Greens up in arms against dredging

KOCHI: The environmental impact of dredging in the Kochi waters has not been properly assessed and it is having an impact on marine ecosystem, green activists and fishing communities have alleged. And there is also an imminent threat of land erosion to the islanders here.
Raising concern over the ICTT-Cochin Port Trust plans to increase dredging beyond 14.5m, the activists along with NGO Port Watch India have written to shipping minister Nitin Gadkari and opposition leader V S Achuthanandan against the plans to dredge deeper.
“We have sought an agency by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to get an environmental impact assessment (EIA) done as the impact of dredging and disposal of dredging material needs to be studied,” said C G Thampy, convener of Port Watch India.
He said that the dredging process creates land erosion. The entire city and surrounding islands are under threat even at the present level of dredging. Any attempt to increase dredging for deepening the shipping channels further will cause and aggravate environment impact to a dangerous level.
Meanwhile, the fishermen say that they are not getting any sardines and mackerels from the Kochi backwaters. “If you just go north towards Cheranelloor or further towards Kodungaloor, you get to catch these fishes. There is no marine life in this area. Since there is no food for the fishes, they don’t come here to spawn. The continuous dredging affected the fishes which have moved out,” said V D Majeedran of the National Fishworkers Union.
Environmentalist C M Joy said that the mitigation methods including developing a green belt in 1.4 hectares were promised in the environment management plan. But there has been no sign of any such development in the last several years.