RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017 concludes its week long conclave at National Institute of Advanced Science (NIAS) at IISc

Bengaluru, 7-8th October, 2017: ‘ROUNDGLASS SAMSARA FESTIVAL 2017’, a global heralding of Conscious Action through Art, Appreciation and Dialogue, spear-headed by Grammy® Winner & Conservationist, Ricky Kej, concluded with two environmental summits that witnessed numerous thought leaders, scientists, legislators, intelligentsia, law-makers, artists & more from around the world.

Attended by hundreds of people from different walks of life, the summits were held in Vidhana Soudha on 7th Oct 2017 and at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS at IISc) on 8th Oct 2017.

 Summit 1 had Mr. Sunny Singh, Founder, RoundGlass welcome the delegates, highlighting the festival’s role in environment and its conservation. He also spoke about “RoundGlass 25-Year Plan” to make India and the world in general more sustainable. The closing statements were made by Prof. Baldev Raj, Director at NIAS.  He stressed on the importance of going past caste, creed, gender, region and physical appearances to achieve sustainability. 

Both the summits were attended by numerous dignitaries as speakers, participants and audience. The key speakers included Mr. Anote Tong (Former President, Republic of Kiribati), Mr. Robert Swan (Adventurist, Guinness Record Holder), Mr. Kartick Satyanarayanan (Animal Rights Activist, Rescue Specialist), Mr. Jairam Ramesh (Former Union Minister), Mr. Vivek Menon (CEO, Wildlife Trust of India), Ms. Dia Mirza (Brand Ambassador - Wildlife Trust of India), Mr. Mordecai Odega (Carnivore Ecologist, Kenya), A.S. Kiran Kumar (Chairman, ISRO), Meital Rusdia (Chief Field Office for UNICEF South India), Kalyan Akkipeddi (Founder of Proto Village- a Sustainable Village), Dr. Barbara Maas (Conservationist), Tashi and Nungshi Malik (Adventurists, Guinness record holders), Dhritiman Mukherjee (Nature/Wildlife Photographer) and Professor Sundar Sarukkai (Professor of Philosophy at NIAS, Bangalore). The talks touched upon topics such as Sustainability, Man-Animal Conflict, Climate Change, empowering people, Conservation and associated misconceptions.

The event also had Hon’ble Chairman of the Legislative Council, D H Shankaramurthy present the RoundGlass Samsara Festival Lifetime Achievement Awards to Mr. Anote Tong, Mr. Robert Swan and Mr. Vivek Menon on Day 1 of the Summit at Vidhana Soudha.

The festival recognised the importance of our forest range officers, who are on the front line, and awarded two extraordinary such offices. Ms. Dia Mirza presented the awards to Mr. Sudarshan Y V and Mr. Porerappa.

Summit 2, along with some thought-provoking, soul-stirring presentations and interactions, also saw a glitzy award ceremony honouring winners of the RoundGlass Samsara film festival and RoundGlass Samsara photography competition, all with the theme of nature, environment and conservation.

The film festival, produced and curated by Mr. Srinivasa Santhanam, had distinguished jury members of Mr. Sundar Sarukkai (Professor in Philosophy, NIAS, Founder-Director of Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University), Prof. Anindya Sinha (Indian Primologist & Professor at NIAS), Mr. Alphonse Roy (Emmy-Award Winning Director), and Mr. Fredric Ollerstam (Swedish Director). The photography competition was judged by Mr. Amoghavarsha (Award-winning photographer), Mr. Dhritiman Mukherjee (Award-wnning Wildlife Photographer), Mr. Ganesh H Shankar (Award-winning nature photographer), Mr. Vijay Mohan Raj (Chief Conservator of Forests). Winners details are appended.

The summits, along with intellectual exchange of thoughts and ideas, also had musical performances for creating environmental consciousness. The Raveolution String Section; Grammy® winners, Monks of Sherbaling; Vietnaemse Dan Tranh Musician, Hai Phuong; Grammy® Nominee from USA, Lonnie Park performed during the Summits.

RoundGlass Samsara Festival President, Mr. Ricky Kej, Grammy® Winning Musician & Conservationist, said, “The RoundGlass Samsara Summits was founded to encourage high-level, inter-disciplinary dialogue between Legislators, Scientists, Filmmakers, Artists, Environmentalists, Innovators, Musicians, Thought Leaders, Industry Leaders, Media and other important change-makers in the society to find solutions for the ecological crises in the country and around the world and to promote environmental conservation. Through these summits, we hope to not only create awareness of what we are doing but to also create a consciousness about our actions in this world and the impact it has on all our co-inhabitants.”