Recently, a celebrated IPS officer, Mr. Dyutiman Bhattacharya (2011 batch), won laurels in many international film festivals for displaying his creative prowess through a documentary on light pollution. Officer Bhattacharya is a polymath with noticeable prowess in the fields of literature, illustrations, graphic novels, film-making, acting, and wildlife photography. The documentary in concern is titled — “Let There Be Darkness,” spanning 18 minutes with the tagline, “When did you last see a firefly or the Milky Way?”
The documentary was the fruit of six months of research, groundwork, and shooting, all executed on a frugal budget of Rs 50,000. As of now, the movie has secured two awards at a festival in Florence, Italy, and has screened at festivals in Vila Real, Portugal, and Stuttgart, Sweden and has featured in multiple festivals across India.
Through this documentary, Officer Bhattacharya illustrates that biodiversity loss is the greatest challenge of our times, and excessive light has been affecting the night sky. Quoting Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore’s perennial lines — ‘Light is not an end, even darkness has its beauty’ he said, ‘The stars are less visible now because of city lights. We need darkness to understand the effect of light.”
The documentary features a starry sky as a “luxury” that the current generation living in urban areas could not admire. A post on the documentary reads, “Stars and the Milky Way, once visible from the city, have now faded into oblivion under the relentless glow of artificial lights.”
Mr. Bhattacharya elucidates the impact of light pollution on bird life and human health combined. He also explains how nocturnal creatures get confused by the perpetual illumination, which upsets their circadian rhythm.
