Fisherfolk protest at site of proposed Mamallan Reservoir

Residents of 16 sportfishing hamlets on the East Coast Road from Kanathur to Kokkilimedu on Monday gathered astatine the backwaters of Vada Nemeli. Getting into the slushy brackish waters, they raised slogans urging the State authorities to give up its task to make the Mamallan reservoir. 

Community leader R. Narayanan of Kovalam said that the sportfishing community, that includes inland fishers and Irulas who food during the daytime, was not fixed immoderate accidental to raise objections to the task that volition pb to thousands of families losing their livelihoods. A day after a bid gathering was held, the Chief Minister laid the instauration chromatic for the project. 

K. Saravanan of Urur Kuppam, said that nary nationalist proceeding was held arsenic each these areas person been classified arsenic CRZ 1B. A conception of the Buckingham Canal runs through the backwaters. During the monsoon, 1 cannot differentiate betwixt the canal and the backwaters arsenic everything including the adjacent buffer portion would beryllium submerged successful water, helium said. 

K. Bharathi, different assemblage leader, said, “Villages on the backwaters volition besides get flooded if the brackish h2o assemblage is converted into a freshwater body. The full ecosystem would beryllium mislaid if the reservoir comes up. Sea-faring fishermen fish present during the monsoon arsenic determination are not many fishes in the oversea owed to the desalination plants and oversea erosion”.  

Shankar, a fisherman from Padur, said that since respective projects came to their country similar the Muttukadu Boat House successful 1983, the CMFRI tract station, and the desalination plants, fishermen lost sportfishing grounds. “If this 1 excessively is completed, we would suffer everything and would beryllium forced to spell successful hunt of enactment successful different industries,” helium said. 

Marine biologist T. D. Babu said that the backwater was a lagoon akin to that of Pulicat, with precocious productivity and biodiversity that includes molluscs and crustaceans. It connects with the Bay of Bengal done 2 estuarine ecosystems – 1 astatine Muttukadu and 1 astatine Kokilamedu adjacent Mamallapuram. The Buckingham canal which cuts crossed is simply a boon arsenic it prevents inundation successful the metropolis with excess rainwater being discharged done the canal astatine antithetic points of the seashore earlier the last discharge into the Bay of Bengal astatine Marakkanam. If the reservoir comes up, this ecologically delicate lagoon volition beryllium destroyed resulting successful the decease of marine beingness and the mangroves. Disconnecting the lagoon from the oversea volition effect successful formation erosion and situation loss, helium said.