Two short films from Uttarakhand have been nominated in the 10th CMS Vatavaran international film festival to be held from November 27 to 30. Kotibanal directed by Shriniwas Oli and The Forbidden Fruit directed by Rushika Radhakrishna Tyabji have been nominated in the film fest. Said to be the biggest green film festival in Asia, this event will be organised in the national capital by CMS Vatavaran with the support of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change.

The film Kotibanal is a documentary about traditional architecture in the Himalaya region. The whole Himalayan region is very sensitive to seismic activities. In some areas of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, there has been a tradition of earthquake –resistant architecture.

These houses are made of wooden and stones and some are also four and five floors. This style of the building is known as Kotibanal architecture. Many earthquakes have occurred in the past in the Himalayan region, despite which the buildings of Kotibanal style remained safe.

The second film, The Forbidden Fruit is about a tree-planting drive undertaken by the Korku and Gondadivasis of Betual district in Madhya Pradesh. This is initiated by an NGO, Shramik Adivasi Sangathan (SAS), and is firmly resisted by the Forest Department. The film discusses the importance of the forest to these communities for ecological, cultural, and livelihood reasons.

A total of 1020 films have been received for the festival out of which 77 films have been nominated by the jury. These include 45 national and 35 international films.

The films are in various categories including the festival theme “celebrating Himalayas”, wildlife conservation, environment conservation, livelihoods and sustainable technologies, climate change: adaption and mitigation, animation films, amateur and youth films.