Dr. TanDY
Joined: 02 Nov 2005
Posts: 1345
Location: Selangor, Malaysia
|
| Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 4:05 pm Post subject: Planet Action - Tiger Problem? |
|
|
Conservation Reality Show - Planet Action in Malaysia
Source:The Telegraph
For an audience served orchestrated drama and buckets of tears in a controlled environment in the name of reality shows that are more showbiz than reality, here is some real small-screen action. WWF (World Wildlife Fund, not the standard-bearer of the ‘reality show’ with chest-thumping wrestling) is going on beam to spread the conservation word. The result is Planet Action, an eco-reality series on Animal Planet that premiered globally on Sunday night.
Participants of Planet Action pose with a leatherback turtle.
“We chose seven amateur environmentalists from among the thousands who responded to a call of entry on the WWF and Animal Planet sites. They are diverse in terms of both nationality and backgrounds,” points out WWF-India communications manager Anshuman Atroley.
Diverse they indeed are, with a British writer, a Swedish teacher, an American photographer, a Vietnamese IT professional, an Australian carpenter and a Brazilian journalist. “These people are greenhorns in conservation. If they can make a difference, so can the viewers,” says Rajiv Bakshi, associate director, marketing and communications, Discovery Networks India.
The team is handed six challenges in different conservation projects. Working under strict deadlines and with tight budgets, they have to struggle to accomplish each mission, under the eagle eyes of a WWF mentor. The first episode had them working to save the endangered leatherback turtles in Panama on the Chiriqui beach, a nesting site. “The task was to find a turtle and fit a satellite transmitter on it so that its migration route could be tracked. The beach is vast and the turtles are elusive. Also, catching the world’s largest marine reptile is no joke,” Atroley adds.
Next Sunday, the team is off to the nesting beaches of the American salt-water crocodile in Turneffe Atoll. “Coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds are crucial for animal and aquatic life. Here our crusaders are to measure the growth rate of the coral reef under water and clean up the beach. Mind you, the IT man does not even know how to swim!” says Atroley.
Similar challenges follow in peninsular Malaysia where they have to submit a viable plan for an eco-tourism park and solve the problem of tigers, in a habitat encroached upon by development, poaching on village livestock. “The participants even have to learn to speak and sing in the local tongue to connect to the villagers.” The final episode deals with Irrawaddy river dolphins in Cambodia.
Many of the problems dealt with in Planet Action resemble projects undertaken by WWF India. “We too are working with dolphins sighted in the Yamuna and turtles on the Orissa coastline,” Atroley says. |
|
