Sea change

At the recently concluded CMS Vatavaran Environment
 and Wildlife Film Festival and Forum, Priyanjana Dutta’s
“Chronicles of Oblivion” won the Livelihoods Award (with
 Rita Banerji’s “Shifting Undercurrents – Women Seaweed
 Collectors of Gulf of Mannar”) and the Best Editing Award.
The short documentary depicts the collision between
 conservation and livelihoods, in the context of the fishing
industry of Odisha. The unusual perspective of the film is a
 product of the director’s interactions with Dakshin
Foundation, a Bangalore-based NGO that works in the area,
 among others, of marine biodiversity conservation.The film,
funded by the Dakshin Foundation, is an account of the
 plight of fishermen and women in Odisha. It focuses on
 the aftermath of the declaration of nearly 1500 square
 kilometres of the coast and sea in Kendrapara being
 declared, in 1997, as the Gahirrmatha Marine Wildlife
Sanctaury. The restrictions on fishing activities that
followed resulted in a huge loss of livelihood, and
sometimes life, for those who depend on the sea.
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