Sholay (1975)

Sholay (1975)

Sholay, Dabangg Dialogues to teach About Forest Fires In Uttarakhand Elaborating upon the initiative, the officer said the most idea behind such awareness posters was to form people stop and skim them in order that they take the knowledge back with them.

SHOLAY

Sholay (1975)

The Uttarakhand forest department is employing dialogues from hit Bollywood films like Sholay, The Dirty Picture, Dabangg, among others, to spread awareness about preventing forest fires.
The initiative is the brainchild of Rudraprayag divisional forest officer Vaibhav Singh.
Elaborating upon it, the officer said the main idea behind such awareness posters was to make people stop and read them so that they take the information back with them.
“Any awareness campaign should be catchy and attractive with the aim that folks don’t easily forget the essential information. If people stop and watch for even once and then share it with others our job is done. We have been getting a very good response from locals since the posters were put up,” said Singh.
Around 1,500 posters are made thus far with almost 200-odd posters already placed in every forest range. The posters also give information on punishment for setting forests on fire, that is, a fine of Rs 5,000 and imprisonment up to two years. It also has the hearth room numbers mentioned in order that people can call and alert the department about any fire incident.
With lockdown relaxations and movement allowed in green zones from today, officials also fear that fire incidents could increase.

Uttarakhand has lost 11 hectares this year with 18 incidents of the forest fire.

“We have been lucky till now because there have been rains every two-three days maintaining the moisture content, but now temperatures are rising. With the relaxations being given to people in the lockdown, there might be a probability of forest fires. With more and more people coming back to their villages, movement in forests has also increased,” added Singh.

The awareness posters are mostly being put up at markets and places where people go on a regular basis so that more people can see them.

Official records show that wildfire incidents this year had come down by over 50% till April amid the lockdown enforced to fight coronavirus.

Most cases of forest fire incidents in the state are man-made and the reduced number of cases is likely due to the restricted movement of people in and near forest areas.

BK Gangte, nodal officer for forest fires in the state, said that cases of wildfires have been significantly less this year, but it cannot be said if it is an effect of the lockdown. The department is analyzing the data, he added.

In Uttarakhand, 0.17% of total forest cover comes under the extremely fire-prone category, 1.60% under very highly fire-prone, 9.32% under highly fire-prone, 21.66% under moderately fire-prone and 67.25% under less fire-prone category.

Since the formation of the state in 2000, over 44,554 hectares of the forest area has been damaged in forest fires accruing a loss of over Rs 185 lakh, revealed an RTI reply by the government last year.

The forest department has around 174 watchtowers and 1,437 station crew across the state to keep a tab on the forest fires and take measures to check them.

WATCH: When Amitabh Bachchan Stood By Amjad Khan As Family Which Deepened Their Friendship Did you know that there was a time when Amitabh Bachchan took care of all the hospital paperwork and formalities of Amjad Khan when the latter was severely injured in an accident?

Actor and director Amjad Khan has worked in over 130 films in a career spanning nearly twenty years. He enjoyed popularity for villainous roles in Hindi films, the foremost famous being the long-lasting Gabbar Singh within the 1975 classic Sholay and of Dilawar in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. His first role was in the film Nazneen in the year 1951. Amjad Khan was offered the role of dacoit Gabbar Singh for the film Sholay by Salim Khan, who was one of its writers. For the role, Amjad read Abhishapth Chambal, a book on Chambal dacoits written by Taroon Kumar Bhaduri.

His portrayal of Gabbar Singh is considered by many to be the first depiction of pure evil in the Indian Cinema. His mannerisms and dialogues became an integral part of the Bollywood lexicon and spawned numerous parodies and spoofs. Especially the dialogue "Soja Nahi to Gabbar Aajayega". Sholay went on to become a blockbuster. Although it had an ensemble cast of superstars including Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad stole the show together with his unorthodox and amazing dialogue delivery. Even to this day, people fondly remember his dialogues and mannerisms.
Amjad Khan was not only an amazing actor but a great person too. It is said that in the film industry anyone who goes through a hard time, is helped by friends but no one else helped the way actor Amjad Khan used to help. Amjad Khan not only helped his family and friends but also people he never knew and stood with them through difficult times.
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In an interview, his Sholay co-star Amitabh Bachchan praised Amjad Khan very much and shared an incident. He said that when he got seriously hurt while filming the movie Coolie, Amjad Khan helped him a lot. He not only showed empathy for his family but stayed in the hospital all night and whenever needed, ran here and there to help them out. Amitabh remains grateful to Amjad for this even today.

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The drug administered during his operation caused him to realize tons of weight, which led to further health complications. 6 years after the accident in 1992 Amjad Khan bid goodbye to the planet thanks to coronary failure at the age of 51. Big B has often spoken about his friendship with the superstar on his blog and interviews. Recollecting the memories of his first meeting with the late actor on the sets of the 1975 blockbuster, Amitabh Bachchan wrote in his blog, "... A journey crammed with happiness and joy and togetherness and trying times and difficult times. But the intensity of our friendship always remained. We spent some anxious times at various stages of our friendship... His accident, my accident then his sudden death but there was a bond that remained unspoken between us and still does...."
Infact, in an interview, Amitabh Bachchan once said, "Amjad Khan lived life king size and loved to form friends but it had been unfortunate that when his friends use to betray him, he wouldn't take at bottom instead pardon them." Besides "Sholay", the 2 amazing superstars shared screen space in "Ahsaas", "Suhaag", "Mr. Natwarlal", "Laawaris" among others.
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