A 10 minute short film on save wild life from poaching and other destruction of their habitat in Palamu Tiger Reserve under title ‘ Bachao’ has won appreciation for its text, theme and delineation of the problem.
The film has a local cast with Bishwajeet Mukherjee and Saikat Chattopadhya as directors. Edit and Sound of this film have been done by Chand Awnish and Karan. The three character film has no woman but the three males Saikat, Sanjeev and Ashok have given a tremendous performance.
The film ‘Bachao’ was shot in Betla and in association with Palamu Tiger Reserve. The North division of PTR financed the film as said its one director Saikat Chattopadhya “Deputy Director North A K Mishra gave the characters and other film crew their fee which is a great thing.” The film is so good that none bothered to ask for the cost of it!
The inaugural screening of the film was done in Nature Interpretation Centre Betla on Saturday evening July 14 where a packed audience of 75 people saw this film with great enthusiasm. There is a character Bajrangi who poaches wild life and one Rasul Miyan who buys it.
Bajrangi’s son is aspiring to become DFO. He sees the dubious works of his father Bajrangi and curses himself that he wants to be a DFO and here his father poaches tiger and leopard and sells its hide.
Rasul Miyan pulls out his weapon but before the argument of Bajrangi’s son he vanishes in the forest of Palamu Quila and Bajrangi walks down to surrender. The film has no song but the dialogues of the film are strong enough to prick anyone’s conscience.
The same evening an audio cassette called ‘Sun lo Meri Pukar’ under the supervision of the deputy director North of PTR A K Mishra was released. The audio cassette has the text and voice of Sartaj Khanam co ordinator of Eco Development Project of PTR who has to her credit scaling of a risky pahar called Jaigeer Pahar in PTR where top officials feel nervous of going there as this pahar is infested with green snakes and on its foot hill the Maoists lurk with arms.
Sun lo Meri Pukar is an attempt to create awareness among people asking them not to threaten or destroy the life and habitat of wild animals.
After Sun lo Meri Pukar PTR’s Jyoti gave short speech on snake bite in which she informed that there is a kind of bite called ‘dry bite’ where snake does not inject any venom but simply bites. She then said poisonous snakes leave behind two most prominent signs of bite on body while non poisonous snakes do not.
However, she cautioned in snake bite case visit a doctor fast not any quack. She narrated an incident of Hazaribagh about six or seven years back when a rickshaw puller there kept a poisonous snake in his pocket day long but in the evening the snake bit him for this captivity. The rickshaw puller survived after a prolonged treatment. Mishra said on this occasion that all snakes are not poisonous but victim of snake bite should not waste time in identifying its nature.