KOLKATA: A documentary on climate refugees made by SRFTI director Himanshu Khatua has been chosen in the non-feature category of the Indian Panorama. Satabhaya, once a cluster of seven villages in Odisha, is said to be the first region affected by climate change. During the shooting of ‘The Sea and Seven Villages’, the last native village and a temple fought the wrath of the sea. But the sea gobbled everything by the time the shooting of the documentary was over.
In 2020, Khatua visited Bhitarkanika National Park. “As an eco-tourist, I heard stories of people shifting in Satabhaya since their villages were getting washed away. At that time, I was heading a television channel in Odisha. I wanted to visit those people. Eventually, we managed to meet these 500-odd families in the Bagapatia climate refugee colony in Rajnagar of Kendrapara district. The sea had taken away their land but it couldn’t take away their memories,” Khatua said.
