I am proud to announce the arrival of the mini-documentary, Rising Tides: Sunderbands, India. This documentary is the work of the India, Asia team of Project Survival Media. I asked team leader Ekta Kothari to tell me about her experience making the film, and she did!
“The story was incredibly powerful to film. I could never put the experience into words, but let me try to paint you a picture:
The Sunderbans is a place with many riches – An archipelago of mangrove ecosystems, and home to the Royal Bengal Tigers, boasting a biodiversity extremely rich in flora and fauna – right next door to my city, Kolkata.
And yet, the first time I visited these islands, all I could find was devastation. The region had just been hit by the biggest cyclone on the last 40 years – The Aila.
I went there as part of a medical team that was going to provide them with basic medicines and amenities till the Government supplies arrived. As we visited more and more villages, I realized that it was the same story everywhere: People suffering from Diarrhea, skin diseases, food poisoning, blood pressure. They had no food for themselves or for their children. And it had been 5 days since the cyclone!
Everywhere I saw, there were broken houses, uprooted trees, flooded fields and dead animals. Every house had a story to tell of a loved one they had lost. Death was looming heavy.
And yet, I could see the smiles on the faces of children, upon seeing us. Women blushed when I noted their blood pressure, and men would fein strength as we would tend to their wounds. That is the Sunderban, that is India.
Life goes on. There is so much more to worry about today, that the yesterdays are washed away with the tide.
I invite you to watch this film, and reflect a bit on the ways in which our lives are all connected, even on the other side of the globe – knowingly, and unknowingly.”
- Ekta
Ekta Kotari is the Asia Team co-Leader with Project Survival Media. We are eleven teams of youth new media journalists on all seven continents, reporting on communities already impacted by climate change, and covering survival stories from the UN climate negotiations in Copehnagen.
