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Long drives are the beginnings of deep thoughts, that eventually lead to ideas, that sometimes come into fruition. It was on one such long drive two years ago, while traversing the Northeast, when Chinmay and I came up with an idea to make a short music video, edited to the national anthem. We thought about it, nodded our heads and promptly forgot about it for 24 months. It took about that much time for the stars to get aligned, Chinmay to come back from the Himalaya and start going through hours of footage and finally getting it all compiled.
The original poem written by Rabindranath Tagore, “Jana Gana Mana” was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on 26th January 1950 – Republic Day. Celebrated with a show of power and progress, Republic Day is known for its display of India’s military power as well as a gala show of India’s cultural heritage. What is really missing is a sense of national pride for the country’s natural heritage and we hope that this video fills that void.
The comments and feedback we’ve had ever since we put this video online has been heart-warming and touching.Anonymous said, “In my three decades in India, I had the occasion to hear the national anthem countless times, but it is only today with your video that I can finally relate to it… may be because all those species have no sense of political (artificial) boundaries, even though they know to defend their territories :-)”Aline Dobbie 1 week agoI have shared this lovely film which brought tears to my eyes…Beloved Bharat, Land of my birth but also the Land of the Tiger, the Elephant, the Peacock and all the other beautiful wild creatures of the Indian Jungle and Terai. May we all dedicate ourselves anew to the proper and responsible Custodianship of these wondrous fellow beings in a beautiful ancient yet striving to be modern land. Jai HindThank you all for your heartfelt comments after watching the video.Along with showing the video online, we thought of engaging people even more deeply and had a small contest for those who love taking up challenges. In this, the stakes were quite high – A Himalaya: Mountains of Life coffee-table book (valued at Rs. 3500) for the first one who identifies ALL the species shown in the video clip. Calendars for the 3 best attempts.
Unfortunately, nobody WON the prize, but a few came close.
Apologies for the delay in getting the species list up, but its taken us quite a while to review the entries and see what went wrong where!List of species in the national anthem video in order of appearance:
1. Asiatic Elephant
2. Blackbuck
3. Cattle Egret
4. Asiatic One-horned Rhinoceros
5. Asiatic Ibex
6. Red Panda
7. Bharal
8. Western Hoolock Gibbon
9. Chital
10. Jungle Myna
11. Asiatic Water Buffalo
12. Hog Deer
13. Swamp Deer – Barasingha
14. Tiger
15. Pond Heron
16. Himalayan Snowcock
17. Smooth-coated Otter
19. Jungle Crow
20. Red-wattled Lapwing
21. Arunachal Macaque – (00.38)
22. Lion-tailed Macaque
23. Grizzled Giant Squirrel
Asiatic Elephant herd
24. Striped Hyena
25. Gaur
26. Sloth bear
27. Intermediate egret- breeding plumage
28. Japalura sp.
29. Amolops sp.
30. Polypedates himalayensis – Himalayan tree frog
31. King Cobra
32. Blue Mormon
33. Praying Mantis
34. Cruiser
35. Silk-cotton Bug
36. Fig Wasp
37. Giant wood spider (feeding on Reduviidae bug)
38. Blue-bearded Bee-eater (eating some winged insect)
39. Pied Kingfisher (feeding on fresh water shrimp)
40. Wreathed Hornbill
41. Great Hornbill
42. Asian Barred Owlet
43. Juvenile Changeable Hawk-eagle – (01.20)
44. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo – (01.21)
45. Blue-cheeked Barbet
46. Hoary-bellied Squirrel – (01.22)
47. Stump-tailed Macaque
48. Golden langur
49. Clouded leopard
Elephant
Tiger
Himalayan IbexTiger callingThe one that most people completely missed was the Hoary-bellied Squirrel (@ 01.22) which made a split-second appearance in the silk-cotton tree along with the drongo and the barbet. The second one was the Arunachal Macaque @ 00.38, which many mistook for a Rhesus Macaque or an Assamese Macaque and the third was the Changeable Hawk-Eagle, which some mistook for an Osprey. All in all, fantastic effort by all and I was impressed by the sharp-eyed naturalists who spotted the Hoary-bellied Squirrel which I honestly think is tough to spot!
ok, so the ones that came closest to winning are: Priya Singh, Saurabh Sawant & Shardul Bajikar.
Do send me your addresses for the 2013 Himalaya calendar ASAP!Cheers,
Sandesh
17 Comments for National Anthem – Wild India – Instrumental
February 3, 2013, 6:42 pm
I Greatly Liked The Effort U Put To Bring Our Precious WildLife To Our Conscience..Am Proud Of U..I Wish U All The Very Good Luck To u & Ur Team
February 9, 2013, 3:42 pm
It is a wonderful task. This will help people of all aged in different parts of the nation to feel the charm and pride of our natural heritage. Excellent. I would like to request you to send me the copy with good resolution so that I can use then in our wildlife awareness campaigns. It would really help us.
Best regards,
Sanatan
June 20, 2013, 6:40 pm
Hi Sanatan, You shd be able to download the video online from youtube or vimeo.com
February 27, 2013, 12:01 pm
The video is very good. You have covered almost all the important wildlife species. But you have not added our National Bird—Peacock. Please add that.
June 20, 2013, 6:40 pm
Just replied to your comment as well – will update the video for the next big event with new footage!
April 25, 2013, 2:33 pm
I’m deeply moved by the whole idea of making our national anthem with our natural heritage, often missed or overlooked in the race of being mordern/advanced etc. These species co-exist with us and they’re OURS.
Just a gentle question though, as ‘Sadananda’ replied above that you’ve missed our national bird Peocock, I was also expecting to see an Asiatic Lion in there. Is there a reason why you haven’t included them in this already beautiful video? 🙂
June 20, 2013, 6:39 pm
Hi Kapil,
Many thanks for your comments and also for your question.
To be honest, we put this video together with footage we already had in a week’s time, and trust me, we dove into the archives and pulled all the best stuff we had, but there were no peafowl nor were there lions in the archive. Good exercise, because now I know where the gaps are and have put it up as priority to get these gaps closed before we make an update and improve the video for next year. Always appreciate comments and feedback and look forward to improving the video in the next version. cheers! Sandesh
August 13, 2013, 11:30 am
[…] first blog celebrates the miracles of nature with a beautiful Earth Song by lens man Sandesh Kadur, set to the background score of our national […]
August 17, 2013, 4:54 am
It’s the people and organization like you make us feel proud to be an Indian by heart. Along with the details about the animals of India, it would be very interesting to know the locations where to find some of those exotic animals and birds.
August 22, 2013, 9:30 am
Hi, I see this video almost everyday atleast once since the day it was posted @ your facebook profile.
It shoots back a question to me always ” What am I doing to protect these priceless flora and founa of my mother ? ” I think so much… Thank u so much for the such good informative video , I am proud to be born here 🙂
August 22, 2013, 9:39 am
Jogada andakke sati ella …last 30 seconds makes my eyes wet … no words to express, thanks again for this informative video
September 23, 2013, 4:39 pm
beautiful and awsum video. really good effort which can anytime enlighten our time of day by watching the video. sorry that i came across this video so late. thanks and congratulations.
December 13, 2013, 3:23 pm
HATS OFF…… THE VIDEO IS AWESOME…. THE IDEA IS TRULY INNOVATIVE AND BEAUTIFUL !!! FELT THE SENSE OF BEING A TRUE INDIAN….. WONDERFUL EFFORTS….. U ENCOMPASSED MANY DIFFERENT SPECIES IN SUCH A SMALL DURATION……. TEARS OF HAPPINESS….. WANTED TO BE THE FIRST PERSON TO REVIEW THE VIDEO….. BUT ITS FINE…….. WISHES TO U AND UR TEAM…… CONGRATS… AND THANKS A LOT………..HAPPY,HAPPY,HAPPY AND HAPPY………. AMAZING…..!!!!!
December 24, 2013, 5:42 am
sir i am a great fan of you….. first after watching your documentation on clouded leopards in NGC which i have watched at least three times….. second your video “TRIBUTE TO INDIA”S NATURAL HERITAGE” i liked that bull elephant in the video at the end which shows the strength of INDIA. that
sir please make a documentary on striped hyena in INDIA where only few people know about it.
January 26, 2014, 4:00 pm
Great video Mr. Kadur, I was just watching your BBC documentary- wildlife in the ghats. It was truly amazing.I always dreamt to be like you. But you know in India, we are still conservative and then stick of the routine stuff, like I am stuck to the corporate world. Big salute to you, you have made your life perfectly worth living.
May 7, 2014, 3:02 am
Hats off to you sir. Truly no words to express . I have seen your documentaries on western ghats and on clouded leopard. I am great follower of you. Thanks a lot sir
December 30, 2014, 5:55 am
Inspired by you Sir, love your woks..
