‘Crossing Paths’ Unveiled on World Elephant Day; Samyuktha Hornadu Makes Directorial Debut

Samyuktha Hornadu is making her directorial debut with Crossing Paths on World Elephant Day. Samyuktha is a Kannada film actress. She has made her way to the film industry, and now she is working behind the camera to tackle one of the most pressing environmental issues facing communities and wildlife - human-elephant conflict.

Crossing Paths addresses the growing interaction between elephants and human settlements, the shrinking of forest habitats and the problems faced by both local communities and wildlife. Rather than presenting human-elephant conflict simply as a wildlife issue, the documentary focuses on the environmental, social and human factors behind the problem.

But with urbanisation, industrial development, roads, railway networks and agricultural expansion, elephants are increasingly driven out of their traditional habitats, in search of food and water. If agricultural areas and villages are moved out of our way and we move in and out of them, the crops might be destroyed, or people might die. At the same time, elephants are in peril when their traditional corridors of movement are disrupted.

Crossing Paths looks at these interrelated problems and wonders if humans and wildlife can coexist.

The documentary also focuses on Project EADDS, or Elephant Avoidance through Dog Squad, a project of A Rocha India in collaboration with the Karnataka Forest Department. The project is intended to reduce the human-elephant conflict through preventive measures, conservation, and dog squads trained for this purpose.

The aim is to detect elephant movement at an early stage and prevent elephants from reaching the human settlement. So far, rather than resorting to brute force to drive elephants away, the project is based on early warning systems and scientific methods to avoid any contact between elephants and humans.

A Rocha India national director Avinash Krishnan is involved in implementing the EADDS programme. We aim to balance the safety of local communities with the conservation and protection of elephants.

The documentary also focuses a great deal on visual storytelling. Prateek Shetty, who has worked on films like Gandhada Gudi and 777 Charlie, has also done the cinematography for Crossing Paths. His camera captures forest scenes, elephant movement, and the places in which wildlife habitats intersect with human settlements.

The documentary is not so much an information-based documentary as a story about a conservation problem. This visual approach is intended to show human beings’ relationship with forests and elephants through real places in the real world and natural areas, to show how humans, forests and elephants are connected.

Some officials and conservation professionals have also been associated with the wider initiative. Karnataka Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar B. Khandre, PCCF Pushkar Kumar, Project Elephant head Manoj Rajan, Hassan Deputy Conservator of Forests Saurabh Kumar and A Rocha India national director Avinash Krishnan are among those involved.

Human-elephant conflicts have many effects. Farmers can suffer serious crop losses if elephants enter agricultural fields, and local people may be at risk of a serious problem if elephants come to town. For elephants, human activity is similarly dangerous. Roads, railway tracks, electric lines, and other networks can obstruct the traditional elephant routes and increase the risk of accidents.

Conservation experts have increasingly stressed the need to address the root causes of conflicts rather than focusing on individual incidents. Saving elephant corridors, improving early-warning systems, involving local communities, and strengthening coordination between forest officials and residents can all help to reduce conflict.

Crossing Paths attempts to make this broader perspective available to the general public. Key to its message is that human-elephant conflict does not have to be inevitable. If we do science-based conservation, community engagement, and forest authorities’ sustained effort in creating safer places for humans as well as wildlife, we can do so.

The release of the documentary on World Elephant Day adds further significance to the project. The day is recognized to highlight elephants, conservation, and threats to elephants and their habitats.

Crossing Paths is a major leap in film from acting to filmmaking for Samyuktha Hornadu. Her first film as a director is one in which she is dealing with environmental concerns with a social message.

The documentary also stresses wildlife behaviour and conservation of our natural environment. As habitat and natural resources under pressure continue to grow in the future, human-wildlife conflict will be a much greater problem.

Crossing Paths focuses not only on the human-elephant conflict but more generally on how people can live in harmony with nature, how wildlife corridors can be protected, and how communities can be part of conservation.

Samyuktha Hornadu’s directorial debut is about real-world conservation efforts, the visuals, and the message of coexistence and the need for public awareness of elephants and their natural habitat.