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Indian journo nominated for environmental award

New Delhi, June 21 (UNI) An Indian environmental journalist has been nominated for the coveted Wildscreen 2006 Panda Award, considered the environmental equivalent of the Oscars awards.

Bahar Dutt, Environment and Wildlife Correspondent with the CNN-IBN, is among the four finalists nominated for the coveted award for her film, 'Last Dance of the Sarus'.

Bahar's film was nominated amid fierce competition wherein 412 entries from 45 countries were in the fray for the nomination.

What is remarkable is the fact that Bahar was the only Indian entry in the nominees list, the other three including two from BTC channels and one from Channel four.

The film "Last Dance of the Sarus" reveals the story about the Marshes of Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, which has been the home to the highly endangered Sarus Crane till now and how commercialization is destroying the existence of this very species. The Marshes are being drained and re-claimed for a proposed airport that UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has given the go ahead for.

This very action will evidently mean the extinction of the Sarus cranes. Though local politicians and Samajwadi Party activists are vociferous in denying their existence, Bahar Dutt has shots of the Sarus Cranes within meters of the up-coming air-strip and interviews of local labourers saying, "they were ordered to shoo away the Sarus just before the visit of a Supreme Court fact-finding Committee." A Conservation Biologist with admirable work experience of around nine years, Bahar Dutt has, in the past, been associated with a number of NGOs dealing with environmental issues. As an environmental correspondent with the CNN-IBN, she has played an essential role in a number of investigations on CNN-IBN. She has also worked on investigation stories on extinction of Gir Lions, Tribals saving the lions of Gir and many more.

The aim of the Wildscreen Festival is to encourage and applaud creative and technical excellence in film, television and interactive productions about the natural world. The Panda Awards are the wildlife and environmental equivalent of the Oscars, and in 2004 405 films from 41 different countries competed for this prestigious award.

UNI AR VA ND1210

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