Fishermen are worried over the dismantling of a trawler inside the Kasimedu fishing harbour. They say it could cause pollution and the boat should instead be taken to a ship-breaking yard and dismantled.
K. Bharathi of the South Indian Fishermen’s Association said there was an attempt to break a trawler belonging to a private shipping company and that a fishing harbour was not the place where such vessels should be dismantled. They usually contain asbestos and foam, which are pollutants, he added.
“The activity is against the Coastal Regulation Zone Rules. Fishers have even filed a case in the court. Sometime ago, we had sought the intervention of the Collector. We do not know on what basis the boat is now being dismantled. We have submitted a petition to the State Environment Department,” he said.
A former official of the Fisheries Department said that two trawlers were brought inside the harbour. While one sank, the other was partly cut and its parts removed. Now the attempt was to retrieve the sunken one. “Since the fishing harbour is under the control of the Chennai Port Trust, the department has no control over such things,” he explained.
