As tides devour villages, 16 women with cameras fight to save their vanishing heritage. An exhibition in Chennai showcases their startling images. In Odisha’s town of Ganjam, there were once two girls who played on the beach, in peals of laughter as they ran into a glistening blue sea.
Now, the beach exists only in their memories: the high tides have devoured the sand bed. This is one of the stories captured in photographs taken by Ch. Pratima, a fisherwoman, displayed in Chennai’s Lalit Kala Akademi as part of an ongoing seven-day exhibition in collaboration with People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) titled “Chronicles of the Tides: Migration, Conflict and Climate.
” It is open to the public until September 29. The exhibition presents 400 photographs taken by 16 fisherwomen across the fishing communities of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Ganjam in Odisha. Also Read | Sustainable fishing sorely needed to save sharks off India’s coastline Both towns share a rich history with the sea; this connection has not only transformed the town’s people and communities, but the very landscape itself.
Nagapattinam is an old Port Town, dating back to the Chola empire, when it was called Naval Pattinam or “The city of ships.” Today, it remains a leading fishing port in Tamil Nadu, known for its high fish production. The State ranks third in the country for fish yield production.
Odisha ranks as the fourth largest fish producing State in the country owing to its extensive co.
