It's an old story, almost 20 years old, says filmmaker Amudhan.R.P, about the people's movement against the Koodankulam nuclear plant. People have become more aware of the problems of nuclear energy post Fukushima and this has helped the movement gain momentum, in and around Koodankulam and Idinthakarai villages. In his film “ Radiation Stories part 3 – Koothamkulam” Amudhan has tried to capture the anti-nuclear movement.
Amudhan's 80-minute film, in Tamil with English subtitles, was screened recently in Bangalore by Pedestrian Pictures. . The film starts with images of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The camera then moves on to a public hearing in Tirunelveli, where the District Collector is being questioned by the locals about a nuclear reactor being built in an earthquake-prone area. “You promised to give us a report on the environmental impact of the project. Where is it?” asks one man. The officer replies that it is all on the Internet and people angrily ask how many of them have access to the Internet.
And how many of them can read English? “Just a simple pamphlet is all we ask to inform us,” says another.
Tempers rise, the bulk of the crowd say they don't want a reactor and they don't want the nuclear energy. They just want to live naturally like they used to. The fisher folk complain that they live within viewing distance of the reactor and yet the authorities have built staff quarters seven km away. They used to fish for prawn in the waters but now the authorities cut their nets if they come near and shoot at them.
“Twenty years ago the police arrested us,” says one woman. “We were against it even then.” “We will give up our lives but we don't want the reactor. Ninety percent of us don't want it here as the radiation will affect us all and kill our future generations.” The camera shows shocking close-ups of malformed children with helpless-looking parents.
Amudhan has added footage of the Fukushima tragedy. When a developed country like Japan could not handle a nuclear crisis, can a fishing community handle a similar crisis?
He also has added footage from the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, after which lakhs of people had to be evacuated and resettled and since then have been plagued by cancers, tumours and malformations.
“The entire middle class is trained to think that nuclear energy is the only way out for us in a power crisis. I want to counter that campaign and sensitise people on the true issue,” said Amudhan.
