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Ms. Shaleena Phinya, a filmmaker and member of the community patrol staff at the Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh was interviewed by YNN members Anooja A. and Smriti Mahesh as part of our World Ranger Day initiative, “In Nature’s Defence”.
Shaleena completed her Green Hub Fellowship in 2018 and went on to join the Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve patrolling team in 2019. She is the first woman from the Bugun community to enter the field of wildlife filmmaking and her film, “The Bugun and the Liocichla”, has been greatly acclaimed and screened on several platforms such as Nature inFocus and at the Bali Festival in Indonesia. |
I didn’t have much exposure to the forest as a child; my parents were strictly against it. Listening to my grandfather, a hunter, tell stories about it left me yearning to visit it but I never got the chance. Finally, thanks to my current job, I have the chance to work in the forests around my hometown!
I wasn’t aware of wildlife filmmaking as a child; I planned to get a degree and secure a job in the banking sector- that was all I knew. But I had to stop attending college after a few months due to certain problems. This was when I learnt about an organisation called Green Hub from DFO Millo Tasser of the Shergaon Forest Division. I applied to join Green Hub’s wildlife filmmaking course and got selected! Initially, I didn’t understand why I was learning what they taught us. After the 3-month fellowship, I had to return home and shoot a documentary film for which I shot a film titled “Maya: A Single Mother”. Only while filming this documentary did I fully understand what they taught us at Green Hub.
I learnt the nuances of wildlife filmmaking and the importance of our forests by attending workshops on wildlife conservation. I realised that our forests are home to several endangered species that outsiders come to marvel at, which the locals are entirely unaware of. My time at Green Hub piqued an interest in the wildlife around me and I decided that if such rare species can be found in our forests- species that are beneficial to us- I must try to document them. The tribe I belong to, the Bugun tribe, is neither well-known nor well-populated. So I chose to do my project, “The Bugun and the Liocichla”, on the connection between the Bugun tribe and the rare bird, the Bugun Liocichla.
View of the Singchung village
The Bugun Tribe doesn’t live only in Singchung; we are spread across many other villages like Bichom, Kaspi and Wanghoo as well. We might be a small tribe but everyone here works well together as a community. The Bugun Liocichla, a bird that was declared Critically Endangered by the IUCN and whose population is incredibly small, was first spotted here in Singchung by Dr. Ramana Athreya and was formally described as a species in 2006. To protect it, the Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve (SBVCR) was formed. After forming the SBVCR team, many people have learnt the importance of our forests and we even have senior citizens involved in our efforts to preserve these forests! We realised that places like Lama Camp and Eaglenest Pass act as our water sources so protecting the area leaves us with fewer water scarcity problems. When we learnt about the significance of medicinal plants found around us, our team became involved in their preservation as well.
Involving local communities is highly beneficial to conservation. There were a couple of people from our community who used to hunt but hunting is regulated here now; we have told them about the harm it can cause. Local communities also have immense knowledge about the forests they live around. They know where to find certain animals, where people are most likely to hunt and can help in pinpointing these locations.
Members of the Community Patrol Staff at SBVCR bird-watching while patrolling the reserve
Being able to work in the forests of my hometown feels like God’s gift to me. When I left college, I was extremely worried as I didn’t know what to do next. So when I heard about the Green Hub Fellowship programme, I was thrilled to be able to pursue something that a lot of people, especially girls, haven’t done. I felt that I must have done something special to deserve this. I also never imagined that my film, “The Bugun and the Liocichla” would garner as much attention as it did. Having my film screened in so many places felt incredible and the fact that so much good could come out of working in a forest inspires me to keep doing what I do. Hunting and degradation happen in many forests and working to prevent that makes me happy too.
View of the community reserve forest
There are always challenges in this line of work. People assume that working in the forest is difficult for a woman. Before you can say “Yes, I want to go”, they will reject you. They will not look at your work or try to get to know you- you will not be considered for the job simply because you’re a woman. When I started working in the forest, many people used to say things like “Oh, she is a woman, how will she manage?”. Unfortunately, even after showing people that I can do my job well, many of their mindsets have not changed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed problems to my job as well. I had the opportunity to be part of a film project but that was called off due to the pandemic. If I had worked on that project, I would have had the chance to work as part of a team and learn a lot about filmmaking. Coming to the future of my career, my film on the Bugun Liocichla was not too detailed as I did not want to go deep into the forests and disturb a bird that is already so rare. So I would like to expand on this further in the future. Through my films, I also want to show the enormous potential my hometown has for conservation and showcase the myriad species that can be found here. To the people out there who are afraid of snakes, insects, etc., I would like to say, no animal will harm you unless provoked so there is no reason to be afraid of any living creature.
Green-tailed Sunbird
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Red-faced Liocichla
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In life, no matter what you pursue, you will hear negative things from people around you. But as long as you work hard, you will get results so simply use these negative comments to motivate yourself- never let them pull you down.
All photographs used in this article belong to Ms. Shaleena Phinya.
We would like to thank Sanctuary Asia's Mud on Boots Project for their assistance in contacting Ms. Shaleena for this initiative.
