Friday 6 January 2017

Bannerghatta - Breathing for Bangalore - A Film by Ashok Hallur & Padma Ashok

A human body, smoking a couple of packs a day, choking on it and yet miraculously managing to survive because the lungs are making an extra effort to keep supplying oxygen to the body. Now imagine our city choking under the pollution of the innumerable and more vehicles that are on the road almost 24 hours a day,  water-bodies turning into buildings overnight, trees making way for roads and basically struggling to breath and literally crumbling under this stress and yet surviving because of one patch of forest that is making an extra effort to supply oxygen to the oxygen starved city and keeping it going. 

Bannerghatta - Breathing for Bangalore brings into focus the one lung space near Bangalore the entire city is dependent on for its daily dose of breathable air. Despite the city fast closing in on its fringes and no other lung space to support the city to this extent the Bannerghatta forest range continues to breath for the city, keeping it alive.
An effort by Padma Ashok and Ashok Hallur brings to light the every aspect of this beautiful piece of forest and what makes it so indispensable to the garden city that is fast losing all its gardens and greens. 
The effects of these can be seen and felt in our daily lives with a drastic increase in the temperatures and decrease in the rainfall that is making it very clear about the direction in which we are headed.

Bannerghatta, after being declared a protected area in 1971 has been the home for many diverse species right from the tiniest of the insects to the gentle giants- the Asian Elephants while continuing to maintain its rejuvenating  pristine beauty that comes from the  various flora of the forest.  

This however does not come without its share of daily challenges in the form of poaching, farming in the forest fringes, exploitation of the forest produce and all these resulting in increasing man animal conflict, the decreasing forest space leading the animals directly towards the human habitats, the challenges are many , yet there are those who care and strive to keep this vibrant ecosystem alive and functioning.  The link between each species , between every prey and predator and between them and us is extremely delicate as well as immensely intricate and important. The slightest disturbance to this balance will very well lead to the domino effect and is definitely going to impact the human world too. 

While the forest watchers and officials face the challenge of keeping the elephants and gaurs from straying into the villages everyday, it also becomes the moral responsibility of every citizen of Bangalore as well as all areas surrounding Bannerghatta to ensure that this oxygen factory remains healthy and thriving if we have to benefit from it in the future too. It is also our responsibility to reduce the stress on this forest area by developing  a lot more. 

Though the tree plantations have their role to play, the importance of maintaining the indigenous varieties is immense to ensure the conservation of biodiversity of these forests. 

Bannerghatta is more than just a holiday spot. This forest is working very hard for us and there a few people who are working very hard to keep this forest alive while we benefit from its daily supple of oxygen to this choking city. Isn't it our responsibility too to do our bit? What we need is maybe another revolution, a tree revolution and tree revolutionaries to ensure Bannerghatta does not stand alone and vanish into the oblivion. 

Bannerghatta - Breathing for Bangalore brings to us all this and more in the most precise and crisp manner  with all benefits, problems and solutions and will hopefully inspire many more to join towards making an effort to help the forests thrive. If the forests thrive, we thrive.

A few images and a small clipping from the film. It is set to be released soon. Do watch.