Bahar Dutt: 'Conservation can boost the economy'

Our conversation with environment journalist Bahar Dutt swings from one branch to another before landing quite fittingly on the langurs We have a good chuckle about the lsquolangur whisperersrsquo recently hired by the BWF World Badminton Championship in New Delhi to keep macaques away from their stadiums Fittingly because Duttrsquos new series Shared Spaces shot by her partner Vijay Bedi talks exactly about this the intersection of wildlife and human life on this pale blue dot we call homeBahar Dutt with a dead Bull Shark in Andhra PradeshProduced by The Habitats Trust and Bedi Universal the series is telecasted on Animal Planet We caught a few glimpses of the series before catching up with the duoExcerpts from the interviewThe teaser of Shared Spaces is reminiscent of the wildlife documentaries every child grew up watching Was this style of storytelling intentionalBahar Dutt To be honest I was fed up with the Western lsquonatural historyrsquo format that often views the wild from a sterile lens I was keen on stepping in and shining a light on the complex interface of wildlife and the communities that coexist with them in India Vijay gave these stories the visual style that might strike viewers as cinematicVijay Bedi and left Ajay BediVijay Bedi There had to be a balance A purely scientific approach wouldrsquove bored the viewer One of the more interesting sequences is that of two Salamanders mating in Darjeeling My brother Ajay added a gripping ballet score in the background for dramatic effect The series is the culmination of three years of documentation How did you chart out this journeyBD As a journalist I was accustomed to knowing where a story awaits me For this project we spent the first eight months only talking to people communities scientists conservationists We realised that India is unique in its challenges A road is allowed to cut right through natural habitat How do the local communities feel about this Do they see an elephant in their backyard as God or does it scare them We sought answers along the wayThe Hoolock Gibbon in AssamIrsquom sure you came across some interesting stories with this approachBD Speaking of communities we unearthed some unlikely heroes The Hill Myna of Meghalaya has historically fallen prey to the pet trade for its unique ability to mimic human voices We learnt that a local village head had turned custodian turning traditional traps into artificial nests In Assam we met a villager who had maintained a meticulous record of Hoolock Gibbons even giving them names at birthThe rare Bugun liocichla in Arunachal Pradesh named after the Bugun tribe right a Salamander in the mood to find a mateVB As a lensman there were moments where I took a step back from the viewfinder and soaked in the landscape the people and their stories One that stays with me is the long 12hour wait to spot the rare Bugun bird of Arunachal Pradesh It revealed itself for a few fleeting seconds Once it flew away I stepped back and watched it flutter into the wildBahar yoursquove always maintained that politics is intrinsically tied with the environment Did the interactions lead to any new observations on how politics might affect conservation in the futureBD Although it falls outside the purview of Shared Spaces itrsquos a pertinent question Irsquoll say this Politics when played right can aid conservation We need to understand that conservation can boost the economy which isnrsquot all about money Cleaner rivers and thick forests mean lower air pollution and better quality of life which is vital for an economy to prosperWhile the longform format of the series will intrigue those who are already in love with nature are we forgetting the newage Gen Z who prefer things shortBD We were lucky that Animal Planet stepped in for the project because it means that our stories are amplified to a larger audience including short form content that is being posted on Instagram Shared Spaces is also being telecasted in regional languages like Hindi Tamil and TeluguThat being said I strongly believe that younger audiences can still value longform content if it is relatable Gen Z is hungry for solutions and our job now is to platform these solutions in a way that speaks to themAvailable on Animal Planet