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Embassy of India

Alpine Tour Service

Director: Sanjay Vasant
India (2001)
Audio: English
Subtitles: Japanese
36min.
www.movingimagesindia.com

In 1999, villagers in the Kulu valley in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern
India lost their ancestral rights to graze animals and collect medicinal plants in the
area. This blow to their livelihood occurred because of the creation of the Great
Himalayan National Park which carved out a vast area for wildlife conservation at
the expense of resource use by local residents.

However, after excluding villagers from the Park, a part of this protected area was
released for the construction of a hydro-electric power project. Turf Wars explores
the conflicts around conservation and development from the perspectives of local
villagers, Forest Department officials, biologists and engineers.

It highlights the contradictions in the government's policies towards conservation
which make local livelihoods expendable in the interests of biodiversity
conservation, but sacrifices biodiversity for the cause of national development.

Addressing several key issues in current debates on conservation, Turf Wars is
an open-ended film, one that aims to provoke discussion on problems that are,
inevitably, complex, contested and heavily politicised.

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

(ENVIRONMENT)
* Meltdown
* Leave Nothing but Footprints
* Turf Wars
* Timber to Tibet
(ADVENTURE)
* Riding Solo To The Top Of The World
* A Higher Calling
* Into the Thunder Dragon
* Farther than the Eye Can See
* Trio for One
* Fatal Game
(POLITICS / HUMAN RIGHTS)
* Thin ice
* Chulo, Choli ra Banduk - a stove, a blouse and a gun
* Better to Have Been Killed
* The Forbidden Team
* Jashn-e-azadhi (How We
Celebrate Freedom)
* Siachen: A war for Ice
* Tibetan Refugees: A Struggle
Beyond Generations
(POVERTY & DEVELOPMENT)
* Journey of a Red Fridge
* Hami kunako maanche –
We corner people
* A Bridge over the Himalayas
* Yi khel gi kawa
(The Price of a Letter)
* Tingvong: a Lepcha village in
Sikkim
(CULTURE)
* Angry Monk
* Miss Tibet
* Closer than Tibet
* Bhedako Oon Jasto...in search
of a song...

* A man called nomad
* Call it Karma
* Daughters of Wisdom
* Bhutan - Taking the Middle Path
to Happiness