Bela Negi is a filmmaker and writer with a long engagement with the Himalayas. Her debut feature film, ‘Daayen Ya Baayen’, and debut book, ‘The Tree with Eyes and Other Stories’, both emerge from the world of the mountains. Her work explores the contemporary realities of rural Uttarakhand: migration, disappearing villages, ecological change, and the complex relationship people have with place. While the Himalayas often appear in cinema and literature as landscape, her work focuses on the lives lived within them. Alongside film and literature, she works in education, livelihoods and environmental initiatives in Uttarakhand through her development work.