Special design, forum for upcoming Wildlife Film Fest

All is set for the seventh edition of the annual festival on environment and wildlife is set to be begin here this January 30 in a completely new format.
The five-day CMS Vataavaran Environment and Wildlife Festival is scheduled to showcase 150 films along with over 70 eminent speakers in 48 thematic sessions and expert talks at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts here.
"Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation," is the theme of the festival.
"For the first time in the world, a film festival and forum is being organised in the open and not in auditoriums. We have been inspired from the Jaipur Literature Festival and will endeavour to mainstream biodiversity issues to the general public," organisers said in a statement.

Renowned conservationists, policy makers and the concerned communities would engage in deliberations and discourses on a range of the sub themes and issues.
Actor-director Amol Palekar, actress Shabana Azmi, Wildlife Protection Society founder, Belinda Wright along with other environmentalists and conservationists are expected to attend the festival.

The event, say organisers, has significance in the context of the recently held 11th Conference of parties (COP-11) to United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (BD) at Hyderabad and the Un Decade of Biodiversity (2011-12).
Films screened in the festival has been classified around four sub-themes - Blue Agenda, Forest Biodiversity, Mountain Biodiversity and Inland Waters and Wetlands Biodiversity.

Some renowned Indian films like "Dammed", "Dam 999", "Corbet's Legacy", "Timbuktu", "Nenamkikyam" as well as famed international ones like "Coal Rush", "Stand", "Wind of Change" and the "The Last Lion" are set to be screened.
"The festival is aimed at sensitising people about their rich environmental heritage and the need to conserve it," said the organisers.