Life Below Sea Level: Water, Work, and Agroecology in Kainakary, Kerala. This thesis examines how communities live and farm in Kainakary, a region in Kerala's Kuttanad area that lies below sea level and is surrounded by water. The landscape consists of reclaimed lands protected by embankments, where rice farming and human settlement depend on constant water management. Residents use traditional and electric pumps to grow paddy despite challenges from monsoons, tides, and saltwater intrusion. The research explores how to redesign water management, economic activities, and ecological systems to make these communities more resilient and sustainable. The study traces the historical transformation of the landscape, focusing on 19th-century efforts that converted parts of Vembanad Lake into rice-growing areas, despite being 0.6 to 2.2 meters below sea level.