Hampi - Valley of the Kings - documentary about wildlife conservation in India

[Music] [Music] the small village of hampi has played host to gods and empires for hundreds of years it was the capital of the Vijayanagara kings who presided over a magnificent empire that stretched across the whole of southern India hampi provided several lines of defense against belligerent Muslim kingdoms to the north its rugged landscape of boulders and the torrential Tungabhadra River made the capital all but impenetrable to invading forces [Music] boulders that surround hampi we used to build fortresses and seven concentric walls enclosing the city successive rulers commissioned vast and intricate structures to celebrate the Empire [Music] sculptors transformed the hard granite into portrayals of the awesome beauty of their kings and gods that watched over the land legend has it to the mythical monkey kingdom of Kishkindha was centered around hampi and that it was the birthplace of Hanuman a Hindu deity endowed with immortality in battle and the power to induce fear and enemies but destroys and friends many pivotal moments in the history of the Hindu gods took place in such as the killing of volley by Lord Rama - holy rivers the Tonga and the Bhadra converged just before they reached the Happy Valley in ancient times the resulting tungabhadra river was also known as pav the patty the bride of Shiva the river was the vital artery of the Vijayanagara Empire irrigating its farmland filling water tanks for merchants and their families and flowing into the Royal Palaces for the Vijayanagara the nature here symbolized the beauty and generosity of the gods after several hundred years of rule hampi had been transformed into a vast network of temples the granite of its pillars supporting the whole weight of the Empire [Music] virupaksha temple is still one of the most impressive temples in hampi and continues to be known as the Pampa paddy temple the majesty of the Vijayanagara dynasty began to decline with a major military defeat in 1565 the hands of the deckhands ultimates Muslim warriors from the north the Sun capture and death of the Vijayanagara leader Alaia Rama Raya and scattered the ranks of his army and ultimately led to the demise of the Empire the sultana's army plundered hampi who reduced it to the ruinous state in which it remains [Music] several years later the British established Madras and a new hero of industrialization began [Music] the one saving metropolis of a great Hindu Empire is now a growing tourist attraction for a society which appreciates nature in a very different way the monkeys that once inhabited the Kish came the kingdom and that's our scraps by passing tourists [Music] I am mr. Madan Lal living years and 17 years from the - here in hampi when I came here was not many tourists used to live in caves and some houses and all without any comfortable things or anything seen then then to start to come to humpy the a huge industries is growing lot of growing now because they like this place more than other places fifteen years ago was that is the only - Gaston was there but then from 98 start more go to start to come here they liked more so we save it police police government's request let's build something which is guide people can live there if you live in caves and our crime can happen so then started people start to be rooms what are looking for for helping to twist to safe comfortable nicely safety this was the reason and that's how tourism grown now is in this place in my Island the proper kadhi is there already like 22 guest houses up there around 600 rooms are there negative 5% growth tourism since 15 years [Music] good for economy is good for people because behind that a lot of people will be living on it you know so many families who are working as a kitchen as a washing as a milkman vegetable men's shop people visit able people you know like a lot of people break people whatever they all follow up them living on it like 1000 times family living on in 1999 the hampi ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site this certification means that no one can live within three miles of the monuments 2,000 locals currently face forced relocation from the homes they've made in and around the ruins the divide between the tourists who visit hampi the gaze of the ruins and the locals who live in the very structures they come to see is significant without proper systems for waste disposal the locals are left to clear up after the tourists in time tourists will only be able to visit the ruins on guided tours thus protecting the remnants of the Vijayanagara Empire from further damage but no such protection is afforded to the surrounding landscape and the diversity of wildlife they inhabits it there are plans to build large-scale hotels several miles away from Hampi while this has the possibility to reduce the burden of waste management and overcrowding these hotels will encroach on the diminishing habitat for Happy's wildlife [Music] what [Music] [Music] [Music] Bobby valid Chandra owns a large swath of land that borders the hampi monuments and sweeps through some of the area's most impressive landscape whereas his forebears built elaborate defenses to protect hampi Bobby protects his land simply by allowing nature to look after itself see that this Indian python has been found trapped in a fisherman's net along a stretch of river the Bobby protects just the head is out the body is between the rock deliverance just click the MIT this way [Music] the land has been in Bobby's family for generations as a boy Bobby walked the area with his father when his father gave him charge of the estate Bobby immediately made his home here shunning city life in Hyderabad and taking up the mantle steward of the land [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I was dazed [Music] so there the female is sitting on the on the nest yeah the father there on that rock there on that border that's the father mother is on this side nobody told me it's just from the books we started identifying all these words [Music] [Music] [Music] Hansie [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] Bobby started with 300 acres and built a small low-impact resort for the sole use of wildlife enthusiasts he went on to acquire another 10,000 acres by persuading his family to donate money to the preservation of their natural and national heritage we have collected about 5 quintals of bamboo seed and now I'm making about 1 million trees of bamboo and I want to give it at free of cost to the Forest Department asking them to plant there and all that all this all this is bamboo no so you see you there Kru pocket and tsunami are old friends of Bobby they are also preeminent wildlife experts here in Hampi to conduct research for a new film they're making about wolves here he's trying to protect a unique ecosystem all these ballers were the vegetation around the bodies were almost depleted when I first saw now it's now it's being predicted and the vegetation cutting has completely stopped in the sanctuary area and in the resort area so the recovery is amazing like I was not I didn't know at all that the bamboos are bamboo many types of bamboos and exists in this area they're all coming back coming back with vengeance like they're beginning what they're lost all this is he it's an amazing recovery [Music] with the recovery of the vegetation comes the resurgence of the wildlife then habits the area [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] until recently the hunting and poisoning of wildlife was rampant whether for food or his revenge for wounded livestock but Bobby his banned hunting and the cutting of trees on his land [Music] cutting down trees and they will doing querying and everything and all the animals in the area they had to come into the canal to for the water you know and they have to pass through these farmlands now if in these pockets if this water they don't need to travel that far about to two kilometers or Creek domitor from the hills for water so we created these small wetland areas for that and immediately after we created those you know the human animal conflict stop this whole stretch of the river and this whole island this is an island this whole is protected the resulting sanctuary lies on the other side of a man-made canal which was carved out of the earth to divert water from the new hydroelectric dam 400 years ago this land was patrolled by armies of the Vijayanagara Empire guarding its affluence and bounty now Bobbie employs his own army 25 guards or watchers who patrol the sanctuary on a daily basis ensuring that no one is encroaching on the sanctuary cutting trees or hunting animals [Music] in the thirty years that he's been protecting the land the jungle has grown at a phenomenal rate eclipsing the surrounding scrub which is subject to the dangers for rapidly modernizing society [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I will endure [Music] I know they put empanadas anchor PO tells us that the repairs all around this area this is the place where the bears and many other animals come down to the river to drink yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on Bobby's protected lamb there are five local villages where people still live a very traditional life living off the land in closer harmony with nature [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] about the local people and their attitude to the wildlife it's naturally the conflict you know when you have very few livestock you depend on it you don't want any predators around and if there is any animal mooing which is eatable should be eaten you know the problem is to address the poor village people who might be having few livestock which are their livelihood so if they're killed naturally they'll be completely angry with the whole forest wildlife healthy so what Bobby has done is a beautiful novel area like he runs his own compensation system where he composites for every animal killed does a novel idea and it's successfully you know implemented here he has a lot of watches who looks after that the whole area and they'll immediately report if there is any kill if if I go to skill like yeah if it is proved that it is killed by a wild animal then they'll be peeled paid compensation so naturally this poisoning everything has stopped now with slowly Bobby convincing these people and achieving certain amount of success in this area it's fantastic people come come and report to him and they're quite quite enthusiastic about to have the of the tell you aboard of what they saw it means that it has generated some amount of interest in them they might not be able to analyze it in a bigger cameras but their attitude towards something moving has now changed from food to something interesting you know it's a huge change [Music] Bobbe receives a phone call from a local farmer's wife a leopard has come down from the hills and killed one of their goats there's no sign of the leopard but that night there are several kills in the area go by the scent can actually the data animal from a long distance because of the smell as it starts smelling know for example this Buffalo by tomorrow it'll start smelling and then the highness might just get this my loafers and they she called me when the Shepherd was bringing is she from the other side the leopard gave a try you know and those guys just changed it away back into this hill and you you just went up out the way to the top of the Dragon is hat on a boulder the next morning poppy goes to investigate he places several camera traps next to three different kills from the night before hoping to catch a glimpse of the leopard when it comes to feed in the evening [Music] locals still use farming methods that have been around for centuries there is little pollution because fewer chemicals are used and no fossil fuels are burnt the absence of machinery means that birds insects and frogs have not been driven from that age-old habitat the whole village is involved in sowing and harvesting rice the processes of ritual where prayers are made and thanks are given to the gods for the success of the harvest [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the modern world is encroaching from all angles with it comes technology and machinery threatens to replace the traditional techniques and lifestyles of these local communities in 2011 India's official population was 1.2 1 billion people but unofficial estimates are as high as 2 billion and the rate of growth is alarming there's so many mouths to feed farmers are turning to methods that exploit the land with greater speed [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Bobby returns to retrieve the camera traps the following morning he spots a paw print near one of the kills on one of the camera traps he manages to capture two different leopards most likely a mating pair these two are lucky enough to be protected from human interference as their habitat lies within Bobby's sanctuary the major threat for me from my point of view is the fragmentation and the habitat loss in 2008 more than five million tons of iron ore was extracted from this area the following year this more than doubled to 12 million tons in in the evolutionary term the fragmentation can be caused by Iglesias and phenomenon like where's easily but present-day it is nothing but human preserve human prison encroaching the lands and something of habitat and so suddenly two first places will get separated the loss of habitat and the fragmentation is the biggest threat we are facing now it's all because of shortage of land and lack of breeding quarrying is rampant around hampi often carried out by hand this may appear to be a painfully slow process but the boulders that form HAMP is unique landscape are disappearing at a rate of knots government records showed that 265 metric tons of stone is crushed each day but in reality it may be five to ten times this amount since most of the quarry is done illegally by local villagers I always wondered how so many of these predators survived in this area like you have China jackal leopards and civets and jungle cats I wish disparate care and many many of them most of them are predators and most of them are nocturnal and they all survive in these boulders see that's the life inside those balls it's really unique for me but if once those boulders are broken they might become they might make few people rich but the world will have lost beautifully rugged an unique piece there is a marshland down here a lot of birds have started slowly coming in there were some roosting birds but because of the hunting and the diameter the numbers were very less now it's increased enormously and all the birds are from all over this camp area will come to rooster it's a beautiful sight literally I think three types of egrets and I will sand black highways and miners and lot of other small birds also roost in that area so the very shy and rare birds last five six years I think that started messing around the main resort area so that that says it all you know it talks about the restoration it talks about the confidence they've gained in this area and that means the production is working [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] when I first saw this area I was very impressed with the whole the boulders and and the rustic feel of it but I also heard a lot of dynamics and the gunshots and of course the quarry was always very for the granite so I felt a sort of bit sad about the whole development business which is just beginning to happen but the hunting was rampant and dynamic for fishes was there all along the river but now at least this stretch of river is completely protected and you don't get to hear the dynamics again at least in this stretch around one and a half two kilometers of stretch you don't hear dynamics in water now with all this effort of Bobby even the fishermen are very happy because they're getting a better catch and the life has improved dramatically now we can see otters and crocodiles everywhere it's it's very fantastically to come back you know [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hindus believed that the Tungabhadra River was originally known as pamper she was born in the hills of Shimoga in northern Karnataka her father was Brahma the Hindu creator and her mother was the earth Pampa knew that Shiva the supreme Hindu God used to go to her Makuta Hill to meditate to gain his attention Pampa performed many difficult tasks praying and fasting staring unblinkingly at the Sun in the moon whilst all the time focusing her mind on Shiva finally Shiva noticed her and was so impressed with her tenacity that he offered her a boon or wish she could ask him for anything in the world so she asked for her true desire which was to marry Shiva all the gods came to the wedding and Shiva gave his wife a new name pamper pati kori a Patel's us that he's been roaming this area for twenty years now living off the land and making his living as a fisherman on the river when it is needed he sells his catch to the resort my [Music] [Music] he says that since Bobby has been here it seems like the jungle is taking over [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Cory Appa says that there are many crocodiles in the area all of different sizes some of them reach 15 feet in length and a hundreds of kilos in weight [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] in the times of the Vijayanagara kings and queens birds and animals alike bathed and played in the river honoring it is a sacred and precious gift from the gods now people no longer honor the sanctity of the river the Pampa Patties water was once free flowing and clean now it is restrained by the dams and wastes from cities and factories pollutes the water the mines that strip the earth of its wealth turn Pampa Patti rev because if a mother's blood runs through him there was a time when people took their shoes off out of respect to pamper party before climbing into a coracle to cross the river now noisy motor boats rush across pathetic trailing oil and fumes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] one one person thousands and thousands of one 1% all over the world maybe they can make a difference but I just wondering what Bobby would think about this I think Bobby straight on the face if he talks the way he talks he would say come on I'm not trying to make it different to the world I'm just trying to do whatever I believe in as that he doesn't believe that the whole world can be changed by one person or few persons but one one person working all over the world I think at least can bring an attitudinal change Bobby takes some of his guests on a night Safari from 10 onwards there's a chance that you might get to see porcupine because most of the animals are not relevant they're very active in life it's fun if we get to see a leopard or a bear or a Hina bigger animal you want it try that just see the light does Lake Masha Masha Fatiha it's all these rules there this is an entry which has just started fruiting it's called a fox but yeah huge yeah Jack Paar last night first time I saw one on yeah yeah one can you see it then docket bomb yeah but dot-com it's a bomb sir there you see the eyes now not here it's release it in the room did it bite you nothing did no there's this one not listings they find they might be just he sure gets getting that throw stones over did you go did you get high get me on the road [Applause] I think he doesn't believe that he can change the whole world but he also doesn't want to sit quiet because he wants to do something for what he loves whatever he runs here most of the money is going to conservation works on his own you know he he just does it because he likes it we just loved it he he doesn't wander and want to go into the discussion of whether I predict it for a longer period whether it helped the environment whether it helped the global environment picture nothing he just does it because he loves it so he puts in almost the probability mix here into his conservation ways I think the whole of this rocky hills most of them still are intact because of one man this fellow it's true it's true if you if you just imagine if you break them that's the end of it it's not even like ecosystem they die he can never come back just for the very beauty of it live all all the life inside that one thing I can I can tell you for sure is in a small class letters a person like Bobby has definitely very different as I was talking to you about a very rocks they're saved for the next generation just to have a look at it so he has he has made a difference he has made a difference to this small part of the world throughout history as many great empires have risen and fallen ham peers witnessed the Wars of gods and men through it all nature's own Empire strives on thanks to one man's efforts this sane tree is thriving but this mythical Haven can only survive if modern society confronts its duty as custodian of the natural world [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hi [Music] I was so what is [Music] so sue me sue me bathed or dream was my [Music] husband's 'i'm [Music] standing still here was a roarsome ad lowest and austere or sirens I [Music] [Music] pallium Nagi one [Music] me mama I hear a man see daughters debris [Music] my and a mundo say [Music] so mighty told us dog does it [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,392,579

Rating: 4.3721576 out of 5

Keywords: india wildlife, nature reserve, bears, leopard, monkeys, crocodile, temples, nature, ecology, environment, protection, industrialisation, tourism, mining, nature documentary, documentary

Id: cWhzd6YvpBQ

Length: 87min 12sec (5232 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2018