CHENNAI: Paatan sethu vecha sotthu nu solrangala? Enga sothu kadal dhan (They talk about ancestral property. That is the sea for us),” declares Yashoda amma, the elder-in-charge at Kattupalli Kuppam. But, it’s been years since people of the Kuppam have lived close to the sea, living off its bounty. For years now, a mighty wall — all the way from the Kamarajar Port Limited — has blocked their path to the sea; putting them a good three kilometres away from the beach. A butterfly effect of project after project dropping anchor in the then pristine grounds of this untouched territory. Even as they are still reeling from the injustices thrust upon them since the advent of a thermal power plant, a government-owned port and a private one in the region, they are faced with the looming threat of Adani Kattupalli Port’s expansion and the havoc it could wreak.
“We don’t want the expansion to happen. This is the decision of our two villages — Kattupalli and Kalanji. We have some measure of freedom now; that will be gone if this happens. Already L&T promised us 140 jobs and failed to make these workers permanent. Now, wouldn’t he (Adani the firm) do the same? We don’t want companies like these,” says K A Kumar, former Kattupalli panchayat president (2001-06). And so, they are preparing to fight this one too. Just as they have been fighting for their rights and a shot at a livelihood for over a decade now. For, since the tsunami of 2004 robbed them of their blissful anonymity, it has been one battle after another.
Seated in the oor koyil, located in the centre of the settlement, Yashoda amma launches into the story. “We were living by the shore, without affecting the environment, enjoying the natural sea. No one (in the government) knew who we were or how we fared. It was only after the tsunami that they all came visiting our villages,” she begins. While the government extended some relief measures, it was three NGOs that brought life back to the village, restoring their houses, replenishing their food stores and providing for clothes and books and much more.
Advent of trouble
There was much growth that came with this post-disaster development work, she narrates. But it was being put to the test even as it was happening, thanks to the government’s North Chennai Thermal Power Station in Athipattu, Thiruvallur — a mere six kilometres from Kattupalli. “It was the effluents and hot water from this plant that first reached the sea. The fish by the shore started dying in the hot water and floating to the surface. So, they directed the effluents into the Buckingham Canal. But, that’s where we fish for the three-four months (August-November) during the year that the sea turns turbulent; we used to get good prawns there. With the power station’s discharge there, the prawns started to die too. Our livelihood was hit from both sides,” she recounts. What followed was a series of protests and arrests, but little to show for all this trouble.
Trouble started all over again when Larsen & Toubro came calling with its port project in 2007 — Kattupalli Shipyard cum Captive Port Complex. In exchange for their land, they promised to offer housing and permanent jobs within the company. It took four-five meetings with the Collector to get anyone to agree on the terms. Even then, they offered it on a blank paper and tried to pass it off as a government order, says Vinoth, Kattupalli village panchayat vice president.
“Permanent jobs, they said; they would get a permit in 18 months, they said. So we gave up our lands, our livelihood and now, our people are cleaning toilets, grooming the gardens and clearing garbage at the port. And they are still daily wage labourers there,” points out Yashoda amma. Her son (eldest of three) was among the first to get a job there. After 12 years, only now has his salary touched Rs 15,000. With this, he has to take care of a family with young kids and old parents.
“Ippo suthu vattarathula oru company onnu...Adani nu vararu, athuku Modi thona poraru. Arasangame ippadu pona, enga nelama enna? (Now, there’s Adani coming, Modi seems to be in on it...if the government goes this way, what will become of us?)” she asks. The going has not been great for them since Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) acquired the port in 2018 and named it Adani Katupalli Port Private Limited (AKPPL). While L&T failed to make true its promise to offer permanent jobs for the populace, Adani — on its part — has been reluctant to hire people from the neighbourhood. “They give importance to the north Indian workers they have brought along. There are many like me who have completed Engineering or Diploma and don’t have a job. The company does not want to employ us. Even for janitorial jobs that people from the village were already doing,” points out Vijay, who was not even considered for the job his father had held after the latter passed away six months ago. He eventually bought a small boat and took to fishing after being turned down by the company one too many times.
Loss of livelihood
Yet, fishing too has not been the same in over a decade. A long time ago, when these people were still by the beach, they only needed to step away from the shore to get fish. The men used to go out on their kattumaram three times a day, taking breaks to eat and rest, and bring back enough for their needs. Now, they are having to go far on motorised boats to get any haul, spending whole days out in the sea. They are having to contend with the signal buoys lined up by the port too, where the fishing nets keep getting torn to shreds. Every repair costs up to Rs 10,000, says Vijay.
In the months that have the villagers staying away from the sea (be it the annual fishing ban or the turbulent monsoon season), one source of alternative income was shell-picking. Villagers — men, women and children alike — would just walk to the beach and pick up baskets and baskets of shells that are deposited on the shore. There are quite a few takers for it; the chief of which are paint manufacturers (as shells contribute to the lime they make). Now, with the wall in their way and the sea kilometres away, this activity too has been affected. It’s only the young men, on their bikes, who get to do the job. Drying fish on the beach too is hardly an option any more, says Yashoda amma.
On the land side of things, agriculture has been increasingly failing too, they say. “The north Indian workers are staying in four-five camps around the village. One such place is agricultural land. The man (landowner) had given up on the land after the many losses. He’s now given it for lease. For the water has turned salty; the sand that is dredged to make way for ships has to be deposited somewhere? That happens here. The salt water and sand has affected the water here. This has been a problem since L&T set shop here” explains Kumar.
While drinking water has its own countdown clock running, the expansion has the potential to upset the water drainage patterns of the entire sea face, says Vijay. “The city itself would be in great trouble if there’s just four days of heavy rain. All the waterbodies in the city have to drain through the Kosasthalaiyar river; from here it has to drain through Pulicat and Ennore estuaries. If they block this with rocks for the project, what will happen to the process?” questions Vijay.
Layers of deprivation
There’s much else by means of necessities that has eluded the village for years; neither the government nor the company that took over the lands has managed to do what’s required. The people can’t remember the last time they had a good road connecting the village to the city. Ask them when the Kattupalli road — or even the Athipattu Main Road — was laid anew last, there’s some back and forth before they tentatively land on the year 2006 when the road was repaired for the then chief minister M Karunanidhi’s visit. The villagers have long since been asking for the dredging of Ennore and Pulicat estuaries. There has been no sign of that too. Meanwhile, Adani (the firm) has been touring the villages, giving away freebies in the form of provisions (during the lockdown period), cycles for kids, school supplies, ice boxes to store fish and such. The hypocrisy is not lost on the people, says Vijay.
Meanwhile, public hearing on the revised masterplan submitted by Adani for development of Kattupalli port, which was set to happen on January 22 in Minjur, has been postponed by the Thiruvallur district administration. While opposition political parties in Tamil Nadu have been pushing for its cancellation saying that there are many issues and illegalities with the plan, the reason provided by the district was that they were trying to avoid a major gathering in the wake of the ever-present pandemic. Kattupalli villagers see this as yet another way their rights are being squandered. That the hearing was scheduled in Minjur, far from the villages that stand to lose much to the expansion plans, did not fare well with them.
The expansion of the port comes with a string of attractive job opportunities for people in several villages and towns around Kattupalli. “They will believe that such a big corporate would deliver on the jobs too. But we have to let them know that the company has been fooling us and it would fool them too,” surmises Vijay. On their part, they have been working with the panchayat leaders to inform the local populace and get them to band together. But they find themselves facing formidable odds, what with the finance minister — during the Budget speech on Monday — announcing a public-private partnership model for major ports in the financial year 2021-22.
Public hearing pushed
While opposition political parties in Tamil Nadu have been pushing for its cancellation saying that there are many issues and illegalities with the plan, the reason provided by the district was that they were trying to avoid a major gathering in the wake of the ever-present pandemic.