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Bhopal: Crew – Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife, a not for profit organisation, Sunday 27 June, launched on Youtube a wildlife documentary titled “Wild Madhya Pradesh”.

Through this documentary, Lalit Shastri, founder President of CREW, especially addresses the young generation across the world urging them to come closer – much closer to nature and wildlife.

The documentary underscores how the tiger began its journey on Earth about 2 million years ago and has roamed in the Central Indian Highlands for billions of days and nights.
Central India is the heart of India’s wildlife. For several million years this part of the world has remained covered with Asian sub-continent’s largest forest tracts that have all through remained a perfect tiger habitat. Around 15 to 20 % of the world’s tigers, of course in the natural habitat, are found in this landscape.

We are trustees of nature, biodiversity, flora, fauna, rivers and forest ecosystems. We have to watch and protect our forests and wildlife from reckless exploitation for human greed. – Lalit Shastri

Water Capital of India

The Central Indian Highlands and the river basins of Madhya Pradesh form a huge watershed with Narmada river along with Chambal, Betwa, Son, Mahi and their tributaries charging rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Tapti, Mahanadi and Godavari. This landscape ideally should be treated as the water capital of India since it broadly takes care of almost 40 per cent of the water requirement of at least 10 Indian States.

The herbivore population in this territory is mainly represented by gaur, also called the Indian Bison, sambar, cheetal or the spotted deer and black buck. This region is also famous for the hard ground barasingha.

Kanha Tiger Reserve

The Kanha Tiger Reserve, apart from supporting the tiger population, has also played an important role continuously for so many years and saved from extinction the highly endangered hard ground barasingha – the last world population of this deer species.

Only recently, a few Barasinghas from Kanha have been relocated in Bori Sanctuary while some also have been brought to Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal.

Bori – the first Protected Area in the Country

When Bori sanctuary near Hoshangabad was declared a Protected Area by the British in 1861, it became the first Protected Area in the country.

Due to the forest management practices, we can still see living forests in this Central Indian landscape and one can truly call it a perfect tiger habitat.

Panna Tiger Reintroduction Project

The Panna Tiger Reintroduction Project was taken up to repopulate the Panna Tiger Reserve in 2009 after the last of the Panna tigers had vanished. History was created when a Panna tiger–Panna-212 discovered the Panna-Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve corridor and paired with a tigress in the Sanjay Tiger Reserve adjoining Bandhavgarh in 2017.

Living Forests

If we want to protect the tiger, we shall have to ensure our forests remain living forests. A forest can be a living forest only when the different strata of the forest community are intact; when there is abundance of grass, shrub, moisture, and enough worms, insects and reptiles to burrow the soil and make the ground porous to allow rainwater to percolate and recharge ground water; and when there are birds, bees and butterflies that serve as pollinators and seed dispersing agents.

Our forests can regenerate only when all this is constant. Let us not forget that the ecosystem has to be intact for survival of not only the carnivores and herbivores but also humankind.

The wildlife footage for thee documentary – Wild Madhya Pradesh – has been shot over a 20-year period. Most of the video footage used for this documentary has been recorded on first-generation DV handy-cams that could be treated as symbols of evolving technology. It has been produced to build awareness about conservation and protection of biodiversity, forest and wildlife. The documentary showcases the flora and fauna of Madhya Pradesh in its full grandeur. It contains exclusive video footage with special focus on Tiger that sits at the apex of the biotic pyramid and has to be protected at all cost.

Today tiger is greatly threatened. Only if we protect the tigers and ensure they continue to breed in their natural habitat we will be able to address the problem of climate change and guarantee the survival of humankind.

Just sit back and enjoy the documentary

Just sit back and enjoy the magnificent wildlife of Central Indian Highlands and treat this video as an ode to Wild Madhya Pradesh.