Chennai: Fishermen from Ennore and Kattukuppam in the city's outskirts strongly opposed the government's plan to industrialize 3500 acres of Ennore wetlands on Thursday. Their opposition stemmed from the fear that such a move will drown Chennai, particularly North Chennai. They also urged the state government to stop the project to protect the wetlands from flooding.
Highlighting the flooded areas in the Araniyar-Kosasthalaiyar basin, fishermen and women from Ennore along with 'Save Ennore Creek Campaign' urged the government to notify, restore and protect the Ennore-Pulicat backwaters under the newly formed State Wetlands Mission. Failure to do so will flood some pockets including North Chennai, Manali and Ponneri taluks and will lead to water scarcity, they pointed out.
A fisherman named Karunakaran reminded, "the DMK government, in its election manifesto, had promised that industrialization in the North suburb of Chennai will not come at the cost of the environment. The party also said that it would scrap all the proposals like Ponneri Industrial Township Area (PITA) notified by the previous AIADMK government, Adani’s Kattupalli port expansion and Tamil Nadu Polymer Park. However, all the projects are set to come up fully or partly on the wetlands." The lands notified for PITA included 1,734 acres of wetlands, while Adani’s proposal sought to industrialize 3200 acres of wetlands, including salt pans, he noted. He further pointed out that the Polymer Park would also be constructed on 265 acres of Kosasthalai’s backwaters, which is in addition to the existing encroachments like NTECL Vallur power plant, Kamarajar Port Access road, Chettinad coal yard and BPCL and HPCL’s oil terminals that occupy more than 2000 acres of wetlands, and coal ash that is choking over 1000 acres of river and backwater.
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R.L Srinivasan, another fisherman of Kattukuppam, said that when South Chennai experienced flood, the government was acting quickly to pump the stagnated water. But things are opposite when the same thing was happening in North Chennai. "North Chennai is always neglected. No officials are visiting the flood affected areas. To add to our woes, environmental issues crop up day by day. More than 10 lakh people in Ponneri taluk and North Chennai are at higher risk of disastrous flooding due to the encroachments."
With coal power plants, three ports, an oil refinery, coal yards and petrochemical plants, the Ennore and Manali areas had the highest concentration of fossil fuel infrastructure, and the largest source of global warming gases in south India, he said. He further added that it is unfortunate because the tidal wetlands that have been sacrificed to accommodate these polluting industries are also the best natural shock absorbents to protect the city from the effects of climate change such as floods, cyclones, sea level rise and salinity intrusion. “Earlier, we were fighting only for our livelihoods as more than 10,000 people are directly reliant on the river. But after the floods of 2015 and the 2019 water scarcity, we realized how important the river is for the flood-proofing and drought-proofing of the city,” said Adhilakshmi from Kattukuppam. Chennai Metrowater draws 100 Million Litres per day of freshwater from bore-wells in the Kosasthalai catchment, she noted.
It may be recalled that in the lead-up to the 2021 election, chief minister Stalin had condemned the Adani port expansion plan arguing that the project would cause floods and drown around 35 lakh people. He had also promised to cancel the project if elected to power. Welcoming the Government Order issued in early November allocating Rs.150 crore for the State Wetlands Mission, the villagers said the government must inaugurate the mission by notifying the Ennore-Pulicat wetlands.
