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Nature as a muse

Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Restoring the balance Mike Pandey believes that intensified human greed has ruptured the ecology

Mike Pandey, the environment crusader, is all agog about his latest project, “The Disappearing World: Bees in a Crisis”, a film on bees and butterflies. Political apathy, a largely indifferent bureaucracy and ignorance about the issue notwithstanding, Delhi-based Pandey has kept the struggle on and also has won many battles during the course.

Meeting Pandey on the day of the Parliamentary election results, I couldn’t resist asking him, “How prominently does environment figure in the manifestoes of our political parties?” “No homework has gone into it. Good intention and rhetoric doesn’t bring in results. For instance, we have been trying to clear the Yamuna for the last 10 years and it has only become worse ,” he replied.

Having the Nairobi National Park in Kenya at the back of his house meant Pandey grew up with compassion for nature. But the determination to “become the voice for the voiceless” got strengthened only when he witnessed the last moments of a whale on the Gujarat coast. “Her liver had been taken out and she was dying. As the light faded away from her amber eyes, I felt a call,” Pandey vividly recounts. He kept his word that he silently gave to the dying whale by documenting the gory slaughter and trade of whale sharks on the Western coast of India in “Shores of Silence – Whale Sharks in India” in 2000. The film, which earned him the Wildscreen Panda award or the green Oscar, led the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to ban fishing of the protected marine species. “I spent two-and-a-half years looking for the whale shark in Gujarat when everybody was of the view that whale sharks don’t exist there. A bureaucrat thought I was in love with a whale and even suggested I see a doctor. Known by the name of beral, fishermen brutally killed her and sold off the meat for one rupee a kilo,” says the green filmmaker wistfully.

The conservationist’s previous film, “The Last Migration” in 1994, and “Vanishing Giants” ten years later, both produced by Pandey’s Riverbank studios, drew the concerned authorities’ attention to the cause of elephants.

“The Last Migration”, based on the conflict between the elephants and the tribals, brought the Government to establish the Elephant Foundation of India. And “Vanishing Giants”, which documented the inhuman capture operation by the authorities, saw the Government start various elephant welfare activities.

These films have also bagged the prestigious green Oscars.

His job didn’t end at that. Committed to the core, he roped in Bollywood star John Abraham for the elephant resettlement project in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, one of the many initiatives undertaken by Pandey’s Earth Matters Foundation. “John is a great animal lover. He has an amazing reach. John’s involvement has made things easier,” says Pandey. John Abraham will also produce Pandey’s film “Return of the Tiger”.

Although he is credited with immense contribution to nature and wildlife, Pandey’s journey has only become more difficult with time.

“The doors are closed on me more than ever before because I show the truth. I still have to wait for months and stand in queues to get permissions. Although “Shores of Silence” has been bought by almost every film archive in the world, the Government of India is still to buy it,” rues Pandey.

But that’s still not enough to bog him down. For, there is enough good news to keep his spirits going.

His environment series, Earth Matters, which is being aired on Doordarshan for the last 10 years, has spurred the creation of over 2000 voluntary Earth Matter clubs across the nation. The show has even bagged the Golden Giraffe Award — the highest global award for conservation.

“Everyday I receive thousands of mails from youngsters, children and even jail inmates who tell me how the programme has changed their lives,” he says and goes on to add, “Man is not the supreme commander of the earth. We are a very young specie still trying to understand the mysteries of nature and in our ignorance we have destroyed it.”

On June 5, the World Environment Day, Earth Matters foundation will release “Shores of Silence” and give away the Eco Warrior Golden Elephant Award to the deserving candidate for his/her contribution towards wildlife conservation.

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