Salman Javeed, Vivek Singh Sangwan, Satya Ambasta

A Flaming Forest

Saving the Tiger: The Soliga Way

Year:

2024

Length:

48 min

Country:

India

Language:

Kannada

Director:

Salman Javeed, Vivek Singh Sangwan, Satya Ambasta

SYNOPSIS

The Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve in Karnataka is home to the Soliga adivasis. This film traverses the rich tapestry of the BRT forest and the intricate relationships that the Soligas hold with it. It traces the effects of an exclusionary conservation policy, which has led to large scale evictions and denial of rights for Soligas since 1974. Soliga resistance to these changes has stretched across five decades. Their articulations challenge dominant approaches of the conservation model and emphasises their customary and legal rights to the forest. Through a long-term engagement, the film documents the story of contestation and loss – both social and ecological – and calls for an alternative vision for conservation.

about the directors

Vivek, Salman and Satya are documentary filmmakers with an ethnographic focus. Their work traverses through the rich tapestries of rural and urban India, telling stories of rights-based conservation, resource governance, livelihoods and labour. They bring an experimental approach to non-fiction filmmaking, combining various mediums and visual styles with academic rigour