The exhibition is not meant for victims or beneficiaries of disasters, but for those who assume coastal flooding affects only fisherfolk or coastal communities.
Published Oct 10, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 10, 2025 | 9:00 AM
The exhibition, which will run until 19 October, is a wake-up call – to feel, act, and protect the state’s coasts against the mounting threat of tidal flooding.
Synopsis: An ongoing month-long exhibition at the Kerala Museum in Kochi immerses visitors in the realities of coastal flooding through art, science, and community engagement. Curated by Radha Gomaty and hosted by Resilient Kochi, the exhibition—titled KabhumM!!!—uses installations such as The Flooded House and performances depicting displacement to communicate the chronic impact of tidal flooding on Kerala’s communities, urging awareness, empathy, and local action.
It is a thunderclap that jumps straight out of a comic book page, shaking the walls of the Kerala Museum in Kochi. KabhumM!!!, short for Kathunna Bhoomi in Malayalam, meaning Burning Earth, is a month-long exhibition that fuses art, data, and community action into an immersive experience that grabs the senses.
From KabhumM!!!
Curated by artist and educator Radha Gomaty and hosted by Resilient Kochi, a coalition of artists, scientists, and community organisations, the exhibition draws on insights from Equinoct Community Sourced Modelling Solutions and the Community Resource Centre, Puthenvelikkara, both advocates of coastal resilience.
This is not a passive show. Visitors step into the story, interact with installations, and witness the power of art and science collide.
The exhibition, which will run until 19 October, is a wake-up call – to feel, act, and protect the state’s coasts against the mounting threat of tidal flooding.
The exhibition is not meant for victims or beneficiaries of disasters, but for those who assume coastal flooding affects only fisherfolk or coastal communities, Equinoct’s research director Sreeja KG told South First.
“Most natural disasters grab attention because they come with a loud sound – like a landslide. Their severity and visibility ensure an immediate response from authorities. But we often fail to notice slow disasters like coastal flooding. It doesn’t happen in a single day or show a dramatic overnight impact, yet it demands urgent action,” she said.
KabhumM!!!
“That’s why we named the exhibition KabhumM!!! – the sound you see in old comic books, a loud call for attention.”
Sreeja explained that since 2020, Equinoct has been conducting extensive research on coastal flooding, focusing on how affected communities can actively contribute to solutions. She and Equinoct’s co-founder and CEO CG Madhusoodhanan had earlier carried out an impact analysis study on the 2018 Kerala floods for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
“The biggest takeaway from that study was the huge gap in our monitoring systems. Kerala’s hydrology is unique because of the Western Ghats. While our disaster analysis often depends on large datasets—like satellite imagery—the actual changes occur at hyperlocal levels. Climate change is global, but its impact is deeply local. Even within Ernakulam, the effects differ from one panchayat or ward to another,” she added.
To illustrate, Sreeja pointed out that Ernakulam district has only one tidal gauge, located at Willingdon Island. These gauges are vital for recording high and low tides and tracking extreme tidal events.
“We set up manual tidal gauges in 20 houses in Puthenvelikkara to monitor local water-level changes. Interestingly, it took 45 minutes for the area to experience a flood rise after the Willingdon Island gauge recorded an increase,” she said.
“This shows how much we lack hyperlocal observation systems. If minute changes were recorded properly, we could identify early warning patterns and act faster.”
Coastal flooding is increasing rapidly, according to Sreeja, and building a dense monitoring network is costly for the government.
From KabhumM!!!
“But we can build it with the community’s help, using their indigenous knowledge,” she said.
“Right now, people in flood-prone areas are merely seen as victims or beneficiaries of relief schemes, not as collaborators in monitoring. Riverine and coastal flooding require continuous observation, and that’s possible only when local communities are involved.”
Equinoct has already begun building a community-based observation network, where residents record water-level changes and share data through WhatsApp groups. This citizen-generated data can help panchayats in future planning and flood forecasting.
“We began by identifying the problem and now we’re moving toward building solutions. We don’t even have accurate data on how many houses are affected by coastal flooding,” she said.
“In one case, a panchayat official told us that while testing salinity levels before shrimp farming, they found the pH levels had become similar to seawater. These are the kinds of subtle changes that must be tracked systematically – and for that, we need local knowledge.”
Few people realise that in cities like Kochi, coastal neighbourhoods endure flooding not once a year but sometimes twice a week. Yet, these recurring disasters rarely enter mainstream conversations. KabhumM!!! set out to change that – and succeeded.
Unlike most art or science exhibitions, which tend to draw an elite audience, KabhumM!!! attracted a diverse public turnout. According to the organisers, even Kerala Museum authorities acknowledged the strong participation of ordinary visitors alongside policymakers, scientists, biodiversity experts, and research institutions.
The exhibition is witnessing an overwhelming turnout of everyday visitors.
“This exhibition has brought together everyone, from policy thinkers to local communities,” said Sreeja.
“We can’t take everyone on field visits to show what tidal flooding really means. But art can make people feel it. If we simply present research data, it may not reach the common public. Art can communicate the urgency directly in ways science sometimes cannot.”
At the heart of KabhumM!!! stands The Flooded House, a life-size reconstruction inspired by real homes in flood-affected coastal areas.
Visitors walk through waterlogged rooms filled with displaced furniture, half-packed belongings, and damp books – a haunting portrayal of families forced to live amid rising waters for months every year.
The exhibition weaves together installations, performances, and stories of loss and resilience. Artist Babitha’s work draws inspiration from historian J Devika’s Kadalkutty, where paper boats suspended from the ceiling evoke Kerala’s maritime heritage.
MR Vishnuprasad’s Eviction Camp and Jalam Theatre’s Chevittorma explore the displacement and endurance of communities facing repeated inundation.
Justice Devan Ramachandran inaugurated the exhibition.
Justice Devan Ramachandran, who inaugurated the exhibition, called it an education in empathy. He remarked, “We cannot rebuild the coast with concrete, we need imagination.”
Experts caution that Kochi’s tidal flooding reflects the intersection of climate change, sea-level rise, and unplanned urbanisation. What once seemed a seasonal nuisance has grown into a chronic environmental crisis, demanding new models of governance. Studies by Equinoct estimate that over 20,000 households across 25 local bodies are now affected from November through June, months before the monsoon even begins.
Yet, no comprehensive mechanism exists to record these losses or coordinate relief efforts.
For the people of Chellanam, Kumbalangi, and Paravur, the reality is devastating. Families spend their entire savings repairing homes that decay faster each year.
“It’s not just about flooding. If you visit a house in these areas, you can literally scrape salt from the walls, even when they’re dry. The sea is slowly eating them away,” Sreeja said.
