April 2025: Environmental Storytelling
This month we're focussing on environmental storytelling - from documentaries to popular writing and public talks, there's a lot to wade through. Let's go!
Introduction
Since the start of our work at Veditum, we’ve maintained a focussed effort towards storytelling as a way to amplify environmental & social concerns, help people build connections, and invite participation from people of various backgrounds.
In connection with our work on rivers, we’re starting off with a twin highlight on a documentary and a published article. These highlight rivers and the sediments, lives, & stories they hold in their waters.
#1 - Moving Upstream: Ganga
This month, we celebrate a whole year of our documentary - Moving Upstream: Ganga - being launched for public viewing on our YouTube channel! (3rd April 2024)
In the past year, the documentary - which features Siddharth’s 3000+km walk along the river Ganga - has garnered over 6.3k views on YouTube, taking the stories of this incredible river and its people to audiences around the country (and the world!).
You can watch the documentary at the link given below.
#2 - Muddy Waters
What is a river? In their recent article published on India Water Portal, Aishani and Rhea from the Veditum team trace the journey of a river from its source to the sea and uncover the hidden component - sediment - that influences the river’s trajectory, creates habitats, nourishes floodplains, and sustains ecosystems.
Read more about the role of sediment in shaping riverine systems, and the severe consequences of the removal or obstruction of sediments from our rivers, at this link - Muddy Waters: The Role of Sediments in River Hydrology.
Moving Upstream
Pipes and pomegranates: Unfolding surprises along River Luni
We just published a piece by Avisha Jain, a fellow from the Moving Upstream: Luni fellowship, based on her 150+ kms walk along River Luni with co-fellow Suraj Singh. Avisha writes:
“The landscape here changed every second day: from sandy river beds to a surface pockmarked in rainwater pools; from the stench of textile effluents to vibrant fields of water-guzzling fruits like pomegranates”
Read the article for a deep dive into a transforming dry desert ecosystem - Pipes and Pomegranates
The Moving Upstream: Luni fellowship is a joint initiative by Veditum India Foundation and School of Publc Poilcy, IIT Delhi, with support from A4Store and the Out of Eden Walk.
Support our work
If you like the work we do at Veditum, do consider making a tax deductible donation to support our work. No amount is small! Click the button below to make a donation.
India Sand Watch
We’re looking for collaborators in Madhya Pradesh!
Help us expand our network in Madhya Pradesh. If you or someone you know works on environment & river related issues in the state, please get in touch or share details via the form at this link → River / Ecology contacts from Madhya Pradesh. You can also email us at sandwatch@veditum.org
ISW Data Sprint with volunteers
We hosted a Data Sprint on 18th March, to clean up and update our database that supports the archive of evidence on the India Sand Watch project. 12 enthusiastic volunteers participated on a Tuesday evening, learnt about the work we do at India Sand Watch, some of the processes of our environmental accountability work, and collectively updated data sets for 2 hours.
You can also volunteer with Veditum, read more at this link.
Sediment Stories
It has been a year that we started Sediment Stories, a series of conversations around sediments and we have had 6 insightful conversations with some amazing folks. Visit this page to learn more about sediments and view all the past recordings + writings.
For our 7th Sediment Stories conversation, we spoke with Keyur Sarda, founder of Kesarjan Building Center. He shared about his work on recycling construction and demolition waste to make building materials which are stronger, aesthetic and economically competitive. His practice helps in reducing the demand of extracting fresh resources such as sand from riverbeds.
For our 8th Sediment Stories conversation on 3rd May, we will be hosting Dr. Priyank Patel, Assistant Professor of Geography at Presidency University. His research focusses particularly on rivers, and his courses are mainly centered around the physical aspects of Geography - Geotectonics and Geomorphology.
If you’d like to attend the session, send us an email on sandwatch@veditum.org, and we will sign you up. The official poster and registration link is yet to be released.
Talks, Events, Conferences, etc
OpenNyAI Residency 2024
The Veditum team participated in the OpenNyAI Makers residency hosted by Agami in September 2024 at the TinkerHub Space in Kochi. We brainstormed, discussed, and co-defined a problem statement between a group of people with backgrounds in law, technology and the development sector.
In the context of our work on evidence collection for environmental accountability, we identified gaps which could be solved with technology and prototyped solutions. Watch this video published by Agami to learn more, and read about our experience on this link.
This work is now being deepened with our collaborators, and hopefully we’ll have something to show to you soon!
Multispecies Dispute Resolution Canvas
Veditum co-hosted the Multispecies Dispute Resolution canvas in Kolkata, part of a larger shared effort between Agami and Socratus. These canvases are an exploratory attempt at reimagining what law and justice could mean in a multispecies world.
Through a mix of holding space on our relationship with the world beyond ourselves and an exercise of creating our own ‘Climate Recipes’, we explored the idea of a multi-species paradigm.
Workshop at Presidency University, Kolkata
Veditum’s founder Siddharth delivered a talk titled “Learning about India’s rivers by walking along them and protecting them through open data” at a 2 day workshop organised by Dr. Priyank Patel at the Dept. of Geography, Presidency University in Kolkata.
The talk was well received and many college professors in attendance have expressed an interest in inviting Veditum to their classrooms as well!
Publishing
Khazans of Chorao Island
Our team member, Rhea Lopez, has long researched and documented the khazan agro-fisheries of Chorao Island, Goa. For the Goa Water Stories Initiative by the Living Waters Museum, she put together an exhibit. Using sound, photographs, maps, illustrations and text, the exhibit simulates a slow walk around the outer edge of the island, as a way to explore challenges of land-use change and unchecked development that threatens this ancient system.
Explore the exhibit here: Khazans of Chorão Island
Recommended people / groups to follow
Rooted in the belief that oral history is as much an act of resistance as a means to archive people’s history, Nandini Oza’s archival project - Oral History: Narmada - shares people’s histories of the mass resistance against the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP).
Explore the stunning archive at this link: Oral History NarmadaThe inspiring Kham River Restoration Mission celebrates 3 years of restoring and revitalizing the Kham River in Maharashtra. Watch this video on their key achievements and impacts on the local community and environment. Learn more about their journey and future plans at kham.ecosattva.in
Interesting / recommended / related reading for this edition
James Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, delivered an insightful lecture titled “In the Praise of Floods” - a socio-ecological ode to the often unacknowledged but vital work floods do for ecosystems, humans and non-humans alike. Watch the entire lecture here: In the Praise of Floods
Support our work
If you like the work we do at Veditum, do consider making a tax deductible donation to support out work. No amount is small! Click the button below to make a donation.
Thank you for reading through! We’ll see you soon with more updates! Until then, take care and follow us on social media if you’re active on these platforms:
VEDITUM : Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube
MOVING UPSTREAM: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
INDIA SAND WATCH: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Warmly,
Team Veditum
Avisha's and Suraj's report is extremely interesting - I sincerely hope you both continue exploring and sharing your adventures...🙏🏾