realize there was much more to be done to protect the environment in Russia.
"Now I understand that I should not be limited to just this action and making the book about the reserve. It is necessary to speak out about saving and preserving nature, and not just to speak but to do something concrete," Kuptsov said, adding that in a year's time he would lead another protest in a different part of Russia.
Before embarking on his protest, Kuptsov explained on his blog that he had spent his childhood in the area.
"I want to repay the nature reserve with good deeds. The threats to kill the bears and dismiss the reserve's director are the reason for my protest," Kuptsov wrote in his livejournal blog.
The reserve, with an area of 47,100 hectares, was created in 1925 on the initiative of local residents. The bear cull was planned last year after a rescuer survived an attack.
The nature reserve's authorities supported Kuptsov's move, although emergencies officials were cautious, fearing Kuptsov himself could have been attacked.
