The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Shekar Dattatri, wildlife filmmaker, gets Rolex award

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Shekar Dattatri, wildlife filmmaker, gets Rolex award

By P. Oppili

CHENNAI, DEC. 7. Chennai-based wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri has won the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise for 2004.

The Associate Laureate Award comprising a citation, a Rolex Chronometer and a cash prize was conferred on Dattatri in New Delhi on November 30.

The last Indian to receive a Rolex Award was Gorur R. Iyengar Gopinath in 1996, who also won an Associate Laureate award.

The awards were instituted in 1976 to encourage innovative projects in science, medicine, technology, innovation, exploration, discovery, environment and cultural heritage.

Dattatri was given the award for his `The Wild India Project — Changing hearts and minds through moving images', a series of short films on wildlife and conservation. Dattatri, who has produced award-winning wildlife documentaries for National Geographic and Discovery, says TV documentaries sensitise people to the beauty and fragility of Nature. Short films on specific themes focussed at target audiences including decision-makers can have a real impact on the ground.

He hopes to build up a body of work on a variety of wildlife conservation themes. "I hope some of the films will have an immediate impact in mitigating pressing conservation problems, and will have long-term educational value," he adds.

Wetland eco-systems

Threats to wetland eco-systems in the country, the problem of forest fires and the vanishing knowledge of indigenous people living in forest areas are some of the topics that he hopes to deal with in the coming series of short films.

He says that the level of awareness about wildlife and conservation is low in India. "Most people are not even aware that forests are the birthplace of our rivers, particularly in South India, and that preserving forests in all their complexity is the only way to ensure a perpetual supply of fresh water for our drinking and agricultural needs. We need to get across the message to every man, woman and child in this country that if we do not take care of Nature, Nature cannot take care of us."

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