The Sundarbans, a field for anthropogenic climate change and rising sea level, faces challenges. Humanity and ecology constantly battle in an environment of frequent cyclones and unpredictable monsoon rainfall patterns. Flood is almost an annual affair in the deltaic region of Sundarbans. These devastating floods have an enormous impact on the national economy, in addition to causing hardships for people, and disrupting the livelihood in urban and rural areas.
In 2020, Kolkata suffered from flooding and storms of historic proportions. The city suddenly crumbled down leading to the question - Will Kolkata have to cope with the challenges of severe flooding again in the future?
Our modern scientific knowledge has led many people to believe that even natural disasters can be contained by using the power of technology. In the process, one has forgotten to apply the common sense that allows a person to help save the city and its ecosystems around it by regularly practicing and endorsing some of the simple and already existing practices from earlier time.
The best way to face the prospect of natural disasters is to create a living environment that allows us to feel as safe as possible without impinging on the lives of the ordinary. If people do have to face major disasters, they should only need to consider how to cope by using individual skills they have accumulated in the course of their ordinary lives. This can only be attained through conscious efforts and regular practice.
The pop-up installation on the ground of Science city included showcasing of moving images, visuals and a virtual reality experience with an aim of making people aware of the concerns and showing them a way to simply contribute towards saving the mangroves and in turn saving the city from some serious effects of climate change.
Artist’s details: SAYANTAN MOITRA
Sayantan Maitra is an architect and scenographer. He heads an interactive design firm, Illusion In Motion and is the Chief Coordinator of the NGO, Shelter Promotion Council (India), through which he has curated Public Art Festivals in different parts of North East India to identify and question issues, employing the
language of contemporary and new media art. It is a Voluntary Organisation consisting of social activists, architects, engineers, scientists, artists, environmentalists and planners. The council has produced public art festivals in Sikkim called Blooming Sikkim Public Art Festival and Hornbill Public Art Festival in Nagaland, the first of its kind which comprised a melange of new media art and contemporary art addressing issues of socio political and environmental nature in North East of India. Recently it has produced No Man's Land, a public art project at the international border of India and Bangladesh in East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya. Artists from across the border came and did site specific work, a first of its kind. At the moment he is working intensively in the Sundarbans of making sustainable flood shelters using locally available material.
