CIHWFF'13

The theme of CIHWFF'13 was ‘Forest-Water interface’. It began in October 2012 and continued up to March 2013. In these 6 months, three major conservation-awareness camps were organized, besides some smaller ones. The festival culminated with a final screening and prize distribution ceremony on March 2, 2013.

Conservation-awareness camps were organized at Kanha Tiger Reserve from Dec 26 – 28, 2012; Satpura Tiger Reserve from Jan 8 – 10, 2013 and Pench Tiger Reserve from Jan 28 – 30, 2013. For each camp, the festival retained the earlier format of a day-long orientation programme-cum-workshop at Bhopal, and a field-visit to a protected area.

The prize-distribution function and the film panorama was organized on March 2 & 3, 2013. The 2-day event was jointly inaugurated by the Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh Shri R S Negi, and the renowned film critic from Mumbai Ms Bhawana Somaaya. The function was attended by the senior officials of the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, apart from wildlife-lovers, participants of awareness-camps, and school children. The winners of four competitive categories – documentary, short-film, photography and painting—were felicitated. An open, free-for-all screening of winning films of CIHWFF'13 and renowned wildlife documentaries was held on the concluding day of March 3.

The number of participants as well as submissions for competitive categories more than tripled in the CIHWFF'13 as compared to CIHWFF'12. Two more competitive categories ( painting and photography ) were added in 2013 as compared to just two in the CIHWFF'12 ( wildlife documentary and short-film with conservation message ).The aim has been to make the participation more inclusive and transparent. Several international judges have been included in the jury apart from Indian experts to get a more holistic view on the competitive submissions.

The CIHWFF'13 was supported by Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, Madhya Pradesh Eco-tourism Development Board, Environmental Planning & Co-ordination Organisation, Bhopal,Madhya Pradesh Biodiversity Board, Regional Museum of Natural History, Sanctuary Asia, Red FM, Newsroom 24x7, Banyanart.com, Shimeesha Art and WWF ( MP & CG ).

LIST OF PRIZE-WINNERS

CENTRAL INDIAN HIGHLANDS WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL 2013

S.No.	NAME OF AWARD	NAME OF AWARDEE
1	DOCUMENTARY FILM : FIRST PRIZE	Hardik Kathpalia and Gunjan Menon for ‘The Cyan Confluence’
2	DOCUMENTARY FILM : SECOND PRIZE	Shruti Savanal and Urvashi Bohra for ‘Balancing Conflicts’
3	SHORT FILM : BEST SHORT FILM ( STUDENT CATEGORY )	Aprajita Sharma for ‘Wildlife and Wilderness’
4	SHORT FILM : CONSOLATION PRIZE ( STUDENT CATEGORY )	Ishaan Tiwari and Reema Khendry for ‘The Jungle Lore’
5	SHORT FILM : BEST SHORT FILM ( NON-STUDENT CATEGORY )	Aniruddha Mane for ‘Forest-The Real Soul of Life’
6	SHORT FILM : CONSOLATION PRIZE ( NON-STUDENT CATEGORY )	Debjeet De Sarkar for ‘Vasundhara’
7	PHOTOGRAPHY : FIRST PRIZE	Ishaan Tiwari
8	PHOTOGRAPHY : FIRST PRIZE	Gunjan Menon
9	PHOTOGRAPHY : SECOND PRIZE	Satyadheer Singh
10	PHOTOGRAPHY : CONSOLATION PRIZE	Sukriti Sharma
11	PHOTOGRAPHY : CONSOLATION PRIZE	Sakshi Bhasin
12	PHOTOGRAPHY : CONSOLATION PRIZE	Debjeet De Sarkar
13	PAINTING : FIRST PRIZE	Balu N Chaudhary
14	PAINTING : SECOND PRIZE	Manish Kumar Gupta
15	PAINTING : CONSOLATION PRIZE	Satyadheer Singh
16	PAINTING : CONSOLATION PRIZE	Harish Ojha

Conservation awareness programme for school students at Bhopal

Six nature trails for 15 schools in Bhopal during the academic session 2012-13 were also organized as part of the festival. The conservation awareness programme concluded with school students meeting Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan at his State Assembly office in the second week of March 2013 to discuss the Tiger crisis.

A week later hundreds of school students organized by CREW gathered at Regional Museum of Natural History in Bhopal and performed plays, skits, delivered extempore speeches and joined an on-the-spot painting and slogan making contest on the theme of tigers and forest.