Fisherfolk protest at site of proposed Mamallan Reservoir

Residents of 16 fishing hamlets along the East Coast Road from Kanathur to Kokkilimedu on Monday gathered at the backwaters of Vada Nemeli. Getting into the slushy brackish waters, they raised slogans urging the State government to give up its project to create the Mamallan reservoir. 

Community leader R. Narayanan of Kovalam said that the fishing community, that includes inland fishers and Irulas who fish during the daytime, was not given any opportunity to raise objections to the project that will lead to thousands of families losing their livelihoods. A day after a peace meeting was held, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for the project. 

K. Saravanan of Urur Kuppam, said that no public hearing was held as all these areas have been classified as CRZ 1B. A section of the Buckingham Canal runs through the backwaters. During the monsoon, one cannot differentiate between the canal and the backwaters as everything including the adjacent buffer zone would be submerged in water, he said. 

K. Bharathi, another community leader, said, “Villages along the backwaters will also get flooded if the brackish water body is converted into a freshwater body. The entire ecosystem would be lost if the reservoir comes up. Sea-faring fishermen fish here during the monsoon as there are not many fishes in the sea due to the desalination plants and sea erosion”.  

Shankar, a fisherman from Padur, said that since several projects came to their area like the Muttukadu Boat House in 1983, the CMFRI field station, and the desalination plants, fishermen lost fishing grounds. “If this one too is completed, we would lose everything and would be forced to go in search of work in other industries,” he said. 

Marine biologist T. D. Babu said that the backwater was a lagoon similar to that of Pulicat, with high productivity and biodiversity that includes molluscs and crustaceans. It connects with the Bay of Bengal through two estuarine ecosystems – one at Muttukadu and one at Kokilamedu near Mamallapuram. The Buckingham canal which cuts across is a boon as it prevents inundation in the city with excess rainwater being discharged through the canal at different points of the coast before the final discharge into the Bay of Bengal at Marakkanam. If the reservoir comes up, this ecologically sensitive lagoon will be destroyed resulting in the death of marine life and the mangroves. Disconnecting the lagoon from the sea will result in beach erosion and habitat loss, he said.