Film Project "The People's Tree"

Human geographer Febe De Geest worked collaboratively with two interlocutors in Nagpur, Central India, to produce an ethnographic film that examines how environmental regulation reshapes everyday livelihoods. Embedded within a larger research project on the social and cultural dimensions of extreme heat and flooding in Central India, the film follows Teja and Rohit, two brothers who earn their living as traditional tree trimmers, as new conservation laws increasingly constrain their work. Through their experiences, the film explores how caste, community obligations, and ecological governance intersect, revealing the uneven costs of environmental change. By tracing the tensions between environmental protection and human sustenance, De Geest foregrounds how labour, culture, and resilience are entangled within a fragile and rapidly transforming natural world.