People throng to worship tiger deities in Ankola taluk in Uttara Kannada district.
Credit: DH Photo
Hubballi: Local fishermen, researchers and activists have questioned the discrepancies in the Kannada translation version of the environment impact assessment (EIA) provided by the district administration for the all–weather multi–cargo greenfield deepwater port at Keni near Ankola in Uttara Kannada district.
Based on the EIA, the district administration is scheduled to hold a public meeting at Ankola on August 22. However, the scientists and locals who have analysed the report say that several important aspects mentioned in the English version of the EIA are missing in the translated copy. While the English version of EIA is around 600 pages, Kannada executive summary report is just 48 pages.
The private port, which is being executed by the JSW at an estimated cost of Rs 6,515 cr with an estimated handling capacity of 92-million-metric-tonnes of cargo per annum will be coming up on 780 acres, of which 457 acres for a reclaimed foreshore facility, and the rest for a road, rail, pipeline corridor and storage facility.
Local fishermen had staged a ‘jump into the sea’ protest in February this year opposing the project as it would snatch their livelihood. Keni is considered one of the most fertile fishing grounds and breeding ground for several endangered marine species.
“Neither officials from district administration nor port officials informed us about the content of the EIA report. Without giving us details and not giving us documents in our mother tongue, how can the officials expect us to participate in a public hearing?” said Fishermen leader Sanjeev Balegar. He says the locals will continue to oppose the project till all their apprehensions are addressed and they are taken into confidence.
Marine Biologist V N Nayak in his written objections against EIA to district administration says in Kannada version the project is mentioned as Public-Private Partnership; whereas in English it is mentioned as a private project of JSW Keni Port Private Limited (JSW KPPL). “If it is a PPP model, then how many locals are involved in making decisions,” he asks.
Nayak also questions the need for a Tamil Nadu based Annamalai University to conduct an EIA study for the project when Karnatak University has a Post Graduate Department of Studies in Marine Biology; Regional Center of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Karwar or National Institute of Oceanography, Goa.
Activist Vikas Tandel says “The EIA doesn’t have a single word on the impact the project will have on the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats that is just a few km from the proposed port area. The allied development works will wreak havoc in Uttara Kannada, which is regularly reporting landslides and flooding.”
Marine Biologist Prakash Mesta says the EIA has not recorded the presence of very critical and endemic marine animals in the fishing grounds of Keni. “The report mentions only commonly found and commercially important fishes in the proposed port area. The report also fails to highlight that once the breakwater for the port is constructed there would be no fishing grounds left for traditional fishermen,” he says.
Repeated attempts to reach out to Deputy Commissioner K Lakshmi Priya yielded no response.