Forest ranger

The Chechen Wars of the 1990s and 2000s had a devastating effect on the Caucasian republic’s natural beauty.

Documentary photographer Svetlana Bulatova traveled to the Chechen village of Engenoy to document its wildlife but instead found herself shooting the ranger responsible for restoring the balance between the human and animal worlds.

Chechnya’s reputation is as a land of conflict. Since the fall of the Soviet Union alone, the southern Russian republic has experienced war twice. Both wars claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands. Whole villages were wiped out. But the tragedy was not just human: the atrocities had devastating consequences for Chechnya’s wildlife too. Man and animal alike have had to rebuild.

Svetlana Bulatova works on long-form documentary projects and spent three years traveling to Chechnya: “For me, it is more important to focus on the consequences of armed conflict and trauma than on the trauma itself.”

This stance led her to research the environmental aftermath of the Chechen wars.

In the first meeting, the forest ranger Shahruddi told: “A wild animal will never attack a human first. It’s the human that will initiate.” This statement became the central theme of the photo story.

Chechnya’s wildlife has been ravaged by war. The forest ranger is helping it to heal. During the conflict, Chechnya’s forests and mountains suffered a drastic decline in wildlife. Animals migrated to escape the constant shelling. Some species of animals and plants are now endangered and in urgent need of protection. The authorities have been dedicating more attention to environmental protection, opening sanctuaries and nature reserves. In 2008, they launched the Hunting Management Department to care for the environment: it fights against poaching, protects animals, improves their living conditions, regulates hunting.

Though not immediately obvious from the photos, human violence lies in the background of this story, hidden in the first snowfall across the plains — and not just the violence of modern warfare. Meanwhile, the story is one of home, healing, and finding harmony with nature; it’s also about the importance of care in the aftermath of conflict.