Missing the forest

Chhattisgarh's Forest Minister Vikram Usendi recently found himself desperately searching for a forest. Literally. It turned out that Usendi wished to make a documentary on himself and have some photographs taken for his personal album. Not unnaturally, the film-makers and photographers suggested he be shot against the background of a forest. Now, although he is forest minister, and comes from Antagarh, which has beautiful, dense forests, he cannot go there because he is on the Naxalites' hit list. His staff then began searching for a suitable "forest" against which he could be photographed and finally hit on a research centre on the outskirts of the capital city which had densely planted trees on its campus. The minister duly posed against this "forest" as the video-maker and photographers went to work.