CHENNAI: Standing on the rocky sea-wall near Kasimedu fishing harbour, R Kanthan, a fisherman, points to a patch in the sea and says, “I used to play Kabaddi with my friends there.” Oblivious to the absurdity of the statement, his contemporary S Raman, jumps in, points in another direction and says, “That’s where Kasi Vishwanathar temple is!” The two residents of Nalla Thanni Odai (NTO) Kuppam - a fishing hamlet in North Chennai just next to Kasimedu fishing harbor – continued point to locations where different parts of the submerged hamlet, along with their childhood memories, could be now under the sea, until their eyes brimmed with nostalgia.
Kanthan and Raman, in their early 50s, had shifted their houses further inland, at least seven times in their lives, due to coastal erosion. But now, the expansion of the Ennore-Manali Expressway, which passes on the west of the fishing hamlet, is threatening to permanently uproot these fishermen community. The last week was especially traumatic for the families as the policemen were deployed to threatened hundreds of families to abandon their houses.
After a protest by them on Wednesday, the Directorate of Information and Public Relations issued a statement saying, “It has been decided to expedite the tender.” The tender the statement refers to is for the construction of alternative tenements for the community that would be displaced due to the road project. Which means the homes for rehabilitation are yet to be constructed. Yet, families are being coerced to move out even though they have nowhere else to go.
What’s more, when Express spoke to officials handling the project and verified the hamlet’s location, it turns out that this narrow strip of land where the hamlet is located is not even required for the widening of the Ennore-Manali Expressway.
“We needed to clear 102 houses to facilitate the road expansion and we have already demolished what we need,” said a senior official from Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation (TNRDC), which has been contracted for the project. But the official insisted that the rest of the families must also move out without explaining the reason behind it.
When Express visited the spot, it was evident that the row of houses next to the highway that was required for the widening of the road had already been mowed down. Nearly 250-odd houses - either a mud house with a thatched roof or a cement house with an asbestos roof –were well away from the Ennore-Manali Expressway. So why is the government keen on displacing these people? The popular belief among the locals was removing their “dirty-looking” hamlet would give a nice sea view for the commercial buildings that dot the other side of the expressway.
The officials involved in the project could neither explain why exactly this stretch of land is being acquired for the expressway. All that official documents say is that they are removing “encroachments” and when Express asked for clarification, officials termed it “CRZ encroachments”, meaning that they violated Coastal Regulation Zone rules. It is not clear how that legislation, which was mainly meant to protect the rights of the fisher community, categories a fishing hamlet as an “encroachment.”
When Express spoke to a few revenue department officials, they said it was the fisher community that had agreed to move out of the place in March and accepted ex-gratia of Rs 20,000.
“They had agreed to move out and in turn we have promised to give their houses in 18 months,” said Senthil Nathan, the Tahsildar of Ponneri. Within 15 days of accepting this, around 250 families, whose huts that stood in the way of expansion dispersed themselves into neighbouring hamlets. The houses were promptly demolished. But now the remaining families are questioning why they should also move out. We’re worried that they may not give u space,” said Senthil Nathan.
Of late, the fishermen say the official machinery has engaged the police force to coerce them to abandon their homes and move – to where they don’t know. If what the fishermen say is true, an issue that must be handled by civic officials is being handed over to the police, as if they were dealing with criminals and anti-socials.
While this strip of land is inconsequential to the road project, for the fishermen it is essential that they be allowed to live close to the sea to sustain their livelihood. The fishermen watch the ocean for swell, draft and even availability of fish before setting sail.
“Moving further inland and into multi-storeyed buildings means we’d lose sight of the sea and everything in it,” said S Devendran, a fisherman who moved out of NTO Kuppam to stay at Nethaji Nagar. “Every day I spend Rs 50 on travelling by auto to get here before fishing,” he said. Devendran reaches NTO Kuppam by 10 pm the previous night on most days, before they set out on to the ocean at 3 am next day.
“We are periodically being threatened by the police to leave the place,” he said.
While moving further inland may offer some immunity to the fishing community from erratic weather and erosion patterns, they will lose their traditional vantage point and the perks of coastal life. The villagers who were squeezed further into smaller living spaces because of erosion will lose even the little they have once they move.
How nature — or the ports — ate Nalla Thanni Odai Kuppam
CHENNAI: The coast north of the Chennai port has lost 350 hectares of land to erosion. Or so says the ‘Shoreline management plan for Ennore coast (Tamil Nadu)’, a report published by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The shores of Chennai gained historic importance in the 1600s when it was used for military and administrative reasons. The coast was so shallow that ships had to be parked a mile or two into the sea, leading to loss over 90 per cent of goods that reached the land. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that it became an important commercial port in the country.
The port remained vulnerable to ocean currents and winds and piers constructed in the north and south of the port didn’t offer still water as the structures were periodically destroyed by storms and other natural forces. A C-shaped port with a North Eastern entrance was built in the beginning of the 20th century. With the expansion of the port into the sea, shoreline changes started taking place.
Sediments such as clay, silt, sand and shingle travel parallel along the shoreline and deposits in a place guided by winds and currents. This geological process called long-shore drift is the reason beaches are formed. In Chennai, the port blocked movement of silt from the south to the north.
While sand was deposited south of the port forming the glorious Marina Beach, the coast north of the port was deprived of incoming silt.
Eroded by the currents, the coast moved further and further inside. The construction of Ennore Kamarajar port complicated the evolution of the shoreline changes even more.
“Nearly 450 families lived in less than 250 houses. Every time the sea invades further inside, we left our homes and moved in with other members of our community,” said K Desappan, an elderly fisherman.
He says three families live in his house.
Nalla Thanni Odai Kuppam, like the other fishing hamlets dotting the coast north of the port, also fell victim to erosion. In addition to confronting the raw effects of every storm that hits the bay, the communities lost all the goods and property they had to the infamous tsunami in 2004.
Hamlets that were battling angry weather conditions like the one that caused floods in 2015 or cyclone Vardah in 2016 had to face a new kind of problem when oil invaded their shores in the aftermath of a spill in January this year. “We lost our nets, boats and fishing equipment to the storms; most of all also we lost our fish to the oil spill,” said B Maran, leader of the Tamil Nadu Fishermen Development Association.
Terms of rehabilitation terms, and the controversy:
The state government had promised to build tenements for Nalla Thanni Odai Kuppam’s residents about 3 km from NTO Kuppam, in 2.28 acres of land belonging to Arulmigu Thiyagarajaswami Temple and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department. Another piece of 1.19 acres belonging to the revenue department was also allotted to build houses for the community.
However, the day after the announcement was made, fishermen of Thiruvottiyur Kuppam held a 45-day protest demanding the same land for their hamlet.
Meanwhile, a statement from the department of Information and Public relations on Wednesday said that an emergency meeting comprising top officials from the State Fisheries department, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and revenue department was held on Thursday to discuss the possibility of constructing houses on the land allocated for the relocation of NTO kuppam fishermen.