Srinagar, Sept 24 (KNO) : A three- day international festival on Environment and Wildlife organized by Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMMRC) KU in collaboration with CMS Vatavaran, New Delhi started here at University of Kashmir on Monday.
While addressing the audience on the inaugural day of the festival Vice Chancellor KU Prof Talat Ahmad said that Kashmir being a valley needs special attention toward environment and environmental issues. Prof Talat added “Climate change is happening and is a reality now and we cannot shy away from it. We cannot stop climate change but together we can definitely mitigate it.” In-charge Director EMMRC, Dr Salima Jan in her welcome address highlighted the aims and objectives of the three-day festival.
Joint director, CEC, Sunil Mehroo in his remarks reminded creative communicators to keep in mind their target audience. Festival manager of CMS Vatavaran, Sabyesachi Bharti said that his organisation is a product of research work, and they are holding such festivals to raise awareness about environmental issues. On the inaugural day of the festival 10 documentaries were screened .
Amongst those ‘The Terranoami Music Vedio’ jointly sung by Waheed Jeelani and American based Rockstar Terranoami “Say it` possible” produced and directed by Shafqat Habib which conveys and spreads the message about global warming and another documentary film ‘Pangolins in peril’: a story of rare scales” produced by a Pakistan documentary filmmaker, Muhammad Ali Ijaz were the main highlights of the day.
A panel discussion was held in which Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Head Department of Geography from KU, Prof Mohammad Sultan Bhat, EMMRC producer, Shafqat Habib, and media personality Gowhar Geelani participated. The panelists were unanimous in their arguments that climate change can be minimized if people from childhood are made aware of its repercussions.
Producer EMMRC, Ajaz ul Haque moderated the discussion. A painting competition was held on the sidelines of the festival in which students from various colleges and schools participated. Students from the music and fine arts also performed on the inaugural function.
The three day film festival will delve on issues of the inter-connectedness of climate change and water, water struggles in a world dealing with global warming, livelihood insecurity, and highlighting the important issues affecting water through film screening, media workshop and open forum discussions.(KNO)