The Hindu Business Line : Will we ever learn?

A report in the International Herald Tribune, quoting the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute, said all the planet is vibrating and the quake had even disturbed the earth's rotation. Is this scientific rhetoric or fact? If it is fact , then it is a fearsome one.

WRITING soon after the tsunami mightily swarmed the coasts of South India, killing thousands, Bittu Sahgal, Editor of Sanctuary magazine, refers to the reminders sent by naturalists to governments over the building of the East Coast Road.

"I have travelled to most of the places hit in Tamil Nadu, from Chennai to Cuddalore, as a part of many site visits for the East Coast Road. We warned them that building here by `dressing dunes,' destroying mangroves and filling up wetlands that have acted through the ages to reduce the impact of large waves, will leave thousands vulnerable to cyclones and sea surges. This is on record.

"We also pointed out that the Kalpakkam Nuclear Reactor is very dangerously sited and that the East Coast Road must not be allowed to be built here as it would attract humans and their developments to the area, not keep them away. Only God knows what the impact of sea water in this reactor is going to be," Sahgal says in an e-mail.

He adds: "I worry, however, that the tragedy is going to provide an excuse for money makers to continue harming India. Instead of learning from the experience (they never learnt when the Super Cyclone hit Orissa or when the cyclonic storm hit Kandla) they are going to use this incident to totally ignore the CRZ (coastal regulation zone) in the process of `rebuilding' coastal India."

Before Sahgal is dismissed as an eco-nuisance, the point has to be made that the poor have been the worst hit by hacking at mangroves, coral reefs, sandbars and sand dunes.

The International Herald Tribune, in a report filed by Nick Cumming-Bruce on Monday, quotes Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute, speaking to Sky Television: "All the planet is vibrating," and that it had even disturbed the earth's rotation. Is it scientific rhetoric or fact? If a fact it is a fearsome fact.

About two months ago, this writer had a chance to drive down from Chennai to Nagapattinam and on to Vedaranyam before touching Kodiakkarai jutting into the Bay of Bengal.

At Kodiakkarai, the saltpans are cut off from the sea by bunds, and the fishermen stay just a few feet from the sea. Birds flying in from the Arctic zone migrate into Kodiakkarai between September and March before making their way back.

On the last evening of our stay, we went on a boat ride into the sea after paying some Rs 50 to a fisherman. We also bought fish from them after their boats landed with the catch in the mornings.

Most of the thatched homes are single-storeyed. There are two lighthouses: one a 100-year-old structure built by the British and maintained by the government and the second, a modern outfit. We did climb up the old lighthouse to have a view of the Bay of Bengal.

Kodiakkarai has a black buck sanctuary while one can spot feral horses around the Great Vedaranyam Swamp. One has not heard any reports from Vedaranyam or Kodiakkarai though it is hard to believe that the tsunami would have left them alone.

As one watched TV clips relaying death tales one recalled the time spent at the coffee shop situated in a hut with the owner talking of times when farm lands stretched up to the sea, of the cigarette kiosk where one bought cigarettes and came to know of a Muslim driver who had spent 20 years in the Andamans. They were living their lives, ordinarily. Are they now around?

From the Kodiakkarai beach, Sri Lanka is about 28 km away, and we were told that on a clear night one could see the lights in Sri Lanka.

The public talked of the Rs 2,000-crore Sethusamudram Canal project, which will link the Gulf of Mannar with the Palk Straits. The fishermen who have been opposing the project may be no more, having made a point dying. It will ruin the ecology of the entire water spread.

In The Hindu (dated December 21, 2004), K.S. Ramakrishnan, former deputy chairman of the Chennai Port Trust, had questioned the need for the canal. "The basic justification advanced in favour of the project is that it will reduce the distance between Kolkata and Tuticorin by 340 nautical miles and between Chennai and Tuticorin by 434 nautical miles, thereby saving, for the ships plying between these places, both fuel cost and time involved in sailing the additional distance. This justification will be readily valid if the project is a free seaway which ships can sail through without any payment to the project authority. But the canal cannot be a free seaway because the grounding of a wayward coal or oil ship that strays from the alignment or a collision of two ships in the channel will result in an ecological disaster of unimaginable proportions to the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay," says the author.

He ends: "The two statements that the ships using the canal will save money and that the project will be a financially viable undertaking are therefore mutually contradictory and cannot have simultaneous validity."

Sunday's tsunami is the best reason for the project to go.

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Will we ever learn?