Docu features Vidyasagar Colony residents' collective fight for neighbourhood tamarind tree
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KOLKATA: A first-of-its-kind collective in the city, formed to protect a gigantic tamarind tree planted by freedom fighter Parul Mukherjee and almost brought down by builders, has come up with a documentary called 'Jilipibalar Bondhura'.
To create awareness about the need to save this tree, this collective has been hosting various events, including concerts under the tamarind tree, storytelling, and bird watching. The latest is this documentary starring a little girl named Jilipibala. She watches her feathered friends from the neighbourhood, who have made this tamarind tree their home and are fearing the risk of being homeless.
For the past 12 years, Debalina documented the tamarind tree next to her home in Vidyasagar Colony, learning to observe and record birds and animals from her window.
She formed the Tamarind Tree Collective to highlight the importance of urban greenery in preserving ecological diversity in the city. The members hosted discussions and concerts under the tree, organised neighbourhood bird watches, launched a YouTube channel called 'Tamarind Tunes', and sought administrative intervention to save the tree by writing to authorities.
When threats loomed large over the tree that ran the risk of being felled last year, the Tamarind Tree Collective grew stronger with the active involvement of her neighbours, artists, and friends.
This documentary featuring Jilipibala is a new addition to the work of the collective. Jilipibala was just three in 2018 when she, along with her parents, came to live as tenants in Debalina's house. In an informal and personalised fashion, the documentary has not just underlined the need to conserve urban greenery but also highlighted the tenderness tucked in a friendship between two individuals with a 43-year-old age difference and the bond they share with this tree and the non-human life that made it their home.
Little Jilipibala is all innocence, and yet her unrehearsed activities and spontaneous reactions to the felling of branches raise some profound questions about the need to wake up from the stupor of insensitivity towards deforestation. According to Debalina, the film works as an archive, documenting urban development and consequent deforestation. "It serves as a call to action, invoking fear and sympathy for homeless urban fauna.
It takes forward recent discussions in philosophy about the ethics of being human and our non-human kin," the director told TOI.
Interestingly, the documentary has listed names of at least 20 birds as part of the cast, including an Indian bulbul and Oriental magpie robin to purple sunbird and rose-ringed parakeet. "We have even mentioned the dinner plate tree and the wax apple tree as part of the cast," the director added.
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