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| Saturday, 25 September 2004 |
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from Upali Rupasinghe in New Delhi The Rs. 20,000 million Sethusamudram project to deepen to the sea route between Sri Lanka and India has kicked up serious doubts among environmentalists and marine scientists regarding its impact on the rich but delicate marine wealth on its 260km sea stretch, particularly the Gulf of Mannar, designated a National Marine Park. Environmentalists participating in a conference hosted by the Tamil Nadu Environment Council in Chennai a few days ago, stressed the need for a wider debate with people, particularly the fishermen, before the commencement of the project. They called for a balanced and cautious approach as the project is likely to disturb the bio-diversity of the region, besides being economically unviable. According to a report in The Asian Age, the speakers at the conference pointed out that the study by the Nagpur based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, based on which the Government announced the project, appeared elementary and could not predict the ecoramifications and long-term socio-economic fallout of the project. "The total biosphere of the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay is sure to undergo a massive change once the work begins to dredge the sea bed and dump the estimated 84.5 million cubic metres of spoil at alternative sites. It is said some of it will be dumped on the Dhanuskody island near Rameswaram at Lands End and the rest will be deposited in the deep sea in the Bay of Bengal, endangering marine micro organisms. Yet there has not been enough of transparency in this whole thing," L. Antony Samy of the TNEC, CEDA Trust told the conference. According to Antony, a public hearing involving all sections of people likely to be affected by the project should have been organised. Meanwhile, scores of fishing villages along the south coast have expressed fears that the project would destroy marine life and also making it difficult for their craft, specially the catamarans, to enter the sea once the big ships start plying the route. |
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