Today's Paper » NATIONAL » KERALA Thiruvananthapuram, November 13, 2011 Concern over move for deep sea sand-mining
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2623695.ece T. Nandakumar Eco activists, fisherfolk say it will threaten livelihood A proposal mooted by the State government for deep sea sand-mining has triggered protest from traditional fishermen and concern among marine scientists and environmentalists. It was at a workshop on Kerala's approach paper to the 12th Five Year Plan held here on Wednesday that Finance Minister K.M. Mani came up with the proposal. Addressing the workshop, he said it was not difficult for the Kerala economy to achieve a 10 per cent growth rate, provided it was able to mobilise revenue from non-conventional sources such as offshore mining of sand. Scientists fear that the environmental impact of such a project will be disastrous, while fishworkers see it as a direct threat to their livelihood. In 2002, the then government backed off from implementing a similar project following stiff resistance by environmentalists and fisherfolk. A Bahrain-based company that had submitted the project had claimed to have located a huge offshore deposit of construction- quality sand amounting to four billion tonnes at a depth of 30 to 40 metres. The government had held out the project as a viable option to resolve the acute scarcity of river sand for the construction industry. This time however, it is being projected as an alternative revenue source. K. Venkataraman, Director, Zoological Survey of India, said large-scale dredging for sand in the sea could lead to turbidity and movement of silt, affecting marine life in the biodiversity rich areas off the State's coast. “The silt could move in different directions, affecting the natural habitat of several species. It could also enrich the nutrient content in seawater, triggering algal blooms that are harmful to fish. Dredging has the potential to change the contours of the sea bed,” he told *The Hindu* over telephone from his office in Kolkata. A marine biologist, Dr.Venkataraman said dredging could also affect the long-shore drift along the Kerala coast, leading to a further decline in fish stocks and affecting the livelihood of the fisherfolk community. Using suction pumps for controlled dredging would not alleviate the problem of turbulence, he said. *Accelerated erosion* Dr. Venkataraman said tampering with the steep slopes of the continental shelf off the State's coast could alter the underwater topography, leading to accelerated coastal erosion and other unforeseen consequences. The absence of a monitoring and regulatory mechanism for offshore sand-mining could encourage violation of environmental safeguards for more profitable operations, he said. Traditional fishermen fear deep-sea mining would deplete the dwindling fish stocks and jeopardise the livelihood of 10 lakh fish workers in the State. T. Peter, president of the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, said: “We will oppose the project tooth and nail.” He warned that fishermen would use their boats and catamarans to blockade dredgers. “Indonesia paid a heavy price for deep sea sand-mining to reclaim land for the Singapore airport. That experience should be taken as a warning against tampering with the marine ecosystem.” Renjan Varghese Mathew, State director, WWF-India, said deep sea sand-mining was a very technology intensive process that could cause a negative impact on the marine ecosystem. “It could destroy the spawning grounds of fishes and other marine organisms, triggering an effect down the food chain. Removal of the top soil could also ravage the marine ecology.” Vinod Malayilethu, coordinator, marine programme, WWF-India said, “Sucking up the sand from the seabed is likely to release poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulphide and heavy metals. Also, the suspended silt will be deposited on corals and sponges, destroying them.” ** ------------------------------ Movement of silt could affect marine life Fishermen threaten to blockade dredgers -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist * * *The UID project i**s going to do almost exactly the same thing which the predecessors of Hitler did, else how is it that Germany always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of the Nazis? The Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM which was in the 'census' business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but also identifying them. At the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was responsible for organising the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews.* * * *http://saynotoaadhaar.blogspot.com/* *http://aadhararticles.blogspot.com/* *http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162987527061902&ap=1*< http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162987527061902&ap=1> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
