With coffee shops popping up all over the US and beyond, the coffee demand has also grown dramatically. In a country primarily known for their tea, India has seen the growth of smaller coffee plantations rise dramatically over the last several decades. That growth now has native elephants and the coffee plantations competing for the same land, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries for both the elephants and the coffee workers.
A new documentary by Thomas Grant and Kansas-based Indian American author and photographer D.K. Bhaskar, “Elephants in the Coffee,” offers a glimpse into ongoing conflicts taking place in southern India.
Kansas Filmmaker, D.K. Bhaskar, explained that he learned of the conflicts between the elephants and humans, and believed that was an issue that should be light in the west.
”The elephants were accused of killing people in a nearby agricultural area,” he said. “In fact, more than 100 people are killed by elephants each year in India. And in turn the elephants are either captured and caged, or killed as well.”
The film is produced by CLIC Abroad, a non-profit group founded by Bhaskar. The organization is a cultural exchange program, which uses photography to connect students from the U.S. and India. The film is co-produced by Grant, a professor of journalism at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia.
So grab a cup of coffee and look for a screening of Elephants in the Coffee in a theater near you. See http://www.elephantsinthecoffee.com/ for more info.
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