Docu on ‘Project Tiger' highlights success story

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: For Kalyan Varma and Rohit Varma, wildlife filmmakers, friends and founders of Nature In Focus, a platform for exploration into India's wilderness, the twists and turns in the story of India's tigers are so intricately woven over the last 50 decades that even a 90-minute film barely manages to untangle it.

Their documentary film, ‘Project Tiger', created to mark the 50th anniversary of India's mission to save a global icon from extinction, will be premiered in Bengaluru on November 4 at Jayamahal Palace.

The premiere will be followed by a live performance by Indian Ocean, who also set the background score for the film.

"The film plays out more like a murder mystery in the sense of violence involved, tigers disappearing, and people finding hints and clues and trying to solve the problems," says Kalyan.

The idea behind the film, says Rohit, is to let people step back and look at the history of tigers and view the conservation efforts and its success in that context of history.

"Not so long ago, in 1970 to be exact, it was completely legal to come to India and shoot a tiger and stuff it and take it back. You can't even imagine that now. That is how far we have come," says Kalyan.

One of the turning points in tiger conservation came when a census threw up the number 1,411 and tigers became locally extinct at Sariska Tiger Reserve in 2005 and Panna Tiger Reserve in 2006, say the filmmakers.

"It impacted people. Public opinion and public sentiment changed and, because of which, the government really had to take action, and pour in the necessary infrastructure. Till then, for instance, the government would use the pugmark method, which is to count the pugmarks and come up with the number of tigers. These days we use the more scientific camera trapping," says Rohit.

The attack on poachers and the deeply-penetrated smuggling ring became multi-pronged when the public willingly participated in bringing back tigers from extinction. India's tiger population rose by 200 in the past four years to reach 3,167 in 2022.