[Reader-list] ‘Proposed Sagarmala project will destroy livelihood of fishermen’

[T Peter]

MADURAI <http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/>
‘Proposed Sagarmala project will destroy livelihood of fishermen’
<http://www.thehindu.com/profile/author/Special-CorrespondentRamanthapuram-10501/>Special
CorrespondentRamanthapuram
<http://www.thehindu.com/profile/author/Special-CorrespondentRamanthapuram-10501/>
JULY 15, 2017 18:33 IST
UPDATED: JULY 15, 2017 18:33 IST

   SHARE ARTICLE
   - 4
   -
   -
   -
   <?subject=%3FProposed%20Sagarmala%20project%20will%20destroy%20livelihood%20of%20fishermen%3F&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2Fnews%2Fcities%2FMadurai%2Fprotest-rally%2Farticle19285540.ece>
   -
   <http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/protest-rally/article19285540.ece#comments>
   - PRINT
   - AAA

Folk team of National Fish Workers’ Forum, which was on protest rally from
Kanniyakumari to Chennai, halting in Ramanathapuram on Saturday.
Centre urged to abandon the ‘anti-fishermen’ activities

The National Fish Workers Forum (NFF) has expressed apprehension that the
proposed Sagarmala project, promoting port modernisation, new port
development and port-linked industrialisation in the coastline and the
Marine Coastal Regulation Zone (MCRZ), would destruct the coastal
environment and destroy the livelihood of the fishermen.

Making a brief halt here on Saturday after launching the protest rally at
Neeodi in Kanniyakumari on July 10, visiting coastal hamlets, R.V.
Kumaravelu, Vice-Chairman of the forum, said the Sagarmala and the draft
MCRZ posed a serious threat to the livelihood of fishermen and urged the
Centre to abandon the ‘anti-fishermen’ activities.

He said the rally had been launched to sensitise the fisher folk to the
impending threats and bring to the fore the problems faced by fishermen.
The 22-member team so far covered 60 hamlets and proposed to cover over 200
hamlets, including 30 in Puducherry, before ending in Chennai on July 27.
They carried a banner ‘save the coast, save the fishermen’ and sought a new
dawn.

The team comprising folk and stage artists and orators staged programmes
creating awareness on the need to protect coastal environment, preserve
marine biodiversity and oppose industrial activities, he said. Fishermen in
Kanniyakumari were opposed to the Enayam port and those in Idinthakarai,
the epicentre of protest against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant, lived
in constant fear, he said.

Condemning the Sri Lankan Navy for arresting the fishermen and confiscating
their trawlers when they ventured into the the Palk Bay for fishing, he
appealed to the fishermen to phase out bottom trawling and stop pair
trawling and use of banned fishing nets.

A. Palsamy, the forum’s national secretary, said the MCRZ was totally
against the fishing community. As the entire coastline in the country would
be thrown open for development, fishermen would face a large-scale
evacuation from the seashores, he said.

The Sagarmala and MCRZ notification would also affect the eco-system and
marine bio-diversity, he added.

Debasis Shyamal, another national secretary from West Bengal, who was part
of the rally, said similar rallies would be taken out in other coastal
States in the country. The executive committee would meet in Chennai and
chalk out the future course of action, he added.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/protest-rally/
article19285540.ece