KATHMANDU: Renowned British wildlife cameraman and photographer Doug Allan, known for his landmark work on BBC natural history documentaries alongside Sir David Attenborough, died in Pokhara on Wednesday after falling ill during a trek in the Annapurna region. He was 74.

Allan had obtained a trekking permit from the Nepal Tourism Board for the Annapurna Circuit Trek. He reportedly fell ill while heading toward Ghorepani near Dhampus and was immediately rushed to Caremark Hospital in Pokhara before being transferred to Manipal Hospital, where he passed away.

Allan was principal cameraman on some of the most celebrated natural history productions in television history, including The Blue Planet, Blue Planet II, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet. Over the course of his career he won eight Emmy Awards and five BAFTA Awards, was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, received the Polar Medal twice for his work in Antarctica, and was awarded an OBE in 2024 for services to broadcast media and environmental awareness.

His ex-wife, fellow wildlife filmmaker Sue Flood OBE, announced his death on social media. "Doug was a brilliant and incredibly determined cameraman and photographer, who will also rightly be remembered as the passionate conservationist he was, whose legacy is the incredible body of work which has inspired so many," she wrote.

Born in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1951, Allan studied marine biology at the University of Stirling before taking on diving work that led him to the British Antarctic Survey as a research diver at Signy Island in the South Orkney Islands. A chance encounter with Attenborough in 1981 led to his first documentary collaboration on Living Planet, and he went on to spend decades filming in some of the planet's most extreme environments — polar ice, deep oceans, and high-altitude wilderness.

In his later years Allan became an active environmental campaigner. Earlier this year he urged the Scottish government to support an ecocide bill that would penalise companies causing severe damage to the natural environment.

BAFTA Scotland recognised his contribution to the craft with its Outstanding Contribution to Craft prize in 2017.