(IN)Wildlife-documentary maker Mike Pandey named Environment Hero by Time

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Mike Pandey named Environment Hero by Time magazine

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Well-known wildlife conservationist Mike Pandey has been

named an 'Environmental Hero' by Time magazine as part of its Heroes of the

Environment 2009.

In its latest issue, Oct 5, the magazine writes: 'Al Gore wasn't the first

person to use a movie to help save the world. In India, efforts to protect

everything from whale sharks to elephants, vultures to medicinal plants owe a

debt to prolific wildlife-documentary maker Mike H. Pandey.'

 

It says Pandey, 60, 'has waged a three-decade war to defend India's wildlife and

environment, rousing the apathetic and spurring governments, communities and

individuals to act. His weapon of choice: film'.

 

His 1994 film 'The Last Migration' helped slow the decline in India's elephant

numbers. The film and its sequel 'Vanishing Giants' (2004), triggered a national

debate and led the government to ban the more brutal traditional methods of

elephant capture, which often result in the animal's death, Time writes.

 

Pandey was born to Indian parents in Kenya and grew up right next to the Nairobi

National Park 'where elephants would raid my mother's kitchen garden and lions'

calls would wake us at night', he is quoted as saying. He studied filmmaking in

the US and Britain. He settled in Delhi and founded Riverbank Studios in 1973 to

make educational and environmental documentaries.

 

'Success finally came when 'The Last Migration' was screened at the Wildscreen

Festival in Bristol, England - the biggest wildlife and environmental film

festival in the world - and won a prestigious Panda award. More films and awards

followed. Pandey's most enduring success, though, is the weekly half-hour series

'Earth Matters', which has run on state television for 11 years, and has helped

spur the emergence of grassroots conservation groups around India.'

 

'My effort has been to show what each of us can do,' it quotes Pandey as saying.

'The earth matters to all of us. Don't just drive to work, look around you, see

the birds and trees, and if there's something going wrong, set it right.'

 

Another Indian named in its list of Leaders & Visionaries for the Environment

2009 is Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak under the head Scientists & Innovators.

 

 

 

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