Actor-choreographer Raghav Juyal recently shared a video on social media standing at a waterfall in Dehradun, requesting people to not pollute the area. Soon the video was posted by a paparazzi account, where actor Abhinav Shukla, a nature enthusiast himself, left a comment and urged people to “not popularise” such rare places for the sake of their “fancy reel”.
“It was a viral video post I commented on. I don’t know Raghav personally at all. I just know that he does a lot of guided treks,” Shukla tells us, when asked about what promoted his reaction.
Clarifying that he isn’t targeting any one person or Raghav in particular, Shukla expresses displeasure with the influencer community at large, who end up over promoting rare places they visit, on social media.
Here is the video where it all started:
“My objection is to all the influencers who have been to natural places, which were earlier rarely visited, and made them famous enough that the commercial adventure operators have started bringing hundreds of people. Thereby, ruining the sanctity of the forest and natural habitat of animals, especially the animals which avoid human confrontation,” he explains.
In the last two decades, Shukla himself has done some 200 treks and 60-80 camp-outs in the wilderness, across India. “But out of all those outdoors I have done, I have scrupulously posted videos, especially if they were of locations that are pristine, and home to rare, sometimes endangered, animal species living in their original habitat,” he says, adding, “I have maintained secrecy. I know if I post about those or get the commercial adventure organisers there, then people will come there in large numbers, and it will inevitably get polluted endangering the ecosystem and habitat of animals. There is no rocket science in understanding this simple fact.”
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The 41-year-old, however, mentions that he does not have any problem with common people going to such beautiful hidden gems. “Everyone has an equal right to enjoy nature’s bounty. But, if I am responsible for making the place famous by my reels, then I don’t get to make another reel to cry about pollution. That, I feel, is hypocrisy!” he notes, and goes on to the pretentious image people portray on social media.
“It is easy to spot a person who actually loves nature and a person who is pretending to be for the sake of image building. A few of my Bollywood fellows are into it for only image building. Even if one is doing it to portray his image as a nature lover, I have no issue, but one can’t be hypocritical. You can’t say I am living with nature and be unaware that you lit fire next to a live tree when it was not a survival situation but a photo op which required it, or making an emphatic reel on finding a plastic bottle in a waterfall made famous by social media,” Shukla elucidates, highlighting how far certain people go for just a photo op for social media.
And therefore, as a self-professed nature lover, Shukla is absolutely against promoting mass tourism to sensitive places. “Treat the forests like your home. As famous personalities, it is our job not to promote mass tourism to ecologically sensitive places which, eventually encourages profit oriented tour operators to bring people in numbers, eventually leading to habitat destruction. People who are actually working on ground, planting trees, taking steps to preserve the sanctity of forests and nature, don’t make many videos. They are the unsung heroes we should look up to,” he concludes on a thoughtful note.
