Denmo - Himalayan Brown Bear

Directed by Akanksha Sood Singh

In the rarefied heights of the western Himalayas, an ancient creature that has featured in folklore and fever dreams for centuries, still prowls. The Brown Bear, or Ursus arctos isabellinus, was here before human settlements, villages, or electrified and militarized border fences arrived. Yet, today humans and the bears find themselves caught in an uneasy truce, a hostility over territory that doesn’t bode well for either species. Niazul Hassan Khan is a young wildlife scholar, a local who has known displacement from a troubled home too. He has returned to his community in Drass, Kargil to understand the Brown Bear, and broker peace between the animals and his people. As climate change hastens the glacial melt, and shortens winters, wreaking havoc on mountain communities, Niaz and his guide trek through the mountains searching for answers and a lasting possibility of survival for the land, its people, and the bear.