While surfing channels I chanced upon the documentary ‘ Tiger- the death chronicles’. It was made by Krishnendu Bose, a documentary filmmaker who along with his wofe Madhurima Sen Bose, run Earthcare films and Earthcare Productions.
The documentary highlights the problem of tiger conservation in totality. It takes us through National Parks like Sariska and Panna and Buxa, highlights the lackadaisical attitudes of states such as Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Goa who are trading their forests for so called economic development. Statistics and facts leap out at you in the documentary:
– India has lost forest cover the size of half of Himachal Pradesh in the year 2003 alone (I think this was the statistics),
– If you map the mineral rich locations in the country and overlap that with the Tiger conservation map you realise that most of the Tiger protection areas are under serious threat. Mining is one of the major issues facing tiger conservation efforts. (Actually the government is the bigger threat)
But the film also highlights the positive work being done in Corbett and in BR Hills, Karnataka.
The documentary was informative and I realised that the man-animal conflict seemed to be growing thanks to foolish government policies, rampant and careless mining activity and a general disregard for the environment.
But it was the words at the end of the documentary that stirred my heart. As he said, the Tiger does not have a vote or voice. We the people have to speak for it and have to stand up to protect it. Not just the Tiger but the entire environment.
I have since learnt that Government level action was very difficult to achieve with regards to environment protection and conservation. The industry lobby was just too strong. Environment ministry just didn’t bring in enough revenue for anyone to pay attention to it. The ministry is a place where people who are about to retire goto.
Inspired by the documentary and irritated with the state of affairs, I wrote to Krishnendu Bose. I asked him if there are any options for change; openings for people who feel strongly and wanted to do something. I told him that as a writer, apart from blogging about this, I didn’t know of any other option, I had. If one person speaks it may have no sound, but if one lakh speak, will the government listen? Does this really require a mass movement for change, I asked him
This was part of his reply, “Often people ask me what can we do? We are not powerful enough to do anything. But that is not true. As you say if all of us start talking about this issue and asking questions then it may not be easy to ignore the issue. Any issue has to become political to be recognised. And if masses raise it, this is as political as it can get!
So please talk about this issue and the film. Please write about it in your blog. Reach out to as many people as possible. We are selling this DVD at our cost price @ 200Rs + postage. This is very affordable to urban middle class. We also have a Hindi version of the film. We give out a poster and a bookmark with the DVD. So get as many people to buy this film and talk about this. When the word travels, then one of us is sure to slap a PIL, someone will put a RTI , someone will write in newspaper and teachers will talk about this in their schools. Spreading the word is the only effective thing we can do in a democracy and get people’s mandate on issues.”
… And so I blogged about this. Because I have a voice and want to speak out. I hope this is the start of many more such posts on the issue of our Tiger, our forests and our environment.
Living in Grace 