KARACHI, Oct 25: Speakers at a function on Friday said that creating awareness among the masses regarding overgrowing pollution was the first and most important step towards stopping the process of environmental degradation.

They were speaking at the function organized to launch the third two-day travelling environmental film festival, “Vision of Nature”, organized jointly by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the TVE International Truth Talking Project, the Forum of Environmental Journalists and Karachi Gymkhana.

Corps 5 Commander, Lt-Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi, speaking on the occasion, said that the state of environment had degraded in the past few decades, but he hoped that with more awareness created and spread with the efforts made by organizations working for the conservation of nature, the future generations would have a better environment to live in.

He said that it was an enormous task the government, non-governmental organizations and the masses would be able to accomplish it only if they joined hands to play their part in bringing about improvement in the environment.

He suggested that the films being screened at the festival be recorded on CDs and marketed, so that everybody could get those easily.

Terming the films as educative, informative and entertaining at the same time, he said that those films had highlighted many of the issues, some of which were new even to him.

Earlier, WWF deputy director-general, Dr Ejaz Ahmad, said that every species had its role in the ecosystem and if any one became extinct it might break a link in the chain, which could prove detrimental to the entire ecosystem.

Citing an example of the awareness regarding nature conservation among the masses created by NGOs, he said that poachers, majority of whom were influential and belonged to the elite class, illegally hunted the snow leopard; but some time back the villagers in the northern areas caught a snow leopard which used to eat their goats, they put it in a hut and called the conservation organization. The animal was examined and vaccinated and released in the wild.

He said the films would soon be recorded on CDs and made available in the market in general and at the education institutions in particular to sensitize the young generation regarding the issue.

He said a film festival was organized at Alhamra in Lahore on Oct 21 and 22, and another one would be held at the Abpara Community Centre in Islamabad on Oct 30 and 31.

President Gymkhana president Ather Saeed, Rehana Ghani, Mr Faisal and others also spoke on the occasion.

Four films— “I Am Too Young, Struggle For Life, Contours Of Wilderness, and Water For Life were screened at the launching.

The films to be screened on Saturday include Aliens From The Planet Earth, Going, Going, Gone, Children Of Ri, Biodiversity, Waste Watchers, Emissions Impossible and Back To The Future.