Bahar Dutt is an Indian television journalist, environment editor and CNN-IBN columnist.
Wiki/Biography
Baha Dutt is an Indian television journalist. She graduated in social work from the University of Delhi and later studied wildlife conservation at the Durrell School of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent. She is deeply inspired by her love for the environment and her desire to do something for nature.
family
Parents and siblings
Bahar Dutt is the second child of Indian aviation official SP Dutt and Hindustan Times journalist Prabha Dutt. She has an older sister, Barkha Dutt; Pioneering Journalist Barkha and her siblings all inherited the character of their mother, a pioneer journalist. Her father was affectionately known as “Quick Singh” after his initials. Bahar recently lost his father to COVID-19.
Bahar Dutt’s parents
Her mother was one of the first people to report on the war. Bahar has a sister, Barkha Dutt.
Bahar Dutt’s sister Barkha Dutt
husband and children
Bahar Dutt is married to ace wildlife photographer Vijay Bedi. He won the award for Best Non-Feature Film and also won the award for Best Cinematography, Non-Feature Film. He and his twin Ajay Bedi became the youngest Asians ever to win a Green Oscar for the film “Police Langur”. The couple has a daughter.
Baha Dutt with husband and daughter
Profession
Bahar Dutt is an outstanding environmental journalist and author. She is often described as a passionate and courageous journalist who deserves credit for her revolutionary exposure. Apart from this, she also wrote a book titled Green War, which won appreciation from critics like British Council Sujata Sen (Director, East India).
“This book doesn’t read like a first attempt. It’s beautifully written,” says Sujata Sen.
Dutt said she grew up with an undying passion to do something for nature and wildlife. She jokingly recalls wanting to be nature’s Mother Teresa. Because of her deep interest in natural resources, she has done some incredible work in trying to conserve them. Dutt began reporting on snake charmers at the age of 22 after the government banned the practice in 1972 as an alternative to animal cruelty. Here, she recalls being chased away by a snake in her bag. She persisted and eventually convinced the men to talk to her, where she learned of the loss of their livelihoods. Dutt wanted to do something for them, and as she said, if we want people to obey the law, then they must have alternative occupations. Soon, Dutt figured out a way to get a theater director and other people with expertise to form a band called “100 Charmers.” The band not only provided a livelihood for this community but also helped revitalize their culture as even children started learning to play. The band has played in Scotland, played at cultural festivals in Rome, and they have gone global, Dutt is particularly pleased.
We received six invitations to present the show. The fee for each demonstration is around Rs 1 lakh,” said Dutt. Saperas have been entertaining people for centuries. It is time that society pays the price – nurturing the rare musical talent of the community.
After successfully reviving the livelihood of Delhi’s snake charmers, Dutt’s first story, that of the Sarus Crane, became the most important story of her life. She remembers showing sheer resilience. The then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, proposed building an airport on the wetlands; home to two-thirds of the world’s absolute population of Sarus cranes. Dutt said when a Supreme Court committee arrived, personnel sent by Mulayam Singh drove away the birds and covered the wetland with mud. She remained resilient and the airport expansion was canceled. Due to her efforts, Mulayam Singh Yadav set aside 10 lac rupees for the state bird, the Sarus crane. One of her most high-profile revelations involved a globally renowned cement company operating illegally in the forests of Meghalaya, on the border between India and Bangladesh. Another incident brought to light by Dutt, supported by RIT immediately launched by the Goa Foundation, revealed the illegal destruction of forest land by a miner in Goa, leading to the closure of the mine. She remembers receiving numerous threats, as did her team. She made a detailed journey of the Ganges from its source to its mouth, which lasted 4 to 6 months. As a concluding statement, Dutt said we need to reduce the number of hydropower projects that have been established and will be established on rivers as all these will adversely affect the ecological balance.
Map of the Ganges hydrological basin filled with hydroelectric projects
Her career has been one of raising and promoting environmental awareness. Although she had no formal journalism education, she brought environmental journalism into prime time and into our homes. She launched the Mitti Project base at Manoli village in Sonepat, which provides an experimental environmental education.
Bahar Dutt spoke about motherhood in an interview and appreciated that the situation in India is much easier compared to other places. She further said that we get help in almost every aspect, be it affordable housing help in India or our parents and in-laws. Dutt said she knows getting help from parents and in-laws does have its own problems. She further said, “I feel like a happy mother is a better mother, so it doesn’t matter if you give up your job and describe yourself as a full-time writer and part-time mother.”
Baha Dutt and daughter
- traveling with her children
Dutt and her husband, ace wildlife photographer Vijay, decided to take their two-year-old on a safari to show her the migration of animals from place to place and region to region. She explained that the joy in her daughter’s eyes when she saw sea lions and colonies of butterflies made her long trip worth it. When asked why she didn’t wait until her little ones grew up to witness all this, she explained that nature moves at a very different pace than humans do, saying:
For humans, traveling is primarily a form of entertainment. For the animal world, this is one of reproduction and survival.
She admits the trip was both exhausting and financially draining, so she wouldn’t have it any other way. She is excited to share her passion with her two-year-old daughter.
Bahar Dutt travels with daughter
dispute
- Baha Dutt was accused of plagiarism by environmental writer Janaki Lenin, who later accused Dutt of plagiarizing passages from her book. To prove the point, she tweeted excerpts from her book and compared them to Dutt’s work. However, Dutt refuted the accusations, saying that everything she wrote came from the end of the book and was provided to Dutt via email, and that Romulus Whitaker was on record, He happens to be Yankee’s husband. The latter asked Dutt to share her alleged emails.
Benefits of the three endangered Indian crocodiles – the robber crocodile, the saltwater crocodile and the gharial. It has designated 20,000 square kilometers of protected areas and established multiple captive breeding projects. “
In contrast to this– pic.twitter.com/vdeig3viqs
— Janaki Lenin (@JanakiLenin) December 23, 2019
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- She won a Green Oscar for her coverage of environmental issues in India.
- Dutt receives Wings Award (2009) for raising the profile of environmental journalism
- She was also awarded the Sanskriti Award (2009)
- She won the Ram Nath Goenka Award for outstanding environmental reporting in The Last Dance of Sharus (2006), an investigative journalism report on the drainage of wetlands in eastern India.
- She has won the Young Journalist Award. (2007)
Facts/Trivia
- Bahar Dutt is an animal lover.
Baha Dutt’s pets
- In her book Green War, she recalls helping a lonely gibbon find love.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education