AWARD FOR SOS - SAVE OUR SHOLAS

To mark the 25th anniversary of the declaration of Kerala’s famous Silent Valley rainforest as a National Park, Shekar Dattatri, and his colleagues have produced a documentary highlighting the vital necessity of protecting such forests. Titled ‘SOS – Save Our Sholas’, the 24-minute film, narrated by celebrated conservationist, Valmik Thapar, showcases the rich biodiversity of the southern Western Ghats forests and the problems that beset this fragile landscape. The film lays particular emphasis on the immense water harvesting capacity of these forests, and underlines the fact that all the major rivers of peninsular India originate in the Western Ghats.

The declaration of Silent Valley as a National Park was a landmark event in India’s conservation history, and came about due to a vigorous campaign waged by people from all walks of life against a dam proposed by the Kerala State Electricity Board across the perennial Kunthi River that runs through the valley. The dam would have submerged a large tract of virgin forest.

Almost 20 years ago, Dattatri and his colleagues produced the first ever natural history film on this virtually unexplored forest. The 50-minute film, ‘Silent Valley – An Indian Rainforest’ became an instant hit with audiences, and also bagged two National Awards and half a dozen international awards at wildlife film festivals in USA, Japan, Italy and other countries. ‘SOS – Save Our Sholas’, produced by the Trust for Environmental Education, draws upon the best sequences from the earlier film, but also contains new material shot by Shekar and Thiruvananthapuram based natural history filmmaker Suresh Elamon.

“We felt that a crisp film on the subject was sorely needed as an educational aid, particularly in schools and colleges, to introduce young people to the immense importance of shola forests. It is very gratifying that Delhi based Centre for Media Studies has selected the film for its ‘Greening Young Minds’ project, and is distributing the film to ten thousand schools across India”

In its first outing the film has won a Technical Excellence Award for Best Story at the recently concluded Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife Film Festival in New Delhi. The jury, led by Award Winning filmmaker Jahnu Baruah, described it as a “Visually powerful, well-scripted film that succeeds in creating the much needed awareness for the conservation of Shola forests”.

The film, which was supported by SPEC India and ENDURO India, is now available in English and Hindi, and will be made available also in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi later this year.