Unfortunately, national crises — real, complex, and large-scale — do not always come screaming. They don't always fit in a single photograph.
The sight of 30 fishermen from coastal Cuddalore taking an overnight bus in search of a fertile seaside does not seem urgent at first. But they are travelling that far because hot effluents from four power plants have killed the fish in their own patch of the Bay of Bengal, five minutes away from their homes. In Mundra, Gujarat, the seaside is being shaved of mangroves, the beaches landscaped, and fisherfolk edged out for the largest private SEZ in the country. Without mangroves and beaches to cushion the blow of cyclones and tsunamis, India's naked shoreline will slowly begin to be eaten away by the advancing ocean.
But as long as disaster is not coming next week, we don't hear alarm bells.
In Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, two men were killed earlier this year when the police lathicharged villagers protesting against a thermal power plant and private port that would destroy a wetland crucial to fishing. The environment ministry waved a finger at the company. The company shrugged. Nothing changed. Similarly, a decade-long court battle has not stopped the singling out of fishing colonies in Mumbai slums for demolition.
These are not isolated battles, but reactions to a raucous upheaval all along the 7,500 km Indian coastline. The coast is today the government's newest development zone, one that's believed to be able to accommodate the country's bursting economic ambitions. The east coast —Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha — is poised to be an energy corridor, with each state having signed on anywhere between three and 23 thermal projects. The west is being mined for its rare minerals, and its beaches leased for tourism.
There will soon be one port every 28 km of the Indian coast. While Singapore has only one port, and the US 30, Gujarat will have 50 ports — one every 25 km. Maharashtra will have the highest density, with one every 13 km. Each port is linked to a private industrial hub, housing chemical factories, power plants and automobile units.
The seed of the conflict, however, doesn't lie in coastal development itself — communities do want it in several places — but in the utter disregard for the big picture. Do we need so many ports? And what of coexistence? More than 3.5 million fisherfolk already live on the same coastline; there is a village every three km.They have been given no option but to move. Sometimes, it is because their houses are razed. Often, as ocean science experts and environmentalists told us, it is because the seawater has been poisoned or overheated, emptying it of marine life. Read the full report here.
Source: by Rohini Mohan, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 47.
