Courtesy - The Hindu,

The Pack' nominated for BBC Wild Screen Film Festival

Muralidhara Khajane

Krupakar, Senani have made documentary

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Krupakar and Senani

MYSORE: “The Pack”, a documentary film made by Mysore-based photographer-team, Krupakar and Senani, on the Dhole, known as the Asiatic Wild Dog, has been nominated for the BBC Wild Screen Film Festival.

The wildlife documentary produced completely in Asia has been selected for the “Open Section” of the film festival, which will be held in Bristol (United Kingdom) in October.

According to Krupakar and Senani, it is the first longest documentary film made on Indian predators. It is important that “The Pack” has been selected for behaviour section.

Speaking to The Hindu, Krupakar and Senani said that the fifth episode of the five-episode documentary made on the life of the Dhole was selected for the BBC Wild Screen Film Festival along with the two episodes of a landmark BBC Life Series directed by natural history film-maker Sir David Attenborough.

It is significant to note that Krupakar and Senani made “Wild Dog Diaries”, a unique documentary film on the Dhole, a species of the Canidae family. It is also known as the Asiatic Wild Dog and less known as the Indian Wild Dog and the whistling hunter (due to the whistling sound that it makes).

The film won the Festival Grand Award 2007 in the Japanese Wildlife Film Festival held in Toyama, Japan, where it beat 320 other entries to win it. It also won the best film award in the environmental film festival, “Vatavaran-2007” held in New Delhi, besides the Asian Television Awards (Singapore 2007) as the best documentary film.

The Asiatic Wild Dog is a species of wild dog. It is an unusual predator living in a social pack. Though facing extinction, it has received little attention, unlike the wolf or the African hunting dog. “Wild Dog Diaries” is the first documentary on wild dogs Earlier efforts efforts by various individuals and groups, including BBC and National Geographic Society, failed.

As far as “The Pack” is concerned, Krupakar and Senani note that till date it was common assumption of wild life experts that “inbreeding” is a common thing in Asiatic Wild Dogs. However, the film dismisses the myth with authentic documentation.

The photographer-team says that “The Pack” was shot entirely in the Nilgiri bio-sphere reserve for nearly three years. While Krupakar, the narrator, turns to Bomma, a tribal man, for help when all scientific learning fails to bridge the mistrust between him and his elusive subject in the “Wild Dog Diaries”, in “The Pack”, Senani unveils the world of the Dhole with a voice-over of Amarjit Dev.

What follows is a rare synergy, where wisdom complements modern learning culminating in the unveiling of one of the most mysterious predators [the Dhole]. “The film stands apart because of its effort in projecting different dimensions of the predator's life and showing its unknown behaviour to the world,” they say.

According to Krupakar and Senani, TV channel Animal Plant will telecast all the five episodes (30 minutes each) of “The Pack” across 140 countries from June 13.

Welcome for the Premiere Show

Gandhi Smile - Juice Banane Vala

They are taking care of your thirst, they are here to serve us, they are here to understand us in a proper way & they want to live with us. Because they have reason, they took the responsibility to feed their parents & want to help their brothers and sisters to learn. They came from tiny villages of Uttar Pradesh. All are school dropputs. They came here with lots of expectation. They came here with dream & they want make it real.

“bayya hamare bareme kuch galat mat chapna, ham gareeb loog hain ” Rahul said, he is from a small village called Nagpar which is in Baharesh Dist of Uttar Pradesh, he Prepares juice in the footpath near Rangayana. He has 2 brothers & 4 sisters who are studying in village. He left the school at 9th standard to come Mysore for earning. He came here along with other 20 friends from near by villages. They are all doing the same work. They are all from poor family background. We can see them even in Hubli & Maharastra.

Rahul prepares Grapefruit juice with a simple unique technology. It was an indigenous technology developed by Jagjeet Company in Laknow. An Iron Jar which is connected with a pulley. It helps to crush the fruits when pulley rotates. He’ll do the 5 marks in Grapefruit surface and removes the outer layer in his own skill. He uses wooden thing to insert inside jar to put more pressure and avoid out burst of juice while crushing. Juice comes out from one side, then he collects & filters it with a plastic saucer. And remains of crushed waste come out of the jar from the rarer end. Only he has to do is to rotate the pulley from his hand. It was a very simple machine & affordable to a common man. The name of the Jar was “Juicevali Machine”, it costs Rs.5000 per Jar. They bought this machine from Lakwnow and hired a cart from local people. Cart was fitted by machine and they put all the necessary things on the cart. They buy Grapefruit, Pepper, Salt & Ice blocks in local market. They are also having a colorful umbrella to protect people from sun rays.

He put some pepper & salt to Grapefruit juice to make it little spicy in taste. They don’t mix water to it, but they can add some ice, only on your request to make it little chill. It was a pure Grapefruit juice to dink and to satisfy our thirsty. He charges Rs.10 per glass and three Grapefruit is enough to prepare one full glass of juice. I saw people drink the juice even in cloudy conditions. They drink even more that one full glass. I can say it is better to drink the juice instead of water or any soft drinks in city. Now a day, you don’t get good water any ware. Even in hotels & especially fast food centers, drinking water is very dangerous. I don’t even recommend any body to drink the water which is supplied by Corporation without boiling.

For me it was a very special, because this is how people find innovative ways to sustain in the modern world. Through this approach we can challenge MNC’s like Pepsi and Coca Cola. Even people should stop drinking soft drinks & should encourage their children’s to drink fruit juice. It will improve their health and also it helps people like Mr.Rahul to earn some money to lead a dignified life. If we support people like Mr.Rahul, it will motivate other people to start business like this. Through this we can create jobs in the society.

I must thank to Mrs.Sunitha Narayan, Director of Centre of Science & Environment, her team proved that Soft Drinks contains chemicals & pesticides which is very harmful for the human body and further they proved that ground water also contaminated. For the first time people start talking about the contamination of water and side effects of soft drinks. This brings little awareness among public. Let us join hands together to support people like Mr.Rahul and will try to destroy the poverty from our nation.