A still from the film Road Back Home. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 30: Documentaries portraying the relationship between humans and wildlife as well as illustrating the risks of climate change made by two Oriya directors have been selected for an international environment and wildlife film festival.

The documentaries will be screened in New Delhi at the 6th CMS Vatavaran film festival.

Discussing a success story of the combat of farmers of western Orissa against climate change, the documentary, Road Back Home, made by Snehasis Das has been nominated among three climate change-based films in the festival.

“I made this documentary in 2007, when the farmers in this region had made a strong comeback against the issue of drought. Owing to mistiming of rains, the agricultural lands here used to go dry and that forced many farmers to migrate to other regions within and outside the state in search of a living,” said Das.

“This was the result of climate change and the migration had been existing here for almost 45 years. But, with the combined efforts of the farmers and some researchers, adaptive measures were taken with help of technology. The migration has come to a halt since the past five years,” he said.

Das, a full-time environment-based documentary maker, has set the film in the verdant valleys of Bargarh and nearby areas.

The other film, The incredible Blackbuck, by Satyabrata Das, is based on the endangered species of blackbucks. The director shows how on one hand poachers and hunters have reduced the number of these antelopes, whereas certain communities in the Ganjam district and the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan have been protecting the animals for centuries considering them as holy creatures. This film explores the magical relationship between people and wildlife and has been nominated in the best newcomer category.