The Third Arctic is a feature-length creative documentary that investigates the ecological and human consequences of climate change and unregulated infrastructure development in the Indian Himalayan region—home to the planet’s third-largest reserve of ice after the Arctic and Antarctic. Often referred to as the “Third Pole,” this mountain system sustains nearly two billion people across South Asia through its glacial-fed river networks. But as temperatures rise and governments accelerate hydropower, railway, and tunnel construction, this fragile ecosystem is rapidly destabilizing.
Set in the upper reaches of Uttarakhand, the film follows three individuals living on the frontlines of collapse: a fisherman in Birohi whose river has polluted and whose livelihood is gone; a displaced village head in Mayapur whose community was erased by dam projects; and a woman in the sinking town of Joshimath, where land subsidence has turned homes into ruins. Their narratives unfold within a broader visual inquiry into environmental trauma, state and corporate power, and cultural memory.
Through observational storytelling, interviews, drone footage, and scientific visualisations, The Third Arctic examines how development narratives have ignored scientific warnings and community resistance. It is a testimony of both a cinematic record and a political act, bringing attention to a region too often left out of the global climate conversation.
Currently in late research and early development, the project has established character access, preliminary footage, and collaborations with scientists from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, People Science Institute, and CEEDAR. The film seeks development fund support to complete filming at Birohi, Joshimath, Mayapur, and on Adi Kailash glaciers in Uttarakhand. With an artistic approach rooted in visual poetry and investigative nonfiction, The Third Arctic is a cinematic call to reimagine our relationship to the mountains, not as limitless resources, but as vanishing frontiers of survival and reverence.
