Celebration always comes with achieving and completing an unusual and surprising task. The result seems to be celebrated more than the efforts and struggles being undermined and subverted. As quoted, “The taller the buildings, the longer the shadows,” so is the history of the construction of the Hirakud dam. The historical backdrop of the structure of Hirakud Dam lies behind the fact of controlling floods in the delta region of the state. The damage caused due to the flood was in standing crops, human lives, cattle, livestock, houses, breaches, etc. The Government appointed several inquiry committees to suggest measures to tackle the situation, but the same drama was enacted - aerial surveillance, food supply, cloth, medicines, etc. The governing officers and politicians from the coastal regions desired to eliminate the menace of the flood. Hence, the construction of the Hirakud dam was suggested in the upper region of the Sambalpur district. There was a mismatch between the go-ahead date of construction and the actual date of construction. This resulted in the foregone conclusion of the dam’s construction and was not in consultation with the people affected by the submergence of their area. Hirakud is an architecture of stature that stands as the longest man-made earth dam which entices tourists from various regions. As a child, Ganesh Chandra Behera was so fascinated by architecture that the student made frequent visits to the site. His home is placed in an area where the gigantic architecture could be traced at full length with the naked eye. Gradually with the acknowledgement of the fact that the lifespan of the dam is just a hundred years and out of which sixty-five years have already passed, a sense of certain negative emotions and uncertainty is evoked.
Dam, Displacement, Hirakud, Mahanadi, Photography
