When Authorities Turn Colour Blind

The Pioneer, Friday, November 25, 2005

Environment and wildlife filmmakers open our eyes to the govt.'s laxity on issues as serious as illegal e-waste dumping and discrimination against forest guards, says sumati mehrishi sharma

Even people who avoid getting carried away by the coaxing word -"sensitization" - have a green space somewhere within them. Vatavaran, the environmental film festival that ended in the Capital yesterday, was a host to, as one filmmaker puts it, "hidden, sensitive" people.

Authority bashing films at the festival; for instance, were received more keenly. This is perhaps an indicator of the rising concern among the cognoscente.

Some screenings were followed by very animated discussions. Primatologist Iqbal Malik, for example, threw open a discussion on the government's loopholes and detailed her utter disenchantment with the administrations heavy- footed attitude to the monkey menace. It was news to filmmakers from down south that the primatologist had "warned" the Delhi government 12 years ago about the impending problem.

Some filmmakers have had a first-hand experience of how the authorities turn a blind eye to the most hazardous kinds of pollution in urban India. For example, illegal breakage of computers in India's harbor cities and the thriving dealer market for the same. Others, who have seen elephants and leopards trapped for encroaching into human habitat, do not criticize villagers at all. Both animal and man are sandwiched between half-baked government policies and projects, they say. One such effective film, A second-hand life, investigates the scary side of e-waste. Children engaged in the deadly business of computer breakage are prone to cancer and lung related diseases because of unprotected handling of metals that are sieved from the waste. Nutan Manmohan the fairly experienced director feels that the situation is getting woes in the harbour cities where children work in the most hazardous conditions. She say’s “Legally second-hand computers up to 10 years old, can be imported for charity purposes. But the loopholes in our laws allow the dealers to bluff the government, steal these consignments and break them almost instantaneously in mass hangars. Do you know that one computer when degraded; has enough waste metal to kill at least 50 people? In the US laws demand companies to maintain logistics of computers discarded by their clients. They are pretty strict about it. But even the US laws have loopholes. Their laws applying to computer breakage are not very effective. That’s why they dump millions of computers in China, India and Affrican nations’ says the director.

The junk at most times, is not even checked. "Around 12 children lost their lives recently when a computer set blew with some lead inside it. Children are even asked to wise the in acids. Can you imagine how an odd chemical reaction could backfire? Then there are the attendant ills of child labour menial tasks like fetching water dealers are hungry for the gold and silver components. She debunks claims of government mental ignorance with one powerful shot: A cop idling away with his lathi around a breakage workshop

Kanha- Protecting a Paradise deals not only with the endangered tiger as most environment films do but also with the fate of the forest guards manning the sprawling reserve. Shekhar Dattatri's camera falls on the few incredible narrow shaves the guards have had with animals and poachers owing to the poor supply of adequate equipment unlike say those at Kaziranga. But it does not really talk about what the director openly spoke about later-the ad hoc distribution of wages to the lowest ranks in the reserve. That's probably because the film was commissioned by the Kanha officials themselves. Says the filmmaker, "Sometimes these guards don't get paid for six months at a stretch. There is so much corruption that all the money gets absorbed by people in the higher ranks and very less trickles down to the guards."

He makes a valid point about global "Charity" coming to Kanha -gumboots, umbrellas and special clothing. "When will our own people provide for their needs? Till our men are equipped well, how can they protect animals from poachers? Will we depend on charity?"