7th CMS VATAVARAN Environment and Wildlife Film Festival and Forum 2013

The spectre of spectacle has begun to haunt us all. Everything should be spectacular, else it is meaningless. Hyper-existence enjoins us to consume and be activist. Co-evally, we ought to be slack. A better world, you see, is only a mouse-click away.

The fifth edition of the CMS VATAVARAN travelling film festival invites you to perceive otherwise.

Each film we will bring to you this year is not only good to see, but is also good to think about. The larger programme has, at the least, this intent: how not to be slacktivist.

This Year's Theme

This year, we travel to Dehradun, Goa, Jaipur and Kolkata with a programme built around the theme of biodiversity conservation.

Why This Theme?

We chose this theme because public perception on biodiversity is quite vague. We have a hazy understanding of the multiplicity of species on Earth, little sense of how this diversity gives stability to life and provides ecosystem services to villagers as well as those living in cities. The situation in India is, indeed, ironic: this country was among the first in the world to have a Biodiversity Act in 2002.

So focus must fall on why a country like ours faces alarming biodiversity loss. The impact is, sometimes, shocking to see. But to go beyond, we want discussion on possible solutions to ensure that the ecosystems of the planet continue to sustain human well-being in the future.

So we call on all stakeholders to make a concerted and synergic effort to ensure conservation and sustainable use of the rich biological diversity of our planet.

The ultimate goal is to reduce the ecological footprint of human beings and permanently change the way we consume resources. Focus, therefore, will also fall on the 'green' or 'bio-based' economy; new technologies, methods of cultivation, production processes and progressive business-cases or implementation strategies.

Festival Schedule*

Why This Schedule?

The year 2012 will see India hosting a very important meeting relating to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - the 11th Conference of Parties - at Hyderabad, from October 8-19.

This meeting is very important because it is the first conference of the CBD process after the United Nations declared 2011 to 2020 as the 'Decade for Biodiversity'. These facts are hardly known outside environmentalist circles. CMS VATAVARAN wants to change that.