The Hindu Business Line : Devoured beaches

While the rest of the world gets all worked up to tackle global warming and a rising sea-level, India continues to turn a blind eye to the dangers that stare it in the face.

Rising sea-levels have affected people the world over, especially those living in island-states and peninsular regions. In India, the islands in the Sundarbans in eastern India are disappearing into the sea, while the coastal belt in southern India is eroding at a pace that shall perhaps compel us to redraw our maps.

Heavy erosion by the Bay of Bengal has been swallowing up nearly 1 km of the coastline every year around Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, as fishermen like K. Joseph who are familiar with the changes on the ground will tell you.

The Malabar Coast from Kerala to Kanyakumari faces a far more severe situation. Here, unregulated sand-mining has combined with rising sea-levels to unleash a human tragedy of colossal proportions. Walk along any of the beaches in Kerala, and the ravages caused by sand mining stare you in the face. Uprooted coconut palms dot the beaches, and the collapsed sand dunes tell a sad story. Entire villages lie in ruins, with walls broken by the advancing sea, and thousands rendered homeless. But even as every high tide adds to the number of environmental refugees here, one hardly sees concern at the administrative level.

Brazen destruction

Sand dunes, coral reefs and mangroves work as natural protection for the coastline. The 1991 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification was meant to protect the fragile coastal ecosystem against any manmade follies. Yet, business lobbies have put paid to the original purpose of the notification. More than 21 amendments have resulted in vastly reducing the “no-development zone”, incidence of sand mining, and developments under the pretext of “protective measures”.

When sand is dug out, beaches collapse and coconut palms lose their moorings. The seawater then gushes in, seeping into the groundwater and affecting drinking water sources in coastal villages. Soon after, the seas move further into the villages, taking their toll on communities. Initially, sand was mined surreptitiously for the real-estate sector. But the activity has grown more brazen with the amendments to the CRZ notification.

The most affected districts are Kollam and Alappuzha. In Kasaragod, every high tide destroys at least 10 new villages, while 15 new villages are affected in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha. The National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) estimates 10,000-15,000 people have lost homes during the past five years. Loss of sand-heads and beaches affect women in particular, as they engage in drying of fish, net-making, fish-vending and other allied activities.

Most significantly, at a time when the International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared that “climate change will mean water change”, referring to drinking water shortages due to depleted groundwater levels and erratic rainfall, unregulated sand-mining is destroying freshwater supplies. People in Ernakulam and Alappuzha face extreme water shortages, says the Kerala Swatantra Matsya Tozhilali Federation President and NFF member T. Peter.

Lost homes

Thus, once-prosperous communities are pushed to the brink. Jacinta, 50, who used to vend fish, and husband John, a fisherman, were well to do, until they lost their home in a fishing village in Thiruvananthapuram district, as well as their catamarans and nets to the gushing waters of the Arabian Sea. The temporary shelter provided to them is 5 km from the coast, making fish-vending difficult. Jacinta now works as domestic help in the city, while John does odd jobs in the vicinity. Jacinta’s friend Josephine and her husband, Lewis, are now living off odd jobs in the city. At the shelter, they share an overcrowded room with another family. Their four daughters are married, but their once-healthy teenage son, Leslie, is often down with respiratory ailments and fever.

Carmel and Stephen lost their house three years ago and now work as coolies in the city. Stephen struggles to find work as he is disabled, so the family depends on the earnings of Carmel and their son, Paulo.

The smoky confines of the tin-roofed shelter turn Joseph and Stella nostalgic about their once self-sufficient past. Losing their boat and house in Poonthura village has turned the couple and their five children into environmental refugees. The couple suffer from bronchial asthma, and income is erratic. Four of their children have moved out to seek employment in other States.

No correction in sight

The Kerala government has earmarked land for the construction of pucca houses for those affected. In Velli village in Thiruvananthapuram district, the refugees survive on Church largesse. The Government has built the temporary shelters on Church land. But in the absence of any financial relief from the State, most refugees have had to fall back on the generosity of friends and relatives. For instance, of the 1,000-odd people affected in Velli alone, only 35 families have been given a temporary shelter, as NFF volunteer Maglinpoints out. Not only is the State Government oblivious to the enormity of the problem facing the displaced coastal people, but plans are afoot to build the world’s biggest harbour at Vizhijam in Thiruvananthapuram district on 2,600 acres, with an additional 3,000 acres extending into the sea. This will only create more displacement and, hence, greater hardship.

If the State Governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are oblivious to the misery of coastal communities, the central government is far more to blame.

Although amendments to the existing CRZ allowing sand mining have wiped out entire fishing villages, and unleashed a water crisis of monumental proportions that can only worsen in times to come, there is hardly any effort to rein in the damage.

Instead, there is a move afoot to bring in the Coastal Zone Management (CZM) notification, which shall legalise all that was illegal under the original CRZ. What it shall augur for a country with a 7,517-km long coastline is for everyone to guess.

Related Stories:
Major rivers in Kerala losing course
Sand mining blamed for water shortage

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