It probably is the most uncomplicated among the multiple traffic bottlenecks that plague Chennai.
The 18.3-metre wide, 2.55-km long Loop Road along the Marina beach in Chennai, offers great close-up views of the Bay of Bengal in its many moods and colours. Near the bend closer to the Light House, the fishermen’s families sell their daily catch to eke out a living. For sure, they have their stalls on the road, and people are always milling about the road, but that comes from a feeling that it has been their hamlet for centuries.
According to the Chennai Comprehensive Transportation Study, the peak-hour journey speed on Santhome High Road had reduced from 33 kmph in 1992 to 28 kmph in 2008 and 19 kmph in 2018. But it is mostly those who come to buy the fish that park haphazardly, causing the jams noticed in that stretch of the road, which no one else bothered with till the 1960s.
On April 11, the Madras High Court suo motu ordered the eviction of the fishermen from the carriageway. What ensued was stiff resistance, with the miffed fishermen blocking the road with their catamarans. They prevented judges as well as other motorists from using the road for a week.
While the fishermen asserted their traditional right to occupy Loop Road, situated adjacent to the busy but narrow Santhome High Road, the High Court insisted on establishing a legal right to encroach upon a public road maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). The stalemate was suspended temporarily after the GCC promised the Court that it would regulate the fishermen on Loop Road until the completion of a modern fish market.
The permanent fish market is under construction, but it is at least six months away from completion. It will have provisions for 384 vendors as well as toilet and sewage treatment plants. The market also aims to solve traffic congestion caused by buyers by providing parking facilities for around 215 vehicles.
At the nub of the issue though, is a question of land and livelihood rights.
Stubborn streak
Kalki and Mohana, two women who sell fish and were part of the recent agitation, said many traditional fish markets in the city had been lost due to urbanisation. “We cannot be moved to a common market since it will cause a lot of problems as the idea is to bring all the villages under one roof. Such built-up markets are only good for commercial use, not for people like us who sell fresh fish directly from the boats,” Ms. Mohana says.
K. Bharathi, a community leader of Nochikuppam, says the space occupied by the road is part of the village commons. “Our work is at sea and at shore. We don’t have any fixed timings and fish during the day and night. We park our boats on the sands and empty the nets on the road since it cannot be done on the sands. Residents in the village go to fish bang opposite their homes and sell them in front of their homes, which is common practice in each of the 500-odd fishing villages in the State. The road is part of our lives and our livelihood depends on it,” he says.
Ko. Su. Mani, another community leader, charges that it was only because the GCC was unable to widen Santhome High Road, where the government offices and other agencies are located, that they are very keen on troubling the fishermen. “Time and again they make plans to widen that road but give it up citing various reasons. They then lay their eyes on our land, and since no fishing village has pattas, we are easy targets.”
“Residents in the village go to fish bang opposite their homes and sell them in front of their homes, which is common practice in each of the 500-odd fishing villages in the State. The road is part of our lives and our livelihood depends on it”K. BharathiA community leader of Nochikuppam
“Fishermen cooperative societies, through which we have been selling fish, have been in existence since the 1920s, but the department has no records of it. They have not even bothered to represent us in court. Fishermen have pooled personal funds to engage a lawyer,” says Kabaddi Maran, another community leader. The Fisheries Department, which was renamed to include fishermen welfare, has not even bothered to hold consultation meetings with them to find a solution to this long-drawn issue, he adds.
History of judgments
This is not the first time that the Madras High Court had intervened in the issue on its own motion in recent years. In December 2018, Justice Vineet Kothari took up cudgels after finding that the upkeep of the Marina was not up to the standards expected of a world-class beach. “We will not permit this beach to go to the dogs. It is a very beautiful beach and has to remain beautiful,” the judge told the then GCC Commissioner D. Karthikeyan and began issuing a slew of directions aimed at regulating the hawkers on the 3.48-km beachline as well as the fish vendors on Loop Road.
It was only after the court’s nudging that the GCC came up with a plan to register hawkers, issue identity cards and provide modern pushcarts. The civic body also agreed to construct a modern market to relocate the fish vendors from Loop Road.
Then, a Division Bench led by Justice Kothari had explored the possibility of constructing a walk-over bridge so that fishermen could use the bridge to transport their catch without disturbing the free movement of vehicles. However, the GCC reported that it would require clearance from the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNCZMA) for such a project.
The civic body also told the court that it was dropping its beautification plan for Loop Road because the entire stretch had Olive Ridley turtle nesting sites. The TNCZMA granted permission for re-laying Loop Road in 2014 on the condition that the existing street lights be switched off between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. during December-February every year, the nesting period of the turtles.
“We are trying to arrive at a balance by considering the opinions of all stakeholders and taking the fisherfolk into confidence”Gagandeep Singh BediCommissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation
The High Court also asked the GCC to consider the feasibility of reconstructing a vehicular bridge that once connected Loop Road from Pattinappakam to Besant Nagar but had collapsed during heavy rain in the 1970s. It came up with a ₹411-crore project, subject to Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances.
Before the project could take off, Justice Kothari got transferred to the Gujarat High Court in January 2021 and along with his transfer all efforts taken by the court got grounded.
In July 2021, Justice N. Kirubakaran (since retired) took up the issue by expanding the scope of a batch of writ petitions seeking licence to sell ice cream on the beach. Then, he wanted to know the possibility of constituting a committee headed by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. However, his effort too was short-lived as he retired from service in August 2021.
Cut to the present. As the Corporation as well as the police remained mute spectators to the heavy traffic congestion on the carriageway, the Madras High Court judges, who use the Loop Road on a regular basis to commute between the High Court and their residences, began cracking the whip by taking up a suo motu writ petition.
‘Unethical to take a stand’
The CRZ notification of 2011 protects the livelihood of fisherfolk, and Loop Road cannot be privatised for the benefit of those with vehicles, activists say. “How can a judge have a suo motu attitude regarding this issue? It just indicates a way of thinking that comes from a sense of privilege,” says Nityanand Jayaraman, a social rights activist.
Police personnel talking with the protesting fishermen and residents of nearby localities on Loop Road in Chennai. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
According to him, the GCC and the High Court have twisted around the Coastal Zone Regulations. “The fisherfolk have a reason to be on the seashore, and this common property is their territory. There needs to be functionality in beauty and to ensure this, the fisherfolk must be consulted,” he says. Sundar Rajan from Poovulagin Nanbargal, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that works on socio-environmental issues, says Chennai isn’t just about beautiful things such as filter coffee and sambhar but also the “salty sea spray and smell of fish”. “It is highly unethical for judges who find it difficult to navigate their cars while passing through Loop Road to take a stand on this issue,” he says.
GCC Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi says the civic body’s stand is to both regulate traffic and protect the livelihoods of the fisherfolk. “We are trying to arrive at a balance by considering the opinions of all stakeholders and taking the fisherfolk into confidence,” he adds.
Beautification drives
Over the years, Marina beach has been subjected to numerous beautification efforts. Several administrations of the GCC have looked towards the beach, the pride and joy of Chennaiites, to make it cleaner and more beautiful.
The civic body has now focused on beach cleaning, with workers combing the sands for plastic and waste. Even the food vendors at the edge of the beach have shifted to using glass or leaf plates in keeping with the State’s ban on single-use plastics. The promenade is well-maintained and cleaned regularly, the lawns bordering it have a lush green hue and shrubs are pruned regularly.
There had been proposals in the past to have a flyover from Manali to Adyar and then build sea-front high-rise buildings at Pattinapakkam in public-private-partnership mode. Both faced opposition and never went beyond the proposal stage. Even now, the DMK government is keen on building a memorial shaped like a pen for former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, at the other end of the Marina.
(With inputs from Malavika Ramakrishnan and Aloysius Xavier Lopez)
