BUDGET 2000
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
COMMENTARY
GOVT&ECONOMY
Y2K: BIZ FEATURES
INDIA & THE WTO
CREDIT POLICY
BIZ IN THE USA
CARS & MOBIKES
MANAGEMENT
CASE STUDY
BIZ-QUIZ
USEFUL INFO
ARCHIVES
NEWSLINKS
SEARCH REDIFF

Fisherfolk revolt against proposed mega port

Worried fishermen are up in arms against the Gujarat Maritime Board's proposed multi-million dollar mega port at Umbergaon in Gujarat, which could spell doom for them.

An independent probe panel on environment and human rights -- the Indian People's Tribunal, or IPT, Bombay led by Bombay High Court retired judge, Justice S M Daud -- in its report said that the $ 300 million Maroli-Umbergaon project could be yet another instance where large tracts of land will be acquired and thousands of people displaced or stand to lose their means of livelihood for an unviable and unnecessary project in Gujarat.

The fisherfolk have come together under the aegis of Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (save coastline movement), or KBSS.

The Gujarat Maritime Board, or GMB, a nodal authority of the state government, had awarded the development rights of the port on build-own-operate-transfer, or BOOT, basis in September 1998 to an Indo-US consortium. It comprised the Unocal Corporation, an American-owned oil and gas corporation and a Bombay-based telecommunication company, the National Telecom of India Limited, or Natelco.

"The Gujarat government has directly participated in handling over an entry point into the country to foreign interests with a deplorable track record. The government is openly siding with the company in as much as the intention to acquire lands, notices been issued without the project having received the necessary statutory clearances," the IPT report alleged.

"Unocal is a major American-owned oil and gas conglomerate based in California. There is no evidence to show that this company is experienced in the construction of ports anywhere in the world," the IPT report said.

"However, there are reports of cases filed against Unocal for environment infringement in various parts of the world, including in the US and Myanmar," it added.

About the consortium's other partner, Natelco, the report said a San Franciso-based Non-Resident India, Prakash Jain, was the vice-president and managing director of the company set up in 1987.

The company has established an infrastructure division and this is for the first time that Natelco is venturing into construction of ports, it said.

Natelco chief executive officer S Raman, defending the Unocal corporation before the tribunal, said, "We have their environmental statements and have been interacting with Unocal. We believe that Unocal behaves in a very responsible way."

"We do not have port expertise, but we are co-opting people who have the expertise. We feel that finally we will see that they have substantial experience in running a world class port."

The Umbergaon port is a $ 300-million project in which the GMB has an 11 per cent stake, he added.

However, the IPT report said, "Both Natelco and GMB had failed to produce before the tribunal the contract executed between the concerned parties for the development of the port. Therefore, we have no knowledge about the respective equity shares in the project."

"In the event that full finances for the construction and the massive environmental safeguards required are not met by the companies and the government boards involved, the local people will be sacrificing their ecology and livelihoods for nothing," the tribunal said.

The report referred to the opposition of the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and fish workers' coordinator Thomas Kochery to the construction of the fishing and commercial harbours in Umbergaon.

"Umbergaon is a traditional natural fishing harbour and it has a sustainable fishery. Building a fishing harbour would invite more mechanised boats and the traditional fishing community will be displaced like the Veraval fishing community and it will not remain a sustainable fishery," Kochery had said.

The Natelco CEO had given the absence of cyclones in the Umbergaon area as one of the reasons for having chosen the site.

"Cyclones along the coast of Kutch and Saurasthra are common. But if you look at the cyclone history data, there is no cyclonic impact in the Maroli-Umbergaon area," Raman had stated.

However, environmentalist Bittu Sahgal expressed apprehensions that destruction of the sand bars and mangroves of the area during the construction of the port may result in realignment of the coastal wind velocity resulting in cyclones. "High velocity winds bring the sea onto the land, the water moves up while hitting the sand bar. The first wave is followed by other waves, thereafter losing velocity and hitting the coral reef and mangroves and slowing down," he submitted before the tribunal.

"Therefore, the dredging and deepening of the area for construction of a port will destroy the sand bars and mangroves. This will introduce and intensify cyclones in the region," he said.

Greenpeace activist Nityanand Jayaraman told the tribunal, "The industrial development in south Gujarat has reached an extent where the fisherfolk cannot fish in their local areas."

Umbergaon division on the border with Maharashtra, is designated as a scheduled area and has certain privileges granted to village governing bodies.

The division already has two minor ports at Umbergaon and Maroli. However, these ports are only for namesakes as boats could come onto the beach only at high tide. No ship with any significant draft could dock at these two ports, the report said.

A majority of the people were dependent on fishing and agriculture for their livelihood. The area is considered a "breeding and spawning ground for fish". Thus, there are 29 fishing centres in Valsad district and a total of 58,760 tonnes fish was marketed from this area since 1994-95, the IPT report added.

As many as 21 villages were in the 10-km radius of the project site. The population density was 419 per sq km.

"The survey was conducted in total secrecy and concerned local people were given misleading information. It was only in February last year when the people confronted the surveyors, they were told that Umbergaon had been selected as the site for a large industrial port," the IPT said.

"The sittings of the tribunal in the local areas were attended by a large number of people and there was an unanimous opposition to the project. Not a single person deposed before the tribunal in favour of the project or felt that the project would in any manner improve their lives," the report noted.

It also pointed out that at present as many as 41 ports dot the coastline of Gujarat, while another ten sites have been earmarked or identified for port development, Umbergaon being one such site. Traffic for the Umbergaon port is to be attracted from the nearby ports.

"This will amount to diversion of traffic, duplication of infrastructure and overall waste of national resources," the report observed.

Stressing the need for a national port policy, the tribunal said, "This mushrooming of ports makes it necessary to establish a national ports authority and formulation of a national port policy that would pre-empt the haphazard and unregulated development of ports along the coastline."

"If the GMB and the Natelco-Unocal consortium are unable to convince the local people of the benefits of the project, the proposed project should be scrapped," it recommended.

Condemning the "police action" against the people, the report said "They were agitating for their right to survive and to protect their only means of livelihood."

Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti president Pratap Save was singled out by the police to crush the growing agitation and to terrorise the protesting local people," the IPT said.

UNI

ALSO SEE

New port in Kerala may affect tourism, fear experts

Rs 340 million project launched to shore up Jakhau port in Gujarat

Kakinada, Vodarevu ports handed over to private parties

Govt moots major FDI reform in port sector

Goans divided over free port zone

P&O submits blueprint for Vadhavan port project; locals up in arms

Panel favours Cochin as transshipment port

L&T consortium to get Orissa port project

Business