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a vast country’s
natural heritage
in peril | | India is making headlines for its rapid
development and rising profile in world
affairs. But conservationist and filmmaker
Shekar Dattatri believes that even
as his country’s economy and influence
grow, India is losing one of its greatest
treasures, its wildlife. He has made the
“national animal” the flagship of his
inspiring campaign to prevent that loss. |
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The Royal Bengal Tiger – officially
India’s national animal – was
once found in almost every
region of this vast country. But, despite
a government project launched in 1973
to protect the tiger, numbers are falling
fast. Some tiger reserves have none at
all, and it has been discovered that
several authorities have been falsifying
figures upwards to hide the animal’s
disappearance.
“If we lose the tiger, we lose everything,”
says wildlife film-maker and
conservationist Shekar Dattatri. In a
recent, hard-hitting opinion piece in one
of his country’s most respected news -
papers, The Hindu, he wrote: “The tiger
is the lynchpin that holds the ecological
‘apple cart’ of the country together. If
we allow it to go extinct, it will be the
beginning of the end for our entire wild
heritage, in addition to our water and
food security.”
One nature reserve which claimed to
have 21 tigers was found, on close,
scientific examination, to have none at
all, he says. This situation is replicated
again and again across the country as
Indian wildlife conservation buckles
under the unstoppable momentum of
economic development.
“Today, except in a handful of
reserves, our protection system is in
tatters,” Dattatri warns. “Thousands of
guard posts remain vacant in all the
[Indian] states, leaving our treasure
troves of biodiversity open round the
clock to looters.”
He adds that in the four years since
he applied for a Rolex Award – for
which he was made an Associate Laureate
in 2004 – the situation has become
particularly grim for wild India, a world
that he and his eloquent camera know
as do few others.
“India today is seen by many as
simply a huge mineral resource, lying
beneath what remains of our forests.
The vast scale of habitat fragmentation is bringing wildlife such as elephants
into conflict with people again. There
is a very scary nexus between the media
and large corporations that exploit the
environment. There is less and less
political will to do anything, as there is
also a nexus between politics and industry.
And the public are mostly too busy
acquiring the middle-class lifestyle. If
they are concerned, they simply say:
‘What can we do’?”
However, Shekar Dattatri reacts to a
challenge with a fierce determination.
He is more committed than ever to
employing his many talents to draw
attention to the plight of India’s wild
animals. The award-winning wildlife
film-maker has branched out into public
advocacy, journalism and children’s
books. He is also working with government
and conservationists in his efforts
to awaken India to the threat to its
heritage before it is too late.
It is a role that brings peril and hardship:
the forces of unbridled development
are often unscrupulous and
vengeful in their efforts to subdue
those who question them. Dattatri and
his associates have spent the past three
years fighting what he describes as
“vexatious lawsuits” brought by officials
sympathetic to a giant mining company
whose ecological damage Dattatri
exposed in his film “Mindless Mining”,
leading to a Supreme Court order to
the company to wind up its operations.
For filming in a national rainforest park
he was charged with trespassing, and
allegations were made against him in a
District Court. Fortunately a higher
court halted the actions against him.
“We lost a year fighting these latest
battles in court, but hopefully the worst
is behind us,” he says.
The lawsuits did not dampen Dattatri’s
spirit of enterprise. Four more films
have been completed since he received
his Rolex Award, while a shower of
awards and invitations to be a film festival judge testify to his growing
national and international stature. His
films include a second documentary on
the plight of the Olive Ridley turtle, a
film about the resettlement of forest
people, another about the forest guards
of the Kanha Tiger Reserve and “Point
Calimere – Little Kingdom by the Coast”,
about the loss of coastal wetlands,
which won Best Nature Film at India’s
Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife
Film Festival in 2007.
At the same festival he gained the
distinction of the Prithvi Ratna (Jewel of
the Earth) Award for his “outstanding
contribution to public education on
matters relating to environment and
wildlife through film-making”. Dattatri
also won a Carl Zeiss Award for Conservation
in 2007.
Plans for a new film on the Sarus
cranes of the Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh were put on hold when the
monsoon rains failed in 2005, causing
local wetlands to dry up. Then, to
Dattatri’s horror, the monsoon failed
again in 2006 – and the chief minister
of the state decided to construct an
airstrip in his constituency, which
happened to fall right across the cranes’
breeding ground. “It was a dangerous
situation,” the film-maker says, adding
that intense pressure is often applied
on those who oppose government
plans. But he has not given up on the
project: “It is my life’s mission to make a film wherever there is one that really
needs to be made.”
“However, not every film can be
strident advocacy,” Dattatri adds,
explaining a diversion into educational
film-making – a video manual on how
to count tigers. Working with leading
tiger biologist Dr K. Ullas Karanth,
director of the India Programme and
Technical Director, Tigers Forever,
Wildlife Conservation Society, based
in New York, Dattatri is making an
instructional documentary for forest
guards and conservation managers on
scientific methods for monitoring tigers
and their prey. |
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Dattatri still walks the coast of the Bay of Bengal, where he saw his first sea turtle, ever on the lookout for film material. "My final goal is to build up a body of work that will inform, educate and change the way people perceive their natural heritage", he declares.
©Rolex Awards/Xavier Lecoultre |
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One reason tigers are so endangered,
and their numbers exaggerated
by forest managers and
tourism promoters, is the reluctance to
use scientific means to assess their
population. Dr Karanth has refined such
methods, and Dattatri is helping to
propagate them through film.
“We think this may be the first such
film of its kind in the world, turning
some pretty complex science into practical,
usable advice for forest guardians,”
he explains. It is an example of the
practical conservation he now espouses.
Dattatri’s long professional association
with Dr Karanth has led to a deep
appreciation of how habitat fragmentation
is imperilling these magnificent
predators. It also inspired Dattatri’s impassioned appeal in The Hindu. To his surprise, many forest officers
wrote privately in support of his views,
criticising an outdated system for the
failure to protect habitat from the
relentless exploitation of large corporations
and private plunderers.
In another journalistic foray, he
challenged government plans to create
a “one-size-fits-all” scheme to give
people land rights even within National
Parks and Sanctuaries, and build roads
and other facilities that would threaten
the forests’ viability – a policy that
Dattatri firmly believes will accelerate
the loss of forests and wildlife.
To its credit, India’s national government
has taken note of his views,
appointing him to the prestigious
National Board for Wildlife which is
chaired by the prime minister, Manmohan
Singh. Dattatri is impressed by the
calibre and commitment of his fellow
board members, who met for the first
time on 1 November 2007. “It was a
positive meeting and we hope it will
translate into positive action,” he says.
Much of his work today is behind
the scenes, rather than behind the
camera, working with conservation
bodies to challenge legislation that
would further fragment wild habitat –
a time-consuming and often frustrating,
but necessary, task.
However one new endeavour brings
him particular joy – writing children’s books illustrated with photographs by
himself and others. His first children’s
book, about the Olive Ridley turtle, was
designed for older children and adults.
His second, about a baby elephant, is
for much younger children, and gently
instils the need to safeguard places
where baby elephants can live.
His film about the forest guards of the
Kanha Tiger Sanctuary in Madhya
Pradesh reveals another dimension of
what drives Shekar Dattatri – a concern
for the people who protect the forest.
“These guards are very poor. They lead
dangerous lives fighting off poachers,
and seldom receive recognition. Their
numbers are dwindling across India. My
film acknowledged their contribution to
protecting our heritage.”
Being selected as an Associate
Laureate of the Rolex Awards for
Enterprise has imparted much momentum
to Shekar Dattatri’s film-making
and to his struggle to save wild India.
Besides the equipment he purchased
with the Award money, it has also
attracted further sponsors – most
recently a British businessman who
agreed to donate US$40,000 towards
further films. “The Rolex Award tipped
the scale in my favour,” says Dattatri.
“For the world at large, the Award
announced: ‘This guy is worth
supporting’.”
JULIAN CRIBB |
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Mr. Shekar Dattatri
Plot 40, Door 11,
3rd East Street,
Thiruvanmiyur
Chennai 600 041
India
Email: dattatri@vsnl.com
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