10 months ago
Young Northeast Filmmakers Protect India's Forests Through Storytelling
Imagine some young people in Northeast India who love their forests and the animals that live there.
They learned how to use cameras to make movies and tell stories.
These stories show everyone how important the forests are and why we need to protect them.
They help people understand that even though some animals are endangered, like the golden langur, we can work together to save them.
The program, called GreenHub, teaches these young filmmakers how to film, edit, and share their important messages.
Some of these filmmakers are even former hunters who are now helping to regrow forests!
Their movies are like a voice for the forests, showing how local people's wisdom can help keep nature safe for everyone.
It's like giving the forests a superhero team with cameras!
Young filmmakers from Northeast India are using cameras to document and protect their local forests and wildlife.
GreenHub, founded by Rita Banerji, trains marginalized youth in filmmaking to tell conservation stories.
These films highlight endangered species like golden langurs and pangolins, and address threats such as poaching and deforestation.
The initiative empowers local communities to become stewards of their environment, preserving traditional knowledge and biodiversity.
Filmmaking serves as a powerful tool for observation, learning, and driving real-world conservation impact.
- Who
- Young filmmakers from Northeast India, trained by GreenHub, and local communities.
- What
- Using filmmaking to document and protect local forests, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge.
- Where
- Northeast India, including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Sikkim.
- When
- Ongoing, with fellowship applications opening from December to March.
- Why
- To raise awareness, counter threats like poaching and deforestation, preserve cultural heritage, and empower local communities as conservation stewards.
Key facts
- GreenHub Founding Year
- 2014
- GreenHub Fellowship Duration
- 1 year
- Raimona National Park Area
- 422 sq km
- Golden Langur Population (2020-2021)
- 7,396
- Primary Threat to Wildlife
- Poaching and Hunting
Quotes
Rita Banerji
founder of GreenHub, an environmental filmmaker, and an Ashoka Fellow
“We get a lot of applications; from the Northeast regions themselves, we get around 200 to 250 applications. During the application period, we try to reach remote areas through regional newspapers and fellow networks. The aim is for the maximum number of people to get to know about the fellowship. Over time, we started physically visiting these sites where there was no network, so we could inform more people. This is followed by phone interviews; 80 people are selected based on the interviews.”
thebetterindia.com
“Many of the youth feel that their knowledge is not good enough. But when they're sitting and looking at the footage — the farming patterns, the crops grown, the arrivals of certain birds and how these indicate the advent of a season — they start seeing appreciation for their kind of knowledge. That’s where they think to themselves, ‘What I know is also valued’.”
thebetterindia.com
Tunu Basumatary
a member of Assam’s Bodo community
“When I was a child, we’d see so many golden langurs and pangolins here.”
thebetterindia.com
“We started this programme in 2006, wanting to protect the forest.”
thebetterindia.com
