Coast along

What lies beyond our vast coasts is something that captures the fancy of Selvaprakash Lakshmanan who documents the ravages of pollution, climate change and erosion, writes Arti Das

India has an impressive 7,500-kilometre odd coastline that covers nine states. This coast also provides livelihood to millions of people, mainly fishermen. Seldom do we hear about their stories, struggles, and issues like sand erosion, rising sea level, effects of development projects near the coast, overfishing, etc. But at the heritage monument, Reis Magos Fort situated in the coastal state of Goa, these stories have taken a centre stage.

Selvaprakash Lakshmanan

A video, playing on a loop in one of the galleries at the Fort, speaks about the plight of fishermen of Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. It is about the clash between the Indian fishermen and the Sri Lankan Navy in the year 2008, when they strayed into Sri Lankan waters. This story is one of the many stories told through 25-odd images as part of the photo exhibition titled, Life in Troubled Waters by Bengaluru-based independent photographer, Selvaprakash Lakshmanan. In the past decade, he has been documenting the lives of the people living on the coast who are affected mainly because of climate change and development projects in states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal.

Tracks of JCB machines line the sands in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, where an oil refinery is being built. The digging has triggered massive sand erosion. After several local protests, the sand is now being dumped close to the coastal villages

Finding focus

“I tried to focus on the human rights issue,” says Lakshmanan while speaking about the Rameshwaram project. He further adds that it has multiple issues on why these fishermen stray. “There has been a decline in the number of fish on the Indian coastline but the international demand for fish is high. Also, the distance between two trawlers is 2 nautical miles and these trawlers use huge nets. So, if you keep the boats in line, it will cross the international borders. Sometimes under-water current takes them. So, it is a multi-layered complicated issue,” elaborates Lakshmanan.

For Lakshmanan, this story made him more aware of the various issues people from the coast face. He then took it further when he was part of the coastal management workshop at Tuticorin organised by FOJO Media Institute in the year 2009. Herein, over 23 days, he made various field visits to the coastal areas and started exploring various issues. “I explored issues related to climate change and niche issues like the cultivation of exotic seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii) that grows on corals on the Gulf of Mannar, which results in killing of corals,” says Lakshmanan who received the National Foundation of India Fellowship for 2011-2012 and as part of this fellowship, exhibited his work in Delhi. His photos are also part of various photo festivals in India, Switzerland and Sweden and at the Angkor Photo Festival, Cambodia.

Also, his photos have been widely published in The New York Times, Forbes, and Der Spiegel as well as many other leading newspapers and magazines in India. He also covered fishermen protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, Gopalpur port activities in Andhra Pradesh, to name a few. Speaking about the repercussions of development projects, he says that they are just the symptoms of the issue. “The main reason is the way we consume. Our lifestyle is such that we can’t live even for ten minutes without electricity. Yes, there’s marketing technique (that makes us buy more). But, we need to be much more conscious about it,” states Lakshmanan.

he sea, captured in an extremely violent mode in Ennore, Tamil Nadu

Positivity

In between during this project, he took a break as he realised that he also had to focus on positive stories. He worked on stories like turtles rescue operations in Kasargod in Kerala. He is also planning to document how fishermen in Odisha take part in mass turtle nesting programmes and another one on the beach cleaning projects in Mumbai.

Lakshmanan’s photos, which are mostly in black and white, (as it gives more depth) are evocative and speak a lot about the issue amidst all the beauty that the photograph represents. For example, there’s an image of a thermal plant in the background and a dying mangrove in the foreground. It may look an interesting image from a distance but when you look closer, it will speak about the disaster. To explain it further, he gives an example of the cover image of Time magazine in August 2010 that featured Aisha, an Afghan woman who was disfigured by the Taliban. This award-winning image was clicked by South African photographer Jodi Bieber. “Bieber also faced a lot of criticism for this photo as the woman had applied make-up and was shot with soft focus. However, Bieber said that she wanted to show her as a woman first and then as a victim. I am trying to do something similar to my images. If you look close enough you will find the disturbing aspect of my images,” elaborates Lakshmanan who has 18 years of experience in photography.

When asked which story is close to him, he mentions the Rameshwaram story and the one at Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu in the year 2011 where an oil refinery was under construction. “I clicked this image where dredging was going on that triggered massive erosion. So, after a protest, the sand was now dumped near the coastal villages,” says Lakshmanan.
An argument with such projects is whether they will create an impact to bring in positive change? Lakshmanan states that change is a slow process and it is necessary to influence the policymakers first. His 10-year project is not yet over as he wants to continue to document coastal areas like Goa and its impact due to tourism activities.

(‘Life in Troubled Waters,’ a photography exhibition by Selvaprakash Lakshmanan is open till March 5 from 9.30 am to 5 pm (Monday closed) at Reis Magos Fort, Goa.)