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A park... but where's the green?

S. Gopikrishna Warrier

Public hearings on development projects are rarely all black or white events. They bring to the fore the shades and nuances of the various interests at stake.

When the Collector of Thiruvallur district called for a public hearing on the petrochemical park project planned at Kattupalli island, various interests surfaced.

There were the project proponents, the agency that carried out the environmental impact analysis (EIA), artisanal fishworkers from the Pulicat lake, villagers and farmers from the island, absentee landlords, academics, researchers and NGO activ ists.

The project, under the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), aims at setting up an industrial park for petrochemical facilities. Moves to acquire 7,155 acres, including

the island, in the first phase are already under way.

The island has the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Ennore Creek in the south, the Buckingham Canal and a waterspread in the west and the Pulicat lake in the north.

On Kattupalli, the petrochem park is the third in a sequence of projects. The first was the North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS). A satellite port was conceived to supply coal to the power plant. Once the idea of the port took shape th ere were plans for berths for petrochemical feedstock. And from this emerged the project to make downstream petrochemical products.

The park project is ambitious. According to TIDCO's executive summary, the capital outlay for infrastructure will be Rs. 600 crores in the first phase. The park, when completed, is expected to attract an investment of about Rs. 30,000 cr ores in petrochemical, power and chemical plants.

During the first phase, TIDCO expects tankage farms, a liquefied natural gas power plant, a refinery, a cracker unit, and manufacturing facilities for downstream products to come up at the park. However, with alternating shows of corporate interest and disinterest, a final picture is yet to emerge.

For the Tamil Nadu Government, this is a prestige project, to be talked about before the Assembly elections due in 2001. And with the DMK having a comfortable relationship with the coalition at the Centre, the project is expected to get the necessary support from New Delhi.

From the State Government's point of view, there are strong logistical reasons for setting up the satellite port and petrochemical park on Kattupalli island. The site is almost contiguous with the existing Manali township and its co mplex of petrochemical industries. The satellite port is not very far from Chennai port and, therefore, has the potential of becoming part of a larger seaport complex and enhancing the city's cargo-handling capacity.

The site's proximity to Chennai city (approximately 35 km by road and even less if one were to follow the crow's flight path) is expected to attract potential investors.

The residents of Kattupalli, Kalanji and Puzhuthivakkam villages, however, are not amused. For them the coming of the project would mean moving out of their villages and traditional occupations to the two proposed rehabilitation centres.

Around one lakh people are dependent on the fish catch from the Pulicat lake for their livelihood. These communities fear that effluent discharges from the petrochemical facilities will destroy their catch. Some of them had earlier been disp laced by the setting up of the rocket launch centre at Sriharikota.

Further, any spillage or accident could lead to the chemicals draining into the lake. Already, the warm discharge from the coolant system of NCTPS is reportedly causing fish deaths.

According to a sampling carried out by Madras Christian College, due to the discharge, the water temperature varied between 40 and 32 degrees Celsius in the Buckingham Canal. When this writer felt the water near the outlet point, it was warm enoug h for a comfortable bath on a winter morning.

Another dimension was added to the controversy recently with the Coastal Action Network (CAN), a coalition of environmental and social organisations working on coastal issues, taking the matter to the Madras High Court through a public interest writ petition. CAN had stated that the project should not be permitted as it will destroy the ecosystem of the region. The court has issued notices to the respondents to file their counters.

Forty-feet high sand dunes, stabilisied by vegetation growth, protect the coast in Kattupalli. When these dunes are flattened and petrochemical industries set up, it is not known what the impact of sea erosion will be on the island.

Experience has shown that the coast near Chennai is prone to erosion and accretion. These have been aggravated by constructions into the sea. While the walls built into the sea for the Chennai port gave the city a wide Marina B each, it nibbled away settlements, temples and roads in the northern part of the city.

The long barrier wall of the satellite port has already started showing accretion along the mouth of the Ennore creek, thereby closing it.

The greater danger is that the erosion could eat away the sand bar separating Pulicat lake from the Bay of Bengal. The 462 sq km lake owes its high biological productivity to the mixing of riverine fresh water with the tidal overflow from the s ea. This delicate balance between fresh and salt water is liable to be disturbed if the sea stretches itself into the lake.

Considering its importance, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had nominated Pulicat as a Ramsar Convention site in February. The official declaration has not yet come from the Convention Secretariat at Gland in Switzerland, though. Listing as a Ramsar site would mean recognising the lake as a waterbody of international importance.

There is no denying that the Kattupalli-Pulicat-Buckingham Canal ecosystem provides enough ecological and economic services. The problem, however, is that it does not capture the imagination of the decision-makers.

Due to this, the villagers on the island have been on the developmental blindspot of the Government for a rather long time. There is hardly a road to the habitations, with tractors and bullock carts being the only means of movement on the sa nd (other than walking). Some villagers have turned to brewing liquor illicitly in the groves.

Ironically, when `development' comes to their area, the villagers will be moved out to rehabilitation centres. It is for this reason that despite various nuances at the project's public hearing, the broader picture was against the project. Th ere were only two supporters -- TIDCO and NEERI.

Since the NCTPS is already established, and the satellite port is close to being inaugurated, it is the petrochem park project that needs reconsideration. The lake-island ecosystems are rather too delicate to be recreated.

Pic.: A boy dives into a natural pond on Kattupalli island -- will he find the same joy at the proposed rehabilitation centre?

Pic. credit: Bijoy Ghosh