Capital is all set to witness Asia’s largest Wildlife and Environment Film Festival

This January, the city of Delhi will be warming up to Asia’s largest Wildlife and Environment Film Festival and Forum- the 7th CMS VATAVARAN.

In a completely new format, the 5 day biodiversity gala is being organized at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi from Jan 30 to Feb 03, 2014.

The 5 day biodiversity gala will feature film festival, forums, musical festival, organic food festival, organic bazaar and many more at the IGNCA Lawns from January 30- February 3, 2014.

For the first time in the world, a film festival & forum is being organized in open grounds (not in auditoriums). In this festival, specially designed and constructed thematic lawns across IGNCA campus will showcase 150 films and more than 70 eminent speakers in various 48 thematic sessions and expert talks.

The festival will host a high profile inaugural ceremony on Jan 30, 2014 and a fun-filled award night on the Feb 02, 2014 at the IGNCA Lawns, New Delhi. The festival also promises 5 days of music festival, organic food, green haat, and an open stage festival, apart from the film screenings and forums.

This year, the festival also invites organisations, individuals and environment enthusiasts to book any 90 minutes slot to present their work related to the festival theme and sub-themes. The slots will be allocated on first come first served basis. Apart from the six thematic lawns, a special lawn called the Young Champions Lawn will have a dedicated section solely for children and the youth with activities such as film screenings for children, interactive sessions with filmmakers, workshop on filmmaking & editing, musical concert, photography competition and biodiversity quiz.

The festival theme this year is mainstreaming biodiversity conservation at different levels to promote living in harmony with nature. 48 interesting talks, expert and film sessions have been planned around four sub-themes of the festival: Blue Agenda, Forest Biodiversity, Mountain Biodiversity and Inland Waters & Wetlands Biodiversity.

The theme is also significant in the context of the recently held 11^th Conference of Parties (CoP-11) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at Hyderabad, India and UN Decade of Biodiversity 2011- 2022. The 7^th edition of CMS VATAVARAN will be the largest public interface in New Delhi for celebrating CBD CoP 11 Presidency.