August wrap up - heavy downpour
Starting off with a long-ish update from us. Bits and pieces from over the past few months as we bring you up to speed.
Given that we’re sending out a newsletter after a long while, let’s get right into the updates. We’ll share new thoughts and thought experiments once our regular programming with the newsletter has begun. Let’s go!
Moving Upstream: Ganga
Our documentary ‘Moving Upstream: Ganga’ from our 3000km walk along the Ganga has been showing at various festivals across the world, and we’ve also been trying to organise screenings across India. If you haven’t watched the documentary’s trailer yet, go here: https://youtu.be/3ak283B__Ns
Some festivals where the film was selected / has played in the past few months:
8th Kolkata People’s Film Festival
1st Jharkhand Science Film Festival
11th Cambodia International Film Festival
London Indian Film Festival
Trails Film Festival, Greece
On the June 2022 - World Environment Day, with the help of friends at Kriti Film Club, we had a screening of the documentary at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. It was a fun experience for us, with lots of post screening discussions.
If you have ideas or leads on places where we can screen our documentary, please write to us. We’re looking at festivals, events, community spaces, educational spaces, and any other experimental spaces to show the film and have discussions.
Moving Upstream Fellowship
Fellows Aishani Goswami, Bageshwer Singh, Pooja chand, Poorva Goel & Rahul Singh, from our Moving Upstream fellowship that we co-host along with the Out of Eden Walk, spent weeks walking along the River Sindh earlier this year. Their work has been published on Veditum’s website as well as some other publications, check them out below.
Some fellows from this iteration along the Sindh will be undertaking their walks later this year, while we plan for another iteration of the fellowship program along a different Indian river.
Story list:
Sindh: Across its banks and beyond
Introductory story, in English, by Aishani & Rahul, from their walk along the SindhFinding the Overstory
Introductory story, in English, by Bageshwer & Pooja, from their walk along the Sindhसिंध यात्रा : जिंदगी, आपदा और व्यवस्था से जद्दोजहद की अनसुनी कहानियां
Introductory story, in Hindi, by Aishani & Rahul, from their walk along the Sindhगंदी होती नदियों के बीच दिलासा देती है स्वच्छ सिंध, लेकिन रेत खनन से हैं चुनौतियां
Aishani & Rahul’s story for Mongabay India, on the condition of the River SindhWalking in the shadow of Madhya Pradesh’s devastating floods
Aishani & Rahul’s story for TheThirdPole (English) on the floods in River Sindhसाल 2021 के विनाशकारी बाढ़ के निशान अभी भी हैं मध्य प्रदेश में मौजूद
Aishani & Rahul’s story for TheThirdPole (Hindi) on the floods in River Sindh
Other features:
Along the Betwa on Living Waters Museum
Extracts from ‘Along the Betwa’, a book by our fellows Radhika Singh & Shail Joshi, from the Moving Upstream: Betwa fellowship, has been added to the Living Waters Museum websiteHow does Madhya Pradesh manage its floods?
Aishani & Rahul were invited for a twitter spaces discussion by TheThirdPole.
By the time we send out our next newsletter, we’ll have more stories published by our fellows, including Poorva’s introductory piece on Veditum’s site.
Publishing on Veditum
Checkout Khyati’s illustrated essay that explores the question “Where does the river flow”, inspired in part by our work at Veditum.
We’re fascinated with the idea that our work has contributed to the creation of such powerful art, and continue with the hope that our work will have lasting impact. Khyati’s essay is a brilliant example of the role that storytelling plays in effectively and simply communicating complex issues.
Veditum’s Activity Report
This report highlights major developments & highlights from our work for the period April 2021 - March 2022. Checkout the report at this link.
Public speaking, comments, interviews
Siddharth was featured in the April edition of the brilliant Environment of India newsletter, edited by Omair Ahmad. Check it out here: ‘The tragedy of misunderstanding the commons’.
For the event, ‘Urban Ecology, construction and climate change’ by Janaagraha and Rainmatter Foundation, Siddharth was on the ‘Building Materials’ panel, speaking about the impact of indiscriminate sand mining on our environment. Click here to access the complete session recording, and go here to access Siddharth’s presentation.
As part of their new Fridays for Water program, the Wednesdays for Water group hosted Siddharth for a talk on ‘Walking along River Ganga’. We’ll include a link to the recording from this session in the next newsletter.
We also spoke to TheBastion for their piece on the proposal to open sand mines within the Chambal Sanctuary. Read their piece: Profits, Protection, and People: Is Legalising Sand Mining in MP’s Chambal Sanctuary Worth it?
Collaborations / Partnerships / Call for entries
As we work towards planning and co-organising India Rivers Week 2022, take a look at this request for nominations by India Rivers Forum.
For conservationists working on Indian Rivers - Bhagirath Prayaas Samman
For media professionals documenting Indian Rivers - Anupam Mishra Memorial Medal.
Last date: 30th September 2022
Details: https://indiariversforum.org/nominations-awards-india-rivers-week-2022/
Sanctuary Nature Foundation currently has applications open for its Mud on Boots project that focusses on grassroots conservationists who need support. If you know anyone, help them apply. Last date: 30th September 2022
Details & form: http://bit.ly/mob23-25
Support out 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!
Here‘s the link where you can make donations: www.veditum.org/donate
Thanks for reading through! We’ll be back in a month with more updates, including stories, an update on our new environmental accountability project, and news about screenings and opportunities. Until then, take care and follow us on social media if you’re active on these platforms: facebook, twitter, instagram.
Warmly,
Siddharth Agarwal
Veditum