[Reader-list] Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project - Blueprint for an ecological disaster
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Mon Sep 17 01:55:41 IST 2007
Dear All,
This is one of the rare occasions where I think I am in near total
agreement with Pawan Durani. So, I thought I would break my silence.
Thank you Pawan for the links that you have sent.
I think that the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project is indeed a blueprint
for the unfolding of a human tragedy and an ecological disaster. And I
think it ranks along with the Narmada Dam Project as a plan that is
deeply inimical to the interests and livelihoods of the people who will
be affected by it most, namely local fisher folk (for whom the region is
an age old natural fishing commons).
I see no reason why ancient fishing practices and the delicate natural
ecology of the region should have to be disrupted just so that
Capitalism (in the form of ships carrying containers) and the Indian
Navy's ships can gain a few hours while crossing from the west to the
east coast of India. If for all these centures, ships have had to round
the southern tip of Sri Lanka to move from the Arabian sea to the Bay of
Bengal, and traverse the waters of the Indian Ocean region, I do not see
why then the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the region have to be
suddenly sacrified for them to be able to move faster.I see absolutely
nothing wrong in insisting that the ships take the same time that they
have always taken?
However, I have also watched worthies from the Bharatiya Janata Party,
especially, Shri Murli Manohar Joshi, present their 'alternative'
project for the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project over the last few days
on television - which is to cut a canal through the southern tip of the
Deccan peninsula. And I think that proposal is just as much of a
potential human and ecological disaster as the disruption of the
Sethusamudram region. So the new found 'greening' of the BJP, needs to
be understood for what it is. Yet another recipe for the displacement of
people and the violent disruption of the landscape, on the same scale as
Sardar Sarovar project and the proposed scheme to link rivers that was
the pet project of the esteeemed erstwhile president of the Indian republic.
I would like to point readers on the list to consider the tragic
histories of Panama (a state, now a narco-republic, carved out in order
to dig a canal) and the Suez canal (over which at least one major
military conflict - the Suez crisis of 1956 erupted. I have no doubt
that The BJP's recently found enthusiasm for cutting a canal through
Southern India will no doubt create 'swadeshi' versions of
narco-republicanism, and aggressive military posturing a la Panama and Suez.
Also, on a parting note, let us not forget the decision by successive
governments, controlled by the Congress or led by the BJP, that did not
have any qualms about violating the delicate ecology of the Thar desert
with Nuclear explostions, or completely destroying the equally delicate
Himalayan glacial environment of Siachen in the part of Jammu and
Kashmir occupied by India, by stationing troops, heavy artillery and
continuing what must be one of the most tragic, bizarre, violent and
wasteful military engagements with landscape in the history of the
modern world.
So, yes let us all demand that the Sethusamudram region be left alone,
let us demand that no more nuclear explosions or tests ever take place
in the Thar desert or anywhere in the landmass of all of South Asia, or
in the Lop Nor plateau in Tibet, and let us demand also a unilateral
ceasefire and troop withdrawal from Siachen, and let us demand immediate
cessation of the Sardar Saroval Project on the river Narmada and that
the river linking project be abandoned. I would be absolutely willing to
assent to all these demands, and while doing so, I would also demand
that those who took the decisions to conduct Nuclear Tests in Pokhran in
India (in 1974 and in 1998) and in the Chagai Hills in Pakistan (in
1998) or on the Lop Nor plateau in Tiber offer uconditional apologies to
the people of India, Pakistan and Tibet (and to all peoples in Asia) for
the serious damage that these tests caused to the ecology of South and
Central Asia.
I sincerely hope that all of you will agree with me.
regards
Shuddha
Pawan Durani wrote:
> http://tamilinfoservice.com/manitham/environment/sscp/article/4.htm
>
> http://www.tamilnation.org/diaspora/tamilnadu/050404sethu.htm
>
> http://www.greensl.net/campaigns003.php
>
> http://hitxp.wordpress.com/2007/07/01/a-blunder-called-sethusamudram/
>
>
> Where are all those who had been talking about ecological disaster during
> Narmada Dam project ? Why are they silent ? Where are the activists and
> the film makers ?
>
> I do understand their problems and the "compulsions".
>
> God Bless !
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