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Bhopal: Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication organized a special screening of “The Tiger-Indicator of Healthy Forest Ecosystem” in collaboration with CREW (Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife) to mark the International Tiger Day on Monday.

In his keynote address, senior journalist and wildlife conservationist Lalit Shastri said that we are confronted with the tiger crisis due to factors like increasing population, shrinking forest cover, poaching encroachment and increasing demand for natural resources. He said that media coverage on matters relating to environment and wildlife has forced successive governments to take necessary and effective steps for conservation of forests and protection of tigers and other wildlife species.

Most of the footage used for making the documentary “The Tiger: Indicator of Healthy Forest Ecosystem”, produced by Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board, has been shot by Shastri over a 20-year period. In this documentary, he has vividly captured various aspects relating to wildlife, river system and forests.

Speaking on this occasion, Gandhian thinker, journalist and educationist, Dr. Arun Tripathi said that Earth is not only for human beings but for all creatures. He cited a verse from the Mahabharata, and said, “The tiger, out of the woods, is easily slain; the wood also, that is without a tiger, is easily cut down. Therefore, it is the tiger that protects the forest and the forest that shelters the tiger”.

निर्वनॊ वध्यते वयाघ्रॊ निर्व्याघ्रं छिद्यते वनम
तस्माद वयाघ्रॊ वनं रक्षेद वनं वयाघ्रं च पालयेत।।

Mahabharatha, Udyoga-parvam, Chapter 29

In India, forest dwellers protect and preserve our forest wealth, whereas outsiders were hunting the tigers, Dr. Tripathi said adding it is only due to greater awareness and social consciousness that we have been able to save the tigers.

In his concluding remarks, University Rector Dr Srikant Singh, reiterated commitment for Tiger conservation and said that human beings and forests have a symbiotic relationship and it is our duty to save the ecosystem.

The program was organized by the University’s Film Club in association CREW (Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife), a not-for-profit organization devoted to wildlife conservation. The program was conducted by Dharmendra Kamaria.