Hall of Fame
Receding Life Line
Documentary 4th July, 2018

Living in our well built houses and apartments in the urban jungle, talking about survival in the tea breaks, we mostly understand and mean about our struggle to get a better living, about promotions, about travelling around the world. But there are people, for whom survival means not knowing whether the thatch roof they are sleeping under tonight, will at all be there or not tomorrow. For them, survival means backing a step everyday to save themselves from the river grabbing their all.

Riverbank erosion in Mousuni Island of Sunderbans is occurring at a rate of 1.02 kms per year, wreaking havoc and claiming several houses and farmlands. Here, salinity ingress has rendered agricultural land uncultivated for years. Tidal flooding that occurs twice a month makes it even harder for the salinity level to come down, thus eventually transforming a farmer into a fisherman to make living by catching fish.

Women here struggle not for equality with men, but to fetch drinking water for their families. The children are not sure whether the school they are going today will be there tomorrow. They run for lives, holding the hands of their fathers; many a time their other hands hold the torn pages of books. Such a life lives them lonely, strongly traumatised and shying away from life. Institutional negligence and human interference are adding on to the situation. As a result, the presence of life along the coastal line are taking back gears and how.

As I have been working to document this great effect of global warming, I bring you a few glimpses from the receding lives of Mousuni.

About Photographer

Koushik Chatterjee
Koushik Chatterjee

Documenting the emotion & the true essence of daily life & contemporary society in his own manner, is what you’ll find in Koushik’s photos. This is what photography means to Koushik. Though Photography was not his profession but a passion since school days, when he has a surprise gift from his grandfather, which ultimately turned into an passion .
His photo was selected in the last round of “Rajjya Charukala Utsav” 2013 in West Bengal, his numerous photos were published in a magazine called “Sudhu Sunderban Charcha” including three cover page publication.
At present he lives in the City of Joy, Kolkata with his wife and two daughters.

Since 2013 Kousik has been doing group shows. He has been a participant in one of the most talked about exhibitions of Kolkata, Zindagi Ki Tasveer organized by Click Start From Kalighat aka CSFK at Gallery Gold in Kolkata since 2016. Other group shows, that he has taken part in, include Joining Hands at ICCR, Kolkata, at State Art Gallery, Hyderabad, at Lalit Kla Akdemy, New Delhi and with Narayanganj Photographic Club at Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Koushik got the 1st runner up place in singles category at “Because I Was There – 2 “ a competition organized by Narayangunje Photography Club Bangladesh in 2018.