In early summer the forests of the Western Ghats are roaring with the sounds of insects. Crisp dried leaves crackle underfoot, and monkeys howl in the distance. I didn’t really expect to see animals – any intelligent enough to survive would be sleeping in a cool hollow somewhere. Despite the heat, the woods are beautiful, and the scenes unfolding before my eyes as we trek deeper into the reserve grow more and more unusual, with trees’ limbs and roots seeming to grasp and grope.

I’ve never considered a forest ominous, nor have I ever felt threatened by the wilderness. The fact that this one seems so eerie was due to the silhouetting and high contrast of the photographs I took. In reality, the day was quite hot and sunny, but the forest was dim – yet never looking like monsters were lurking among the branches.

Possibly only because no carnivorous animals are thin enough to hide behind these trees.