Earthy efforts of the rewarding kind

HT City, Saturday, November 26, 2005

The India Habitat Centre saw an evening with a difference on Wednesday as delegates of the environment and wildlife film festival, Vatavaran, gathered to felicitate their heroes. Organized by the Centre of Media Studies and supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the festival attrached 244 entries from across the country with 47 getting nominated for the awards. The theme of this year's festival was "Forest for Life".

The four-day fest also featured the 13th Congress of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists and a retrospective of celebrated British filmmakers - award-winning cinematographer Doug Allan and Richard Brock, of living Planet Productions.

Dr. Karan Singh, chairman of Vatavaran 2005's steering committee handed out mementos to several distinguished personalities from the world of films, who have dedicated their lives for making the planet a better place to live in. those who were felicitated included multiple Green Oscar winner Mike Pandey, the Bedi brothers, Ajay and Vijay, Harriet Nimmo, chief executive of Wild screen, Dada Saheb Phalke awardees Adoor Gopalakrishan, film makers Dr. S.Krishnaswamy and P. Balan, besides independent documentary maker Shekar Dattatri, actor Nandita Das and ad-man Saumya Sen. Chairperson of the festival jury, Shyam Benegal, was also expected, but couldn't make it.