THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala’s famed Shanghumugham beach in Thiruvananthapuram has bounced back to life after a gap of four years. City dwellers, who had rued the disappearance of the beach due to sea erosion, are making merry on the formed sand and coastal brethren. Despite an overcast sky, people thronged the Shanghumugham beach on Sunday just to enjoy the sand they had been missing for a while. After all, a walk on a calm seaside makes one’s evening outing perfect.
Social media, too, has been overwhelmed by the news of “Kadalamma (mother sea) returning the beach it had snatched”.So how big is the ‘new’ beach? “As big as a football ground,” exclaims Shanghumugham ward councillor Seraphine Fedy. She is happy that children can play on the golden surface.
“It’s better than being confined to the mobile screen,” she says. Notably, the Youth Congress organised a beach football tournament on Saturday and Sunday. It was well-attended, and also kicked off a debate on the impact of the Vizhinjam seaport project.
The coastal protest led by the Latin Archdiocese has always linked the loss of Shanghumugham beach to the dredging and breakwater construction for the port since 2015. Shanghumugham is located 15km to the north of the port.
The protest leaders allege the coastal area north of the breakwater faces erosion while there is accretion on the southern side. Now, the beach formation has come at a time when the Church-led protests are flaring up.
The beach formation prima facie negates the claim that the port construction resulted in coastal erosion. Notably, the development has come up in a year when the Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL) has made maximum progress in the construction of breakwater since the beginning of the project.
The construction extended beyond 1,300m against the target of 3,100m, and the breakwater could be seen from outside. Those who oppose the protest argue that the claim by protestors is wrong. The football match itself was showcased on social media to vindicate their stand.
Seraphine, who was involved in organising the tournament, however, has a different take on the issue.
“The port authorities have stopped the dredging work and it has helped in the sand formation. It is still not the wide beach we used to have. The height of sand formation is also less. But it is good enough to prevent sea incursion for the time being,” says Seraphine.
She adds the sea has been relatively calm this year. Last year, she had to approach the irrigation department to build temporary seawalls to prevent coastal erosion in the area.Serahine recalls the beach was at least 2km away from the road decades ago. It was so wide that the CPM conducted the 13th Party Congress in 1988 and Navakerala Yathra finale in 2016, at the beach.
Fisherman vlogger Ajith Shanghumugham says the height of sand formation was so low that the tourism department had to put extra sand to enable visitors to enter the beach from the road.“The sea has been unusually silent this year. After Ockhi, we have started noticing a marked change in the ecosystem in the sea. The fish wealth has increased. The change, however, is unnerving,” he says.Coastal scientists agree with the observations made by the residents. According to them, the recent sand formation is the result of a combination of factors.
“The beaches are formed over thousands of years. But when we intervene, by mining sand or constructing fishing harbours, breakwaters, seawalls, groynes, the coastal dynamics changes. The Shanghumugham area has witnessed coastal erosion even before the Vizhinjam port. But the sea dynamics was such that the beach loss was always reversed. But now the process of coastal erosion and accretion has been affected. Now you can notice the height and width of sand formed have come down,” says K V Thomas, former scientist and group head at National Centre for Earth Science Studies.
“Shanghumugham lost its beach in a big way in the years after the dredging for the port started. But they have stopped dredging since 2017. The beach formation is linked to the stoppage of dredging. They still have more than two thirds of dredging left. So if they resume dredging, the coastal erosion will also increase,” says A J Vijayan, a petitioner against the project at the National Green Tribunal and a former researcher with the International Ocean Institute.
The sea current after September is known to bring sand to the shore. The scientist says the absence of a strong north-south current has also helped in the formation of beaches.“Climatic change could be the reason for not causing a strong north-south sea current this year. There has been no severe sediment transportation when compared to the past five years. Hence, there was no damage to houses anywhere in the city,” says Vijayan.