Young hunters turn protectors Ashwika Kapoor’s ‘Catapults to Camera’ is a film and an experiment

A still from Catapult in camera

It is a pleasant afternoon. Five children sit idly on a bridge in a green field in an obscure village in West Bengal’s Jhargram district. They are playing with a catapult, trying to improve their aim to hit their target – a bird.

This scene comes early in the film of Ashikav Kapoor Catapult in camera. CUT TO END: A child, Ajay, hands over his catapult to Kapoor, who is returning home to Calcutta after an adventurous week with the younger boys. Ajay now has a camera in his hand.

Catapult in camera A touching story of transformation. Five boys – Raja Khisku, Ajay Mandi, Surjit Tudu, Tarash Mandi and Lalu Soren – go from future hunters to conservationists. Produced by Roundglass Sustain, it is directed by Ashvika Kapoor. The short film was shortlisted in the ‘Impact Campaign’ category at the prestigious Jackson Wilde Media Awards 2024.

An end to the carnage

It is hard to fathom that in our country, where hunting is illegal, there are ritual hunting festivals. In several villages in South West Bengal, hundreds of men and young boys participate in the annual blood bath. Carrying traditional weapons such as axes, spears, catapults and bows and arrows, they come in trucks, cars and motorcycles and kill anything that moves — birds, wild cats, pigs, snakes, reptiles and even tigers, if they can find them. .

Kapoor was disturbed to learn about them while volunteering with HEAL (Human and Environment Alliance League), an NGO working in the field of wildlife conservation. He and some members of HEAL discreetly recorded a festival and some of the footage made it into the film. It’s bloody, to say the least.

But that’s not what Kapoor wanted to focus on. “It was never a film; It was an experiment,” says Samreen Farooqui, executive producer. “Working with five children for a week and turning it into a film was not right. We had to stay. Catapult in camera The boys had already gone hunting with their fathers and, one day, participated in the festival. Kapoor and Roundglass Sustain believed that by influencing the children’s conscience they could break the chain.

Affecting change

Early last year, along with Kapoor and HEAL co-founder Subhrajyoti Chatterjee, the young boys were taken on a field trip where they photographed animals, birds and reptiles. After that the picture was shown in the village. “Some of the pictures were amazing. Our view was that under no circumstances were we going to preach. We were not there to punish them,” said Kapoor, who won the Wildscreen Panda Award in 2014 for his documentary. Sirocco: How a Sirocco Became a StudA kakapo, a critically endangered parrot native to New Zealand.

Ashvika Kapoor with the boys at the workshop

During the week, the children faced a snake rescue mission and even a dangerous encounter between elephants and villagers. “It was not until Ajay came up to me and handed over his catapult that I realized the camaraderie the project had created between them. When we display the pictures, the whole community feels proud.”

Raja Khiskur butterfly photo

Hastily Mandi snaps a picture of a monitor lizard

Kapoor feels that “as more children go through these workshops, they will become something like local influencers. They will start redefining what is cool, because the scale of this hunt is being driven by the youth”. For now, the five boys are for another batch of kids. Became a mentor – a classic example of the butterfly effect.

Bengaluru-based journalist writes on arts, culture, health and social welfare.