The Hindu : New Delhi News : A landmark film on Red Pandas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

A landmark film on Red Pandas

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI: Internationally renowned wildlife filmmaker Naresh Bedi, who pioneered productions on different facets of Indian natural history in the country, is ready with another landmark film. The premiere screening of his latest film is scheduled at India International Centre in the Capital on Saturday.

The Bedi Brothers -- Naresh and Rajesh -- spurred by their love and passion for wildlife have come up with several productions and now the next generation of young Bedis, Ajay and Vijay, have joined them in carrying this passionate pursuit further, coming up with their work, `Cherub of the Mist'. The film is a result of two years of arduous work by the team in the inhospitable mountains of eastern Himalayas. The film reveals for the first time the life of Red Pandas, a species seldom sighted or hardly studied in the wild.

"The taxonomy of the Red Panda has puzzled the scientific world. It is a highly endangered mammal that lives in temperate forests of the eastern Himalayas. The species ranges from Nepal through North-eastern India and Bhutan and into China. According to the Red Data Book, their total population is estimated to be only 2,500. The population of Red Pandas has sharply declined because of large-scale hunting and trapping for trade and due to disturbances, fragmentation and loss of habitat," said Naresh.

The film is expected to be a treat for wildlife lovers. "This is the first time ever that someone has succeeded in filming the rare Red Pandas in their natural habitat. Making a film about such rare and elusive pandas was a challenging task for our team and we worked extensively on the project for nearly two years. We have put in hard work in exceedingly difficult conditions on the misty mountains with cold and icy winds, high humidity, and drenching rains in the forests with crawling leeches. Not only the crew but also our equipment took a beating from the extreme weather conditions," add Ajay and Vijay Bedi, speaking about their work.

The team has managed to capture the courtship, mating, nest building and rearing of cubs of these lovable treetop dwellers. They had to use their own innovative ways to capture the delicate moments of Pandas' life using multi-camera set-ups and night filming so that the animal was not disturbed.

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