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Graphic art: “There is no harvest”

Appupen does a visually rich adaptation of Manipuri activists against dam projects that have displaced thousands, and flooded their lands

The graphic novelist George Mathen, who writes under the pen name of Appupen, deals extensively with the issues of sustainability in his Halahala series. In this piece, he adapted an interview with Dominic Huimi Kashung from the Citizen’s Concern for Dams and Development (CCDD), based out of Manipur. CCDD was awarded at the “Bhagirath Prayaas Samman” at  India Rivers Week in November 2016. The Samman (honour) was instituted in 2014, as a way for those who have done sustained work or contributed (prayaas) to the work of sustaining rivers. The northeastern states have had a history of large dams, and the struggle of local indigenous people being affected by large-scale construction, while the benefits of electricity flow to urban centres far way.