CNR Post, March 17, 2007. Sethusamudram Project

The Sethusamudram Project.

The shallow sand banks that stretch between India and Srilanka, known as Adam’s bridge, are a hot topic these days because of the proposed dredging of a narrow strip of the natural formation to allow for ships to cut across the Palk straits and the Gulf of Mannar. Although the proposal to construct this canal has been around for almost 150 years, the debate has taken on a new fervor in modern times. In India, the political process has tended to sway in opposing directions, as can be expected. Things came to a head in 2005 when the government green lighted the project.

There are three major factions that are interested in the proposed project.

1. Economic profiteers

2. Environmentalists, and

3. ………..Hindus??

A few years ago a rumor was started on the internet by Vaishnava News Network. The web site claimed that aerial pictures NASA had made public a couple of years previous to then was conclusive evidence that Adam’s bridge is the mythical bridge mentioned in the Ramayana and believed to have been built by a Hindu mythological figure ‘approximately’ 1.75 million years ago. No real effort was made to support the claim and NASA quickly distanced itself from the story. It was believed back then that this feeble attempt to corroborate superstition with science would die out. The story flared briefly and has since spread to a number of apologist web sites.

The drilling of the bridge began amidst intense protests organized by Hinduvta forces, environmentalists and local fishermen. The opposition to the project was observed by the popular media. However, the media chose to focus almost entirely on the most irrelevant point of debate, the religious concerns, and thus prevented real concerns from getting their due attention. Scientific opinion was sought of independent sources regarding the ‘authenticity’ of the bridge. And true to fact, all the credible news sources quoted geologists, historians and even an astrophysicist as saying that there was no evidence for the obviously ridiculous claim that the bridge was ‘man made’. This was a major failure on the part of the media because they chose to treat the issue like a real debate when in fact there was no debate among the experts in each discipline. Meanwhile the real issue that mattered, the environmental damage that would result from the construction of a navigation canal, was mostly ignored. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) work was assigned by the government to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) which cleared the project in record time. Geoscientists and environmentalists came together to criticize the EIA report. The report itself appears to be a hastily put together work based on mostly older data and falls short of acceptable standards on many levels. There appears to have been strong pressure from political groups to Ok the project. The finance minister of India, P. Chidambram, announced during the inauguration that the project had the full support of the people of peninsular India. Later more than 600 environmentalists and fishermen were arrested during protests. P. Chidambram is a free-market economist. In essence this position endorses the use of public funds to make it easier for big business to keep getting richer. The plight of the local fishermen and the environment is not a factor in his ‘larger’ picture of economic well being.

Meanwhile, here’s what is at stake. The Gulf of Mannar is recognized to be one of the biologically richest regions of Indian coastal waters. The area is designated as the Gulf of Mannar Marine Reserve (GMMR). It is home to more than 3600 species of flora and fauna, with higher diversity along the Srilankan coast. There are numerous coral species, more than a hundred on the Indian side alone and much more on the Srilankan side. The coral reefs provide the basis for a complex marine ecosystem that could be easily upset by pollution, invasive species, altered marine currents, not to mention larger environmental hazards such as oil spills and other accidents. The waters are also home to other important marine life such as sea cucumbers, Indian chank and oysters. The sea grass found in abundance in this region makes it a hangout for the endangered dugong. The region is among the largest feeding grounds for this globally disappearing species. Other mammals such as dolphins and sperm whales also abound in the Gulf. Numerous mollusk and crustacean species can also be found in these waters. The Gulf of Mannar and the adjacent seas are home to five species of endangered marine turtles. The loss of this region would truly be a major blow to sea turtle conservation efforts.

There is no doubt that the Sethusamudram project will be among the greatest disasters to befall the marine ecology of Indian coastal waters. The damage to the environment far outweighs any economic incentive to carry on with this project. It is unfortunate that while the real issues are being swept under the rug by the government and its corporate interests, the popular media deceives the public by presenting false debates as legitimate concerns.