[Reader-list] [arkitectindia] After-thoughts on a natural calamity

Mon Feb 7 15:14:04 IST 2005

After-thoughts on a natural calamity
Turning a dew-dripping jungle into a desert would seem
to require ferocity, 
But all it took was a bureaucrats signature.
- Madhusree Mukerjee, 2003
THE PRIME ROLE OF COASTAL SAND MINING AND THE TSUNAMI 

In the mainstream discussions on the Tsunami, the
effects of sand mining as a plausible cause of the
heavy death toll has been a rather marginal viewpoint.
Indeed, there have been only scattered references to
it. 
Let us take the case of the worst affected areas in
Tamil Nadu, namely, Colachal in Kanyakumari district
and Nagapattinam district. Already in early 2002, a
public hearing (which was also attended by Justice
V.R. Krishna Iyer) brought to light the serious threat
sand mining, often illegal, posed to the ecology and
livelihoods in Tamil Nadu. At Colachal, mining is done
to a depth of up to six metres within 10 metres from
the high tide line. It was pointed out that these
operations had the potential to cause severe coastal
flooding and sea erosion, which would have adverse
consequences for the fishing communities on the coast.
Rani, a panchayat president had deposed that extensive
illegal mining for silicon sand was going on in
Nagapattinam district (Viswanathan, S. 2002).
Listen to the story of Andaman and Nicobar islands
where the fury of nature has been at its highest in
the country: "Over the years the sand got mined away
to construct concrete buildings in various parts of
Port Blair; the mangroves got cut, mainly for fuel;
and parts of the coastal forests and coral reefs too
were destroyed. Put together, it was the collective
destruction of all the defence mechanisms that nature
has provided against the force and power of the sea.
It shows, in a microcosm, what has happened along the
entire length of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for
the last few decades." (Sekhsaria 2005). "While,
clearly, the beaches, mangroves and coral reefs would
not have "stopped" the powerful and huge waves that
hit the coast, they would have significantly reduced
the impact of the waves and the destruction that
resulted. Hundreds, if not thousands of lives could
have been saved", says he (Sekhsaria 2005). 
The story from the Kerala coasts are not very
different. The worst affected area in the state was
Alappad panchayat in Kollam district from where was
officially reported over hundred deaths. The survivors
here were unanimous in saying that but for extensive
dredging away of mineral sand from the coasts, the
fury of the sea would not have been so terrible
(Veerendrakumar 2005a). At Alappad panchayat, Babu, a
local activist said that sand mining should be
strictly banned, as that is one of the main 'reasons'
for the natural disaster. 
In fact, as was admitted by Mr. K.P. Rajendran,
Managing Director, KMML, the company had been allotted
blocks 1,3,5 and 7 on the 22-km stretch of the coast
from Neendakara to Karunagappally. Indian Rare Earths
Ltd (IRE) has blocks 2,4,6 and 8 (Nair 2004). In block
4 alone at least 65 people were reported dead. Many
people were killed in blocks 1,2 and 3 as well
(Veerendrakumar 2005a). Indeed, it has been a genuine
long-pending demand of the people in such localities
in Alappad panchayat that they be resettled at safer
destinations. 
"If a sea-wall was constructed here, the destruction
would not have been so great. Those in power keep
changing. Yet no one has made efforts to construct the
seawall. The seawall would be an obstruction to the
mining away of black sand. That is why no one takes
the pain to construct them", said Kaarthikeyan from
Tharayilkkadavu locality in Alappuzha district who had
lost his sister in the disaster (Veerendrakumar
2005b). Shockingly, Tharayilkkadavu was located on a
narrow strip of 200 metres of land between the sea and
the backwaters, a clear instance of how the
traditional fisherfolk are relegated to the most
dangerous zones of habitation.
In late April 2003, the Kerala Minister for
Industries, P.K. Kunhalikkutty had announced in the
Assembly that a 17-km stretch of state-owned land from
Valiyazhikkal (Kayamkulam estuary) to Thottappilly in
Alappuzha district would be leased out to Kerala Rare
Earths and Minerals Limited (KREML), a joint sector
company, to conduct mineral sand mining for twenty
years. The proposed mining was primarily for
extracting ilmenite, which is about 70% of the sand
that is found on this coast. Arattupuzha village is a
most densely populated piece of land that comes along
this stretch (Sekhar, et al 2003). The recent Tsunami
disaster had affected this area and is evidence enough
that the mining proposal was totally ill-conceived.
Had the proposal been implemented in time, many more
lives could have been lost in this area. Moreover, the
adjoining Kuttanad marshlands, below the sea level,
known as the rice bowl of the state could have been
encroached upon by the sea. This stretch has a very
fragile eco-system, which is highly erosion-prone. It
experiences sea rage even in summer. Added to this is
the proximity to the Vembanad lake  the largest water
body in Keralam that cuts through Alappuzha and
Kottayam districts. The entire water tourism industry
revolves around this lake (Jacob 2003).
In many a beach, the mineral sand coast now acts as a
protective sea wall. The mineral sand has a specific
gravity of 4.5 whereas the gravels specific gravity
is just 2, which makes it prone to sea erosion, says
Dr Joseph Mattom, an environmentalist. "What can
sufficiently replace a natural sea wall formed over
millions of years? he asks (Jacob 2003). Moreover,
sand is not considered to be a renewable resource. 
>From available information about the Indian scenario,
if we are to identify the principal factor that made
the Tsunami into a mass disaster taking a toll of
thousands of lives, we could say that the single most
important factor was mineral sand mining along the
coasts. Mining, being a public undertaking under the
State, we could pinpoint the culpability of the State
and the bureaucrat capital under State control as
primarily responsible for making these calamities into
massive human tragedies. It is only rightful to demand
that the State owns up responsibility for this major
mining/industrial disaster that comes in the genre of
Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984. It is also time to bring
under scrutiny the dominant paradigm of
'developmentalism' that fails to take into account the
concerns of welfare of the masses. 
COASTAL REGULATORY ZONE AND THE 'RIGHT TO SAFE
HABITAT' 
Acquisition of land along the coasts for Special
Economic Zones (SEZs), tourism development and
developmental activities like mining, has edged out
the fisher people to well within the danger-prone
Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) in many areas. No wonder
that left to live between the devil and the deep sea,
the fisher people and their organisations have been
pushing for exemptions in the CRZ notification.
There have also been instances of resistance by the
fisher people against this state-of-affairs. Thus
retired Lieutenant Colonel Pratap Save who himself
hailed from the fisher community, was beaten to death
in custody by the Gujarat police under the BJP
government in April 2000. He was picked up when he was
leading a peaceful mass protest against the Pipavar
port and the proposed SEZ there, under the banner of
Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti. Similarly, sharp
local contradictions have come up along the coasts in
the case of Bakel, Karwar, Kollam, etc. against such
acquisition of land.
In the context of the Narmada movement against
displacement, Prof. Neera Chandhoke had rightly
pointed out the need to incorporate the "Right to
Habitat" into the discourse on rights. Against the
background of large scale displacement of traditional
fisher people from their coastal habitats, the Right
to Safe Habitat of the fisher people beyond the CRZ
needs to underlined. 
In fine, rather than the fury of natures assaults, it
has been human greed, corruption and bureaucratic
laxity that turned this tragedy into a mass disaster.
Nevertheless, they have not been the mischiefs wrought
by abstract human beings, but by dominant/powerful
class forces with significant influence upon the
State.
Selections from "Tsunami and other disasters: How
'natural' are these natural calamities?" by Gilbert
Sebastian (under publication)

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