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Join Sena Desai Gopal for a talk about her experience growing up in Yadahalli, a village in Southern India whose days are numbered. In her lifetime it will drown in the backwaters of one of India’s biggest, most ambitious dams, The Upper Krishna Project. One hundred and seventy-six villages will go underwater, and more than 123,000 families will be displaced. The government does not have a concrete rehabilitation plan for the people who will be left homeless and without livelihoods.

Ms. Desai Gopal will address the universal problem, often referred to as, “Managed Retreat,” that resettles people displaced by floods, fires, droughts and more. Governments around the world are struggling to find the means to help people who are victims of natural and manmade catastrophes. They are falling short because they do not have the money or the know-how. A village carpenter needs to be rehabilitated in a village where he can continue his trade – or, the government has to build a new village with the infrastructure that needs a carpenter - not an easy task.

Sena Desai Gopal is the author of, The 86th Village which is based on the area she will be speaking about - doomed to drown in a dam. She is a journalist specializing in science and medicine, food, and travel. Her work has been published in The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Modern Farmer, and The Times of India, among others.

Are you interested in reading, The 86th Village? Borrow the book from the library by clicking this link. 

This program is cosponsored by the Ashland Public Library, the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, the Maynard Public Library, the Tewksbury Public Library and the Watertown Free Public Library. 

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