Nasheman News

Winners Of The NiF Photography and Film Awards 2019 Announced

Sixth Edition of Asia’s Premier Nature and Wildlife Festival “Nature inFocus” In Bengaluru City On August 2, 3 and 4

–Shuvam Nath won the NiF Photographer of the Year 2019–

Bengaluru, Sunday, August 4, 2019: The 6th edition of the Nature inFocus Festival went on the floor on August 2nd at Chamara Vajra, Jayamahal Road in Bangalore. Nature and wildlife enthusiasts from across the country flocked to the gorgeous venue in the centre of India’s garden city to attend talks, film screenings, the 120-image photography exhibition and everything nature and wildlife. The three-day festival also witnessed the announcement of the prestigious NiF Photography Awards and the inaugural NiF Film Awards.

Shuvam Nath took home the grand prize of the NiF Photographer of the Year for his image ‘Buzz-kill’ which also won the Animal Behaviour category. Sounak Datta won the Animal Portraits category for ‘Nothing To See Here’, Aniket Thopate won the Creative Nature Photography category for ‘You’ll Float Too’, Salil Nair won the Wildscape & Animals in Habitat category for ‘In Heat, On Snow’, and the Conservation Issues category was shared between three images: ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’  by Sarang Naik, ‘Crossing The Styx’ by Ankit Kashyap and ‘New Enemies’ by Devki Nandan. The Young Photographer category was won by Wewin Pandian.

The inaugural NiF Film Awards has been divided into two segments: Professional and Emerging Talent. In the Professional segment, the Conservation film category was won by Pankaj Singh and Shaktiraj Jadeja for their film ‘The Boy Who Saw More’, and the Natural History film category by Mihir Godbole and Vishwatej Pawar for their film ‘Treasures of Grasslands’. In the Emerging Talent segment, Aravind Mohanraaj and Cibi won the Conservation film category for their film ‘The Wetland’s Wail’, and Hardik Rathod won the Natural History film category for his film ‘The Bird Who Never Gave Up’.

The Mobile Moments award for an edited or unedited video clip shot on a mobile phone that captures an incredible moment of animal behaviour went to Ravi Shankar for ‘Enter The Dragon.’

NiF Photography Awards:

The NiF Photography Awards is a six-category award with a bracket solely dedicated to conservation issues. Lined up for the contest are entries from both adults (above 17) and young photographers (17 years and under). Winners will be chosen in the categories of Animal Portraits, Animal Behaviour, Conservation Issues, Creative Nature Photography, and Wildscape & Animals in Habitat. Open to those under 17, the ‘Young Photographer Award’ will put the spotlight on fresh and passionate young talent.

Category winners will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and a guided safari tour to a national park of choice (Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Ranthambore, Tadoba and Corbett only) courtesy of Nature Wanderers, while category runners-up will get a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 and second runners-up will get Rs. 10,000.

An additional cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and a trip to the Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya courtesy of Nature Wanderers await the ‘NiF Photographer of the Year.’ All winners and runners-up are also entitled to a certificate and a winner’s trophy.

The winners this year are chosen by a 5-member jury comprising of photographer and filmmaker Jyothy Karat, independent environmental photographer Arati Kumar-Rao, IFS, Chief Conservator Of Forests Vijay Mohan Raj, renowned wildlife photographer Sudhir Shivaram, and wildlife filmmaker and photojournalist Sandesh Kadur. The jury curator is Nature inFocus co-founder, Kalyan Varma who is a wildlife photographer, filmmaker and naturalist. 

NiF Film Awards:

The Awards invited entries from both professional and emerging filmmakers. Both Professional and Emerging Talent categories have two sub-categories in Natural History and Conservation. Participants in the Emerging Talent category can tell a story of an animal, plant or habitat in under 5 minutes in the Natural History segment or can highlight a conservation issue in under 5 minutes in the Conservation segment. The Emerging Talent category is only open to Indian participants. In the Professional category, the films can be of any length and can be submitted from anywhere in the world. The Mobile Moments category is also open to all, an edited or unedited video clip shot on a mobile phone that captures an incredible moment of animal behaviour.

The Emerging Talent and Professional category winners will each be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and the Mobile Moment category winner will receive a cash prize of Rs. 10,000. 

The winners this year are chosen by a 7-member jury comprising of Rita Banerji, Founder-Director at Dusty Foot Productions, Gautam Pandey, Director at Riverbank Studios, Akanksha Sood Singh, a Natural History Filmmaker, Raghu Chundawat, a Conservation Biologist, Joanna Van Gruisen, a Wildlife Filmmaker and Manish Mundra, the Founder of Drishyam Films. The jury curator is Sara, a wildlife filmmaker and a member of the NiF Advisory Board. 

About Nature inFocus:

Nature inFocus is in the space of curation and dissemination of information about India’s wild spaces. It aims to do this by using photography as a tool to make these conversations accessible to everyone.

Founded in 2014 by Kalyan Varma and Rohit Varma, Nature inFocus started as an offline event for the wildlife and nature community in the country. The Nature inFocus Festival is the one and only event of its kind in Asia, where photographers, filmmakers, conservationists and researchers come together to showcase their work, stay informed on global happenings and discuss important topics of conservation and more.

In 2015, Nature inFocus introduced its inaugural Photography Awards and with all the amazing content pouring in from the festival and the awards, a year later, NiF created an online space that would help archive this material for the larger public experience. 

NiF’s online portal became a photo-led exploration into India’s wilderness, enabling relevant knowledge sharing and curation of everything to do with nature. A truly community-driven platform powered by its contributors.

In 2017, Nature inFocus created NiF Hive, a platform, which allows you to create your online portfolio about nature photography. 

About the Organisers:

Rohit Varma: Founder

Rohit Varma’s love for nature and wildlife shouldn’t surprise anyone given that he was born and raised in Balaghat, a small town bordering Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

After successfully managing multiple roles over 15 years in companies like AMD, SanDisk and CyberMedia, Rohit hung up his corporate boots to pursue his passion for photography and wildlife – which led to the creation of Nature inFocus.

Rohit’s work has been published in national and international media, and he shares his work under creative commons. He believes that wildlife photography can, not only drive people closer to nature, but they can also make them experience, appreciate and conserve it. His TEDx talk on “Half a flush to save the tiger” was truly thought-provoking and highlighted environmental issues in a unique fashion.  

Kalyan Varma: Founder

Kalyan Varma is an award-winning wildlife photographer, filmmaker, naturalist and explorer specializing in environment, science and ecology in India. He freelances with many of the world’s leading magazines, environmental NGOs and television networks like Nat Geo and BBC.

Over the last 12 years, he has worked on a number of landmark blue-chip wildlife series for the BBC and National Geographic networks. His work has appeared in many publications worldwide, including the National Geographic, Nature, The Guardian, BBC Wildlife, GEO, Smithsonian, Lonely Planet among others. 

Kalyan won the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2013 and he is also a winner of the Sanctuary Asia Photographer of the Year award.

Kalyan hopes to combine an artist’s eye with a journalist’s curiosity and aesthetic of storytelling in his visual style, resulting in a body of work which he hopes will inspire the viewer to discover more.

Heavy rains that lashed Malkangiri last week have caused massive damage to crops and roads in the district.

Orissa MALKANGIRI: Heavy rains that lashed Malkangiri last week have caused massive damage to crops and roads in the district. Three persons died due to the rains.

According to the preliminary damage assessment report, seven houses were completely destroyed and 199 have been partially damaged. Paddy saplings in over 47 hectares of land across seven blocks of the district were damaged. Sixteen bridges were damaged and five washed away. Around 13 electricity poles, seven transformers and 16 conductors of SOUTHCO were also damaged.

Monsoon is set to revive in the state after a brief hiatus.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Monsoon is set to revive in the state after a brief hiatus. The weather models issued by the India Meteorological Department have predicted very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in many districts in the next four days starting from Tuesday. The monsoon has strengthened after the formation of low-pressure area over north Bay of Bengal and adjoining coastal areas of West Bengal and Bangladesh. 

The system is likely to become more marked during the next 48 hours and as a result, rain in most places, and extremely heavy rain at isolated places are highly likely over Kerala within next four days. 

The IMD has issued red alert in three districts – Idukki, Malappuram and Kozhikode – for Thursday, warning very heavy to extreme heavy rainfall. Orange alert  has been sounded in the three districts – Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kasaragod- on Tuesday. 

Kia Motors chief executive officer and managing director Kook Hyun Shim and chief administration officer Thomos called on the Chief Minister at his camp office in Tadepalli near here on Monday.

VIJAYAWADA:   Representatives of Kia Motors invited Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to participate in the launch of its new car Kia Seltos on August 8. The event will be organised at Kia Motors plant at Penugonda in Anantapur district.

Kia Motors chief executive officer and managing director Kook Hyun Shim and chief administration officer Thomos called on the Chief Minister at his camp office in Tadepalli near here on Monday. Chief Minister accepted the company’s invitation.  The plant in Penukonda has a capacity to produce three lakh cars per year, they said and added that it will be increased to seven lakh units a year in future. The engines produced at the plant are being exported to Turkey and Slovakia.

Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) faction, which supports the BJP, said the saffron party should keep its poll promise of a permanent political solution in the hills.

KOLKATA/DARJEELING: The Centre’s decision to revoke provisions of Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir has rekindled hope among the major hill parties, which want that Darjeeling should also be a separate Union territory with a legislature.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Darjeeling, Raju Bista, said he was hopeful that the saffron party’s promise of a “permanent political solution” in the hills would be a reality by 2024.

The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, said it would oppose any move to bifurcate West Bengal.

The Centre had on Monday revoked Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and proposed bifurcation of the state into two Union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) faction, which supports the BJP, said the saffron party should keep its poll promise of a permanent political solution in the hills, which have witnessed violent agitation for the past few decades over the demand of a separate statehood.

“We have been demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland for a number of years.

The BJP in its manifesto had also promised a permanent political solution,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told PTI, quoting party supremo Gurung.

“We think this is the appropriate time for the Centre to carve a Union territory with legislature. We would soon start agitation over this.”

The statehood issue and implementation of the sixth schedule of the Constitution have been the major demands in the hills since the beginning of the protracted Gorkhaland movement in 1986.

Darjeeling witnessed one of its most violent agitations — a 104-day-long strike — over the demand of a separate statehood in June 2017, leading to death of several locals and security personnel.

The GJM’s call for Darjeeling to be a Union territory was backed by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), which felt it would be the most suitable solution for the problem.

“The demand of a separate state may be a long-drawn process, but we think a Union territory (UT) with legislature would be accepted by all the stateholders,” GNLF leader N V Chetri told PTI.

“The present governing body of the hills, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), has failed to deliver.”

The views of the GJM and the GNLF also found support from several smaller outfits in the hills. BJP MP Bista said he respected the views of the hill parties, adding that all options would be discussed while deciding on a solution.

“I can assure that the BJP would keep its promise of a permanent political solution,” Bista told PTI.

“All the options — be it Gorkhaland, Union territory with legislature or any other — would be discussed with all the stakeholders before taking a final call.

” Several state BJP leaders, however, declined to comment on the issue, but exuded confidence that the central government would come up with a solution to the decades-old problem.

The BJP, which was once sympathetic to the Gorkhaland statehood demand, has been stressing on the restoration of democracy in the region and the end of the “reign of terror by the police”, which, it alleged, started since the 2017 agitation.

Bista, supported by Gurung and several other hill parties, was elected from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat by a record margin in the 2019 general election.

The demand of a Union territory with legislature was, however, ruled out by the GJM faction supported by the TMC, which said the BJP had for the last 10 years “fooled” the people of the hills with the “lollypop of separate statehood”.

“Neither the BJP nor Bimal Gurung are serious about the problems of the people of the hills.

They just want to exploit them to serve their own political purpose,” said Binay Tamang, the leader of the GJM faction supported by the TMC.

Senior TMC leader Gautam Deb said it would never favour the state’s bifurcation.

“The BJP’s policy is to divide, break and rule. But, we won’t allow it in Bengal,” the minister added.

Darjeeling is a picturesque hill town and the area is ethnically dominated by the Gorkhas.

The place, known for its world-renowned tea, is also inhabited by the Lepchas, Sherpas, Bhutias among others.

Several political parties have over the years promised the people of the hills a separate state and implementation of the sixth schedule, which grants more autonomy to a region.

The demand for a separate state was first made in the 1980s, with the Subhas Ghisingh-led GNLF launching a violent agitation in 1986, which went on for 43 days and led to the death of 1,200 people in the hills.

The movement culminated in the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1988, following the intervention of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu.

The separate statehood demand gained momentum yet again in 2007 after the formation of the GJM, under the leadership of Bimal Gurung, who was once a trusted aide of Ghisingh.

After the TMC took over the reins of the state in 2011 by ending the 34-year Left rule, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was formed with Gurung as its chief.

But, peace was short-lived in the area as Gurung led an agitation in support of the statehood demand, first in 2013, and then engineered a 104-day-long strike in 2017, accusing the TMC government of trying to “wipe out” Gorkha identity.

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, whose party left the Modi government over special status to Andhra Pradesh, voiced his support for the scrapping of Article 370 on Twitter.

NEW DELHI: In a major success for Modi government, several non-NDA, non-UPA parties on Monday supported government’s resolution in Rajya Sabha to abrogate Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

These parties having no political affiliation with either ruling BJP or Congress include Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Aam Adami Party (AAP), AIADMK, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress.

BSP MP Satish Chandra Mishra, while supporting the resolution in the House, said: “Our party gives complete support. We want that the Bill be passed. Our party is not expressing any opposition to Article 370 Bill and the other Bill.”

BJP member Prasanna Acharya announced the party’s decision to support the resolution in the House, putting the “nation first” and said Kashmir become an integral part of India in “real sense” after the abrogation. “In a real sense, Jammu & Kashmir has become a part of India today. My party supports this resolution. We are a regional party but for us, the nation is first,” Acharya told Rajya Sabha.

Supporting the resolution, AIADMK’s A Navaneethakrishnan cited late Jayalalitha to emphasize that she always wanted the special provision to go.

“Amma (as Jayalalitha was popularly known) was well known for upholding sovereignty and integrity. So AIADMK party supports the two resolutions, Reorganisation Bill and the Reservation Bill,” he told Rajya Sabha.

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, whose party left the Modi government over special status to Andhra Pradesh, voiced his support for the scrapping of Article 370 on Twitter.

“Telugu Desam Party supports the Union Government as it seeks to repeal Article 370. I pray for the peace and prosperity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister tweeted.

AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been at loggerhead with the Centre, took to Twitter to announce his party’s decision to support the government on the resolution.

He said: “We support the government on its decisions on J&K. We hope this will bring peace and development in the state.”

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy-led YSRCP also supported the resolution in the House.

The resolution to do away with the provision was introduced by Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha. Shortly after the introduction of the resolution, President Ram Nath Kovind came out with a notification — The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 that will come into force immediately. The order will supersede the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954 as amended from time to time.

The resolution was met with stiff opposition from the main Opposition Congress, DMK, MDMK, with DMK chief MK Stalin calling the move “murder of democracy”.

Later, the Constitution (application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019, which scrapped Article 370 was taken up in Lok Sabha.

Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) faction, which supports the BJP, said the saffron party should keep its poll promise of a permanent