NEW DELHI: ‘Whispers of Warming’, a documentary made by Doordarshan on climate change by its assistant director of Programmes Anoop Khajuria has bagged the top honour for Best Television Documentary at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union TV Award competition.
The competition was held in Krabi, Thailand. The DD film competed with 40 films from 20 countries across the world. Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Jawhar Sircar has congratulated the director and his team.
The one hour documentary film on climate change attempts to tell the story of people in the Ladakh division in the western Himalayas who are being impacted by climate change due to global warming. The film shows an extraordinary journey onto pinnacles and gorges of Kashmir Himalayas, travelling through its geographical textures, seasonal hues, endemic communities, languages and cultures to document the phenomenon of climate change through people’s perceptions and their struggle to adapt to the changing weather conditions following stories and characters in Jammu & Kashmir.
It starts in January 2015 when the silence and wilderness of Zanskar was shattered by a massive landslide in River Phugtal blocking the river at 4,000 meters in minus 35 degree Celsius. A 14 kilometer long frozen lake threatened to wash away people and villages below.
Earlier in September 2014, the Gujjars - nomadic sheep herders - felt extreme and critical low temperatures in September 2014 at Zojila Pass of Pir Panjal range while the Kashmir valley was inundated with heavy and excessive rains marooning millions and killing two hundred. The Meteorological office explained the phenomenon as a ‘rare condition’.
Heavy rains coupled with warming are melting the Glaciers faster than normal. Rongdum, a village in Zanaskar valley reels under the shortage of green fodder. Plant Species are vanishing as their life cycles are broken by dry spells. Drass- the second coldest inhabited place in the world after Siberia - is living under threat of flash floods. .
The Aryans, a hymn singing community believed to be of Mediterranean origin, is experiencing agriculture bonanza amidst changing weather patterns. But Shilikchay Kargil is hard hit with curly moth disease hitting fruiting plants and less snowfall decreasing crucial moistures for seed germination.
