Power to the People

English/28mins 30secs/2002
Producer: Nandan Saxena, Top Quark Productions

Subject Focus: Small hydro offers a ray of hope to the villages where the grid does not reach or where the grid supply is only for the namesake. A UNDP-GEF project in association with the MNES, explores the feasibility of this environmentally benign concept with 20 demonstration projects in the Himalayan region.

Summary: At the Tawang Gompa, in a tradition unbroken for more than 600 years, the community kitchen prepares breakfast for the novitiates and the Lamas, use logs of wood, as fuel. From every house, one can see a wisp of smoke rising – as if a thousand prayers were sent heavenwards. For a region, which is under snow cover for seven months, survival takes precedence over ecological concerns. Little wonder then if a forest without trees shocks none at Tawang.

Producer’s/Director’s Profile: Nandan Saxena has done Diploma in Journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Delhi. He is into Direction, Camera, Editing and Scripting. He is currently working on a cultural travelogue on the journey to the 1,006-year-old monastery in the village of Tabo in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.