ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Culture, Memory, and Ecological Lamentation: An Ecocritical Reading of Cry of a Dying River

Rivers have long functioned as sustainers of civilizations and cultures. Beyond this material role, they also carry the memory and bear witness to the lives of the communities that dwell along their banks, shaping and being shaped by those cultures as inseparable participants in their histories. In the poetry collection Cry of a Dying River, Kshetrimayum foregrounds the Nambul River of Manipur, drawing attention to its ecological degradation while simultaneously reflecting on the region’s cultural, social, and political transformations. Through this portrayal, he establishes a parallel between ecological decline and the erosion of cultural life. This paper examines how the river operates as a repository of cultural memory and how its pollution and neglect give rise to ecological lamentation. Drawing upon ecocriticism, memory studies, and hydro-ecological perspectives, the study argues that Kshetrimayum’s poetry performs an act of environmental witnessing, where poetic lament resists ecological erasure and exposes the cultural amnesia accompanying modern development. By reading the river as both ecological victim and cultural archive, the paper situates Cry of a Dying River within the larger discourse of environmental humanities and Northeast Indian poetry on ecology. Keywords: Ecocriticism, Ecological lamentation, Nambul river, Memory, Cultural erosion