The Hindu : Undue haste in pushing through GIM project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 04, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Undue haste in pushing through GIM project

By P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Jan. 3. The organisers of the Global Investors' Meet(GIM) are, rather over-enthusiastically, pushing through several projects at the event bypassing certain basic pre-requisites like environmental clearance and social impact assessment.

The `Sea Sand Mining Project', proposed by a company called Crown Maritime Co. (India) Limited, is a typical example. This project is all set to be awarded at the GIM notwithstanding the strong objection of the Fisheries Department and words of caution expressed by the State Pollution Control Board(SPCB).

In fact, the first time the Fisheries Department was invited for a meeting to discuss various aspects of this project was on October 23, 2002. The word fish, or fishery, is nowhere mentioned in the project profile, though fishery is the sector which will be worst affected by the largescale dredging operations in the sea bed proposed to be carried out.

The project profile presented by the promoters is for dredging designated areas of sea bed and backwaters in Kerala for extracting sand for construction purposes. It says that the dredging area can be identified and demarcated by the Cost Guard authorities and officials of the ports. Five onshore soil-washing plants, one each in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Kannur, have been proposed by the promoters.

The slurry dredged from the sea has to be transported to the sand washing plants on the shore through pipelines either underwater or floating and each of these washing plants will have a output of 100 tonnes per hour and a storage capacity of 50,000 tonnes of sand. Dredging at this massive scale is proposed round the year or, to quote the project profile, `with minimal idle time'.

In a note presented at the meeting called by the Kerala State Industries Development Corporation (KSIDC), the nodal agency for the conduct of the GIM, the Fisheries Department expressed its objections to the project in no uncertain terms.

It observes that the continental shelf lying off the Kerala coastline is very rich in fishery wealth, with more than 150 species found there in abundance. With an average fish production of 6.5 lakhs tonnes a year, Kerala is the biggest marine products exporter in the country.

The note adds that more than 10 lakh people in the State depend on fishing and allied operations for their daily bread. Altogether, about 25,000 fishing vessels ranging from catamarans to sophisticated trawling boats operate along the State's coastline.

The country craft goes up to a distance of five km from the shore, the traditional craft fitted with outboard engines up to 20 km and the modern mechanised fishing boat up to 25 km for fishing operations. The dredging proposed under the project profile, on the other hand, is at a distance of two km "beyond'' the shoreline, which means that the dredging activity will be smack in the middle of the fishing territory.

``The project profile is silent about the actual depth from where the trailing suction hopper dredger will start dredging and at what distance from the shore and in how many square km the dredging operations will be carried out. This is one of the most vital information lacking in the project profile,'' says the Fisheries Department.

Some of the questions posed in the Fisheries Department's file relating to this project are: "Has (any) study been conducted (on what the impact will be on fisheries)?''... ''Pipe lines (to carry dredged slurry to coast): What length is piling necessary? Or, (if) floating pipe, (will it) obstruct traffic (of fishing craft)?''

The Fisheries Secretary, K. K. Vijayakumar, in his note on the project, suggests that "before giving any clearance to the project, a high level committee comprising of experts in oceanography, fisheries and other marine activities should study the detailed project report in all aspects and properly evaluate the impact of such large scale dredging operations along the entire Kerala coast.''

The chairman of the KSPCB, Paul Thachil, in another note to the organisers of the GIM, cautions that, a project of this nature had to be first cleared by the Union Department of Environment and Forests. The application for this should include environmental impact assessment report, environment management plan and details of public hearing as specified in the guidelines relating to the subject.

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