2/16/2009
Tragic mis-declaration of man-eaters
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Op210209if_you.asp
12/15/2008
More directors notes
Was asked to write a director's note for a film festival - I banged out something. Read it. Liked it. So here it is.
The tiger and leopard are highly endangered species. Their extinction, which is eminent, perhaps even within this decade, will mean the collapse of the eco-system that they are a vital part of, another victim of man’s potent imposition on the environment.
With THE FOREST my attempt was to make an entertaining film in which man is pitted against animal, and comes off the looser. His arrogance, his pettiness, his self-destructiveness against the purity, simplicity - humbling forces of nature.
We, as a species, left the natural world a long time ago. We have isolated ourselves in manicured conclaves and deprived ourselves of the facility of having to live in balance with these forces.
We are seeing climate change and devastation of the natural order on a planet-sized scale. And one fall out of that, the one I have chosen as my vehicle, alluding to this greater disaster, is the merciless culling of Indian wildlife.
There has been an alarming rise in man-eating leopards and man-animal conflicts in India. This is almost entirely due to man’s encroachment on the animal’s habitat. And it is an unnatural confrontation. Tigers and leopards don’t attack human beings out of choice or out of habit. Indeed, they are so shy and so perfectly camouflaged in their natural surroundings that it is difficult to spot them even in sanctuaries and national parks – anyone who has been on a safari in India will testify to that.
But if they are crippled and are rendered unable to hunt their food – the fleet footed deer or the powerful wild boar – they turn to weaker species in order to satisfy their hunger.
This brings them into human dwellings, closer to human beings.
But lets back up, what causes these animals to behave in this unnatural way?
Poaching, besides being one of the main causes of their decimation, is one of the main causes of injury to these animals; and for every cat that is successfully poached, who knows how many get away with serious injuries. A slow painful death follows, but not before they turn on us, human beings - the weakest animals in the jungle - to satisfy their hunger. It is said that once an animal tastes human flesh, it does not want to eat anything else. These animals are perfect killers, they come to understand our behaviour, they stalk us, and they learn fast. We become their prey and being perfect killers, they become very good at hunting us.
That is, till it become dangerous for unarmed and unprotected villages and their flock. And public pressure mounts to have these animals killed or captured. These animals are branded man-eaters and hunters are sent out, by the government, to officially dispatch them.
The tiger and leopard are awesome creatures, magnificent symbols of our jungles; as much our heritage as any other legacy.
We are exterminating our own history, in that sense, our living-breathing natural history. And only in times of great barbarity, or total breakdown of human society or eclipse of a civilization due to the rise of another, are such things done.
Hang on a second - barbarity, breakdown, eclipse?
Last I checked, we were one of the fastest growing economies in the world. And the largest democracy to boot. A society is judged by the height of its civilization.
To allow this destruction to take place in these times, at the early rise of India as a new world player is a blot that should irk the collective conscience.
This film is an alarm call for the big cats - our survival as a civilized species depends on it.
Ashvin Kumar - writer / director.
The tiger and leopard are highly endangered species. Their extinction, which is eminent, perhaps even within this decade, will mean the collapse of the eco-system that they are a vital part of, another victim of man’s potent imposition on the environment.
With THE FOREST my attempt was to make an entertaining film in which man is pitted against animal, and comes off the looser. His arrogance, his pettiness, his self-destructiveness against the purity, simplicity - humbling forces of nature.
We, as a species, left the natural world a long time ago. We have isolated ourselves in manicured conclaves and deprived ourselves of the facility of having to live in balance with these forces.
We are seeing climate change and devastation of the natural order on a planet-sized scale. And one fall out of that, the one I have chosen as my vehicle, alluding to this greater disaster, is the merciless culling of Indian wildlife.
There has been an alarming rise in man-eating leopards and man-animal conflicts in India. This is almost entirely due to man’s encroachment on the animal’s habitat. And it is an unnatural confrontation. Tigers and leopards don’t attack human beings out of choice or out of habit. Indeed, they are so shy and so perfectly camouflaged in their natural surroundings that it is difficult to spot them even in sanctuaries and national parks – anyone who has been on a safari in India will testify to that.
But if they are crippled and are rendered unable to hunt their food – the fleet footed deer or the powerful wild boar – they turn to weaker species in order to satisfy their hunger.
This brings them into human dwellings, closer to human beings.
But lets back up, what causes these animals to behave in this unnatural way?
Poaching, besides being one of the main causes of their decimation, is one of the main causes of injury to these animals; and for every cat that is successfully poached, who knows how many get away with serious injuries. A slow painful death follows, but not before they turn on us, human beings - the weakest animals in the jungle - to satisfy their hunger. It is said that once an animal tastes human flesh, it does not want to eat anything else. These animals are perfect killers, they come to understand our behaviour, they stalk us, and they learn fast. We become their prey and being perfect killers, they become very good at hunting us.
That is, till it become dangerous for unarmed and unprotected villages and their flock. And public pressure mounts to have these animals killed or captured. These animals are branded man-eaters and hunters are sent out, by the government, to officially dispatch them.
The tiger and leopard are awesome creatures, magnificent symbols of our jungles; as much our heritage as any other legacy.
We are exterminating our own history, in that sense, our living-breathing natural history. And only in times of great barbarity, or total breakdown of human society or eclipse of a civilization due to the rise of another, are such things done.
Hang on a second - barbarity, breakdown, eclipse?
Last I checked, we were one of the fastest growing economies in the world. And the largest democracy to boot. A society is judged by the height of its civilization.
To allow this destruction to take place in these times, at the early rise of India as a new world player is a blot that should irk the collective conscience.
This film is an alarm call for the big cats - our survival as a civilized species depends on it.
Ashvin Kumar - writer / director.
12/11/2008
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