Forgotten Villages

English/EST/38min 35secs/2002
Producer: Krupakar Senani Features

Subject Focus: Resettlement of villagers from inside Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Karnataka.

Summary: Thirty kilometres from the town of Chikmagalur in Karnataka lies the Bhadra Tiger Reserve. Here, the towering ridges of the Western Ghats wrap around a gently undulating landscape dissected by scores of streams, and draped in the finest moist deciduous forests. These forests harbour an impressive assemblage of wildlife from the large and imposing elephants and tigers, to a dazzling array of lesser marvels including birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and insects. Also scattered across Bhadra’s forested landscape are sixteen hamlets, consisting mainly of peasants, who raise seasonal crops of wet-paddy, graze their cattle, and gather assorted produce from the surrounding forests.

The film ‘Forgotten Villages’ portrays this unique process of resettlement, where the stress is on human welfare. However, the end result is effective conservation of a rich biodiversity, as well as protecting the catchments of the Bhadra river, the lifeline of millions.

Producer’s/Director’s Profile: Mr. Krupakar and Mr. Senani are a duo of wildlife photographers / filmmakers who have worked in the Western Ghats for over 20 years, under the name Krupakar Senani. Their photographs have been published in a number of wildlife magazines both in India and abroad. They have worked as consultants and camerapersons to a number of international television producers, apart from producing 12 wildlife documentaries for local television. They have been actively involved in social and conservation activities in Karnataka. Alongside, for the past eight years, they are doing an intensive study of pack dynamics of the Asiatic wild dog in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. They have received Sahitya Academy Award, Karnataka’s highest literary award in 1999.