Shaju John has made films that tell moving stories of communities, health initiatives and biodiversity regions, of lost natural riches, new possibilities in development and narratives of hope. They spotlight issues that affect people the most: health and environment. They capture the lives of the most vulnerable communities with stark reality and are a call to action.

“Eye on the Marsh” is a documentary film in progress that focuses on the decades long destruction of the once-thriving Pallikaranai marshland on the outskirts of South Chennai. Watch the trailer here. The film “Eye on the Marsh’’ describes the issue of water bodies vanishing from the cities by undertaking a visual documentation of the Pallikaranai wetland in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This crucial biodiversity zone has all but disappeared over the last 20 years due to the rampant violation of environmental laws by the public and the lack of political will to enforce such legislation.

Joining local communities and citizen groups in South Chennai, photographer and film maker Shaju John has tirelessly campaigned to create awareness of the urgent need to save the Pallikaranai marsh from encroachments. These largely illegal structures, apart from indiscriminate dumping of the city’s unsegregated garbage, are the main causes for the shrinking of ecologically sensitive wetlands from 6000 hectares to a tenth of that size. This drastic constriction of areas that acted as floodplains are the chief factors that exacerbated Chennai city’s mega-floods in 2005 and 2015, causing hundreds of crores of rupees worth of destruction, both to the States ecology and the economy. “Eye on the Marsh” will be the first in a series of films about solutions to preserve and save India’s fragile ecosystems under attack every single day.

To learn more about how you can support “Eye on the Marsh” and Shaju’s other films on the environment, visit: https://shajujohn.com/support/

An important film, Wounded Hills, is a 20-minute documentary that chronicles the destruction of India’s verdant and ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats by quarrying, logging and mining, and highlights the impact of climate change, as also the eternal conflict between people and nature.

More detailed interviews with climate and environment experts, as well as visuals shot over extensive areas of the country’s Western Ghats region will form the basis for a larger, more impactful documentary, planned for release next year. The film will highlight the growing challenges to communities living in areas vulnerable to environmental impact. It aims to inform and create awareness of the continued neglect of this crucial biodiversity hotspot among all the stakeholders concerned – communities that call it their home, big industry which has been responsible for ravaging large swathes of primeval forest, and, most importantly, policy-makers who are the custodians charged with safeguarding this virgin tropical rainforest region for future generations.