Synopsis for the Film

The tragedy of Lake Chilika- the largest coastal lake in the whole of Asia and a national symbol plays out in Nirad N. Mohapatra’s melancholic document of the gradual degradation of a thriving and unique ecology- home to rare endemic species found nowhere else like the close-to-extinction Irrawaddy Dolphins (only some 50 are believed to exist) and the rarely witnessed limbless lizard Barkudia Insularis and the winter abode of the visiting migratory birds from Siberia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. Even as the weeds and silt eat into the calm and beauty of the lake and the once expansive lagoon shrinks, vested interests aided by the incompetence, corruption and bureaucratic lethargy of the authorities promote uncontrolled expansion of prawn cultures that not just interferes with and pulls into chaos a fragile wetland eco-system but renders the native fishermen with no other options than to abandon traditional fishing methods for more aggressive and detrimental modern practices. Caught up in a futile rat race, the vastness of the Chilika is now criss-crossed and divided by fishing nets and run over by powerful diesel engines of the new boats. It is an ugly sight and Chilika is alone to helplessly bemoan the damning fate the humans have given her.

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