Digital filming might have made shooting easier, but when the subject is wildlife, it takes much more than just a technical edge to capture that perfect moment. Actor par excellence and National Award-winning director Chandra Narayan Barua, however, makes it look effortless. His three decades of work in the field came in handy, no doubt.

In Living Side by Side, a series of wildlife films, Barua’s camera pans across the wetlands and national parks of Assam in search of the gentle giants of the wild. Rhinos of Kaziranga, Pobitora and Manas find a place in Barua’s well-researched documentary along with Asiatic elephants.

The jumbos saunter through the second segment of the series that bears the distinctive stamp of Barua’s cinematic idiom. He begins with spectacular shots of vast wetlands, to focus on the mighty Brahmaputra and the forests that flank it.

The voiceover offers a key to the treasures that lie hidden — and threatened — within its groves. Barua, with a near-perfect sense of timing, intersperses the details of unexplored life in the thickets with shots of Asiatic water buffaloes, rhinos, elephants and deer in rarely observed moments.

The film provides invaluable information on the global status of the Asiatic elephant — there are over 6,000 in Assam according to a recent survey — and places the pachyderm against its African counterpart.

Where Barua strikes a chord in the 27-minute film is an overview of factors responsible for escalating man-elephant conflict.

The point he makes is that as more forest areas are encroached upon, the mighty creatures are pushed farther and farther back into their shrinking habitats.

Barua’s note of caution rings true. The destruction of forests will take its toll not only on its rightful denizens, but also on the people who have established their claim to it.

With flawless camera work by Dibakar Gogoi and haunting music by Charukamal Hazarika, this Doordarshan-commissioned piece is another feather in the illustrious director’s cap.