Bahar Dutt on ‘Shared Spaces’: Human beings are not outside nature

In India, wildlife exists in a sea of humanity. Still, their stories are often told as if human beings are outside nature, says award-winning environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, who believes this worldview stems from a Western cultural lens. It is this narrative that Shared Spaces, a six-part documentary series hosted by Bahar and filmed by her partner, Emmy-nominated wildlife filmmaker Vijay Bedi, deliberately subverts. “We tried to step away from the typical natural history format: blue-chip films being produced across the globe, which showcase animals living in beautiful forests,” says Vijay about the series, which is instead “told in the larger context of human-impacted wild spaces.”Diverse landscapesShared Spaces, indeed, dives deep into the country’s diverse landscapes ― forests, mountains, coastlines, and grasslands ― exploring the complex, multidimensional relationship between people and wildlife and highlighting the stories unique to each habitat. “The whole idea was also to look at different landscapes, beyond those inhabited by tigers,” says Vijay. “We wanted to go to regions not talked about enough, with many untold stories…shifting the focus away from megafauna, going to the small, rarest creatures India has and trying to show a slice of wildlife as well as the people living alongside.”And in the process, each of the films forces viewers to, in Vijay’s words, “think of shared spaces in a new way”, whether it is looking at community conservation initiatives in the Northeast to a controversial dog versus wildlife conflict unfurling in the grasslands of Maharashtra, ingenious elephant management methods in West Bengal, the consequences of wolves and dogs breeding and broader philosophical questions about whether infrastructure development and ecological sanctity can go hand in hand. Bahar Dutt | Photo Credit: Vijay Bedi According to Sai Abishek, the Head of Factual Entertainment, Lifestyle & Kids, South Asia, Warner Bros. Discovery, Shared Spaces stood out as a natural starting point for Animal Planet India’s new documentary anthology, India: Epic Wild Stories, which premiered on July 29. “In a country as ecologically and culturally diverse as India, coexistence is shaped by geography, communities and everyday realities, making it a subject that deserves a thoughtful, multi-dimensional exploration,” says Sai, who feels that this series is especially timely because these relationships are currently being redefined by habitat fragmentation, climate change and the increasing overlap between human and natural ecosystems.In his view, rather than treating these issues as abstract environmental challenges, Shared Spaces reveals how they shape the choices people make, the pressures wildlife encounters and the remarkable ways both continue to adapt. “Bahar Dutt’s deep understanding of India’s environmental landscape, combined with Vijay Bedi’s remarkable ability to capture the natural world with authenticity and cinematic depth, gives the series both credibility and emotional resonance,” says Sai.Beginnings Island elephants in a water corridor | Photo Credit: Vijay Bedi The idea for the series came about when The Habitats Trust, which has co-produced Shared Spaces with Bedi Universal, reached out to Vijay around four years ago, says Bahar. “The conversation started, and then Vijay drew me in...maybe the first project we worked on together,” she laughs, recalling the many arguments that ensued. “I have my own way of storytelling, because I am more direct, and he is a visual guy who thinks that things need to be told at a slower pace. But now, looking back, I think each of these different ways of storytelling contributed to that creative process,” she admits. And yes, Bahar’s “science background really helped,” interjects Vijay. “She was looking at it in different ways; not just as a journalist and storyteller, but as someone trained in science to tell the right kind of story.”Among the most important decisions they had to make was choosing which stories to include and which to leave out. They were careful not to point fingers at the communities who regularly interacted with wildlife. For instance, in one film titled Save Our Sharks, which focuses on the Indian shark crisis, “I did not want to villainise the small fisherman. Is he really the one to blame, or the giant trawlers who scoop up everything from the floor…or the various mega industries who are polluting the ocean and depleting marine diversity?” asks Bahar. Other criteria for the choice of stories, she says, were making sure that different landscapes across India, from the mountains to the desert, from a grand species like the tiger to a sea slug, had their moment to shine. A very rare shot of the Himalayan salamanders mating in the wild | Photo Credit: Vijay and Ajay Bedi Once they curated the stories and the landscapes in which they play out, it was time to immerse themselves in research. “We didn’t just write a script and go out and film,” says Vijay. Instead, they worked closely with several people and organisations, including “the Habitats Trust, wildlife researchers, policy makers, forest department and communities,” he says, adding that all the films were ready by the time Animal Planet came on board at the start of 2026. “They were launching this larger series showcasing Indian wildlife filmmakers, so it was really good timing,” believes Bahar.Cultivating awe and wonderWhile these films shed light on complex conservation issues, they do not lose sight of engrossing behaviours displayed by animals ― a pair of salamanders courting and mating, cut to ballet music, or elephants frolicking in water on an island ― and the humans they interact with, whether it is the concoction of a strange, smelly soup to ward off elephants or the way hunting cages are being transformed into nesting cages for hill mynahs in Meghalaya.“The idea was to make these natural history sequences interesting to audiences so they can understand and relate to the species,” he says, something Bahar concurs with. “We wanted these films to bring back the feeling of awe and wonder,” she says, pointing out that in the a very hyper visual world we live in, it would be lovely if someone watching even one clip looks at it and says, “wow” or books a trip to go and look at the Bugun (an endangered bird found close to the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh on community land) which is a tourism project run by the Bugun Tribe who donated their land for this bird. The Bugun liocichla, an endangered bird named after a tribe in Arunachal Pradesh, is a hugely successful model of community conservation | Photo Credit: Vijay Bedi They also hope the series will help draw more attention to the idea of shared spaces, given that humans have lived with animals for centuries in India. “For me, it is also about changing the language of conservation,” says Bahar, who encountered a peculiar challenge when writing her script, “because other than the term ‘shared spaces’, I couldn’t find any other words. Conservation biology in its vocabulary is extremely exclusionary,” she says.The makers of the series would like these films to eventually reach the people who actually live in these shared spaces and are most affected by the wildlife that also calls them home. “The fact that Animal Planet has come on board and is making it in regional languages makes it easier for us,” says Bahar, who believes that the next step is “small, non-commercial screenings for these communities we stayed with. We are going back,” she says.India: Epic Wild Stories is being telecast on Animal Planet and will be available on the Discovery+ platform.