GUWAHATI, March 20— It has the animals that slither and also the ones that claw their ways up. For it is a documentary film on the reptiles— the reptiles of North-East India. This documentary film— Friends for ever: Common Reptiles of North-East India, directed and produced by Sri Dip Bhuyan, an M Sc in Statistics from Delhi University, has once again provided the documentary proof that there is no dearth of talent or lack of determination among our youths. Sri Bhuyan is associated with documentary films for the past about 11 years.
Assam or for that matter the entire NE region, has remained on the sidelines not because of its lacking the talents, but, because of the patronage it is not getting to the initiatives of its people. Sri Dip Bhuyan, around 38 now, has also prepared the script for the film. Sri Prasanta Kumar Bardoloi has done the cinematography for this 26-minute film, while Smt Amrita Hazarika has played the narrator for the film. The film is produced for a commissioned programme of the PPC (NE) Doordarshan, Guwahati with a budget of Rs 1.25 lakh.
The work of Sri Bardoloi has, no doubt, made the film acquire an extra-mileage, momentum, leaving many others of the category far behind. But the film has another important aspect. There has been a lot of attempts these days to make the people aware of the environment, the precious biodiversity and the role of the people desired to conserve all these gifts of nature. This film is a part of such attempts.
It is planned in a class room-lecture pattern. It hatches from the days of the amphibians, about 275 million years back, slithering. But, it soon starts clawing and swimming its way up as soon as it turns on the reptiles. The brilliance of the film starts unfolding. A number of amphibians, which always used to lay their eggs in water, started laying their eggs on warm sand. Thus started the departure and the emergence of a new kind of vertebrate— the reptile. The first reptile to appear on earth was cotylosaurus, says the film. But, it is a film on the common reptiles of NE region. What are the information it has stored for the viewers concerning the reptiles of the region?
There are about 2,500 species of snakes in the world. Of these, about 230 species are found in the Indian mainland and 55 of these species are venomous.
In the NE region of the country, 62 species of non-poisonous and about 16 species of poisonous snakes are found. And about the size of the snakes found in the region, the film says that the smallest one is the 12 cm, earth worm like, blink snake, while the reticulated python, which may grow upto a length of 10 metres (33 ft), is the longest of the NE snakes, nay, of the world snakes.
However, the best known large snake of the region, the yellow and brown coloured harmless rat snake also features in the film. It grows to about three metres and its body is adapted for climbing. The film also captures another rodent eater and diurnal snake, the copper head trinked. This snake is found only in the NE region. It grows upto two metres in length.
Depicting many snakes like the well known tree snake, the vine, the thin-bodied bronze-back tree snake, the flying golden snake, the cat snake, the wolf snake, the fresh water checkered kill back and the red-necked killback, the film also focusses on the krait and the cobras. Of the cobras, it says, monocellate cobra is North East region specific. The bino cellate cobra is common throughout the country, it says, while taking the viewers to the world of the poisonous snakes.
The king cobra, which is the largest poisonous snake, is very intelligent and it makes a nest to lay eggs. It grows upto six metres and feeds only on snakes. It also introduces the viewer with the highly venomous russel’s viper. This loudly hissing snake is seldom found in the North East region. Also, the film has not failed to focuss on the other reptiles like the lizards, the turtles and the tortoises. It perhaps needs no mention that reptiles are among the most ancient of all animals. Some of these scaly-skinned animals live in water and some on land. Most of these animals are found in the warmer parts of the world.
These animals have six main groups— lizards, snakes, worm lizards, turtles and tortoises, crocodiles, alligators and tuatara. Of these animals, only tortoises and turtles have the shells. The film has also dealt with the physical features, behaviours and the mental abilities of the reptiles in an educative and aesthetic manner. But, it has, apart from the things mentioned above, somehow got its message on the role of the reptiles in maintaining the ecological balance, constricted. However, that in no way can rob it of the sheen, the extravaganza of nature it has documented on celluloid.