India’s largest district Leh will be the first city to host “3rd CMS VATAVARAN 2008- Environment and Wildlife Travelling Film Festival” between 11th – 13th September. The theme of the festival is Climate Change. Such festival is being held in Leh for the first time.

“The festival will start from Leh and travel to the cities of Agartala, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune & Ranchi from September 2008 to January 2008,” said Ms P. N. Vasanti, Director CMS. Providing a unique opportunity for students, individuals, filmmakers, environmentalists, corporate organizations, government officials, scientists, etc to interact and network for enhanced co-operation, knowledge and expertise exchange. The 2008 festival will have Seminars, Symposium, Panel

Discussions, Film Screenings, Climate Change Exhibition, Photography Exhibitions, Expert Talks and Competitions based on the Festival Theme to create awareness among the general public about the issue, the consequences and action which need to be taken to curb this catastrophe.

The festival showcases the best of the Indian and International environment and wildlife films. CMS VATAVARAN is not just celebrating the cinematic art of the films but focusing more on using the films as a tool and catalyst for change. Some of the participating films have also been responsible in bringing changes in legislations, policy and people's attitude.

While the Leh CMS VATAVARAN is being organized in association with WWF-India, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council as the State Partner and the Department of Wildlife Protection, Govt of J&K as the Programme Partner. In each city, CMS VATAVARAN 2008- the Environment and Wildlife Travelling Film Festival, will have partners to communicate the theme message across the target audiences.

The five month festival will explore issues of regional and local concern. It will throw open a range of interactive programmes comprising screening of approximately 40 award winning and best of CMS VATAVARAN documentaries apart from Expert Talks in each city. The screening of the films will be at Leh Auditorium with special screenings for the Army and Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in their premises. In Leh a seminar on Conservation of High Altitude Wetlands and a panel discussion by children on “Environmental Concerns of Ladakh” are main highlights. A painting competition on the theme Climate Change will also be organised simultaneously. Climate Expo, Climate Change Exhibition and Film Bazaar will also be special attraction of Leh Festival.

“The wetlands of Leh are the strong bond between nature and culture and this is one of our main reasons for starting the CMS VATAVARAN 2008 from here. Also CMS VATAVARAN is not just celebrating the cinematic art of the films but focusing more on using the films as a tool and catalyst for change”, added Ms Alka Tomar, Director, Film Festival, CMS VATAVARAN.

The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council has indicated his keeness to make Leh CMS VATAVARAN an annual feature in Leh. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India and Royal Norwegian Embassy, Govt of Norway are the India Principal Partners. HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is the theme partner and SIDA (Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency) Eco-friendly Partner supporting the festival in eight cities namely Agartala, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Leh, Lucknow, Pune and Ranchi.

In each city the festival which will be a free-for-public event aimed at 10,000 people of all ages and streams across the city of Leh aims to ensure the participation of approximately 80,000 people during its traveling film festival in the 8 cities across the country. In each festival more than 5000 children would be participating i.e. 40,000 children all over the country would be senitized about the issues concerning planet earth. The efforts would be to ensure children from non-metros cities to participate in the festival activities.

Further details about the festival can be obtained from the festival website www.cmsvatavaran.org

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About CMS

Established in 1991, CMS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to research-driven initiatives that enable policy makers take informed decisions on development and social change thus helping to improve the quality of life. CMS is widely recognized for its rigorous study methodologies, the innovative approaches that it brings to research initiatives and for the credibility of its findings.

Over the past two decades CMS has engaged with issues of social development, environment, behavioural change, transparency in governance, organisational effectiveness, network analysis, impact of media, use of communication technology for networking and service delivery. The approach has been one of knowledge accretion and dissemination, and in this process CMS has emerged as an inter-disciplinary professional body.

CMS operates through specialised teams of professionals with multidimensional expertise. The teams are CMS Environment, CMS Social, CMS Communication, CMS Academy, CMS Transparency Studies, CMS Surveys and CMS Media Lab.

About WWF-INDIA

WWF-India, Leh: WWF-India is the largest organisation engaged in wildlife and nature conservation in the country. Established as a Charitable Trust in 1969, it has an experience of over three decades in the field. With modest beginnings, the organisation was propelled forward by the efforts of its founders and associates who volunteered their time and energy to lend momentum to this movement. A part of WWF International, the organisation has made its presence felt through a sustained effort not only towards nature and wildlife conservation, but sensitising people by creating awareness through capacity building and enviro-legal activism.

A challenging, constructive, science-based organisation WWF addresses issues like the survival of species and habitats, climate change and environmental education. www.wwfindia.org

About Ladakh Hill development hill Council

Leh was constituted in accordance with the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Act, 1995. The council came into being with the holding of elections on August 28,1995. The inaugural meeting of the council was held at Leh on September 3,1995. The democratic constitution of the Council has heralded democratic decentralization of planning process with the involvement of people at the grass root level. Owing to the difficult geographical problems, the need for greater public participation in the planning and development process was all the more necessary. http://leh.nic.in/