Veteran wildlife film producer Naresh Bedi has been selected for the 2005 Prithvi Ratna Award instituted by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award has been announced on the eve of the third VATAVARAN Environment and Wildlife Film Festival which begins in New Delhi on November 21, 2005.

This is the second Prithvi Ratna award being given by CMS and UNEP. The first was given to Mike Pandey in the previous Vatavaran in 2003. The special trophy of hands holding up earth is in recognition of Naresh Bedi’s lifetime’s achievement and outstanding contribution to environment and wildlife filmmaking.

With brother Rajesh, Naresh established the Bedi Films in Delhi in 1970 and nurtured it to become one of the leading producers of world class documentaries. It was the brothers’ love for nature which that took them to remote wilderness corners to capture the splendours of nature.

Naresh Bedi won the Panda or the Green Oscar for best wildlife cameraman at the International Wildlife and Television Festival, Wildscreen 1984. He was the first Asian to get such recognition. He won the silver medal at the International Film and TV Festival of New York in 1985 for the film The Ganges Gharial. Two of their tiger films were nominated for the British Academy Award in 1987. He was awarded for the Best Film in the environment category at the International Video Festival on Science, Society and development (IV Fest) organized in Trivandrum in 1995 for the film ‘Ladakh, Desert in the Skies.’

The Vatavaran Festival is supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests Government of India. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, will deliver the inaugural address. Shekar Dattatri’s Monsoon—India’s God of life—will be screened at the function. In all, VATAVARAN 2005 will screen almost 60 films including an Asian Panorama and Retrospective of two British film makers along with a series of events, discussions, workshops, etc. at this four day festival at India Habitat Centre (IHC) from 21 to 24 November 2005.