Fishermen oppose proposed spiritual and cultural eco-park on ECR

Fishermen oppose spiritual eco-park on ECR, citing impact on fishing activities, burial ground, and community resources.

Fishermen are opposing the establishment of a spiritual and cultural eco-park on a 233-acre parcel of land along the East Coast Road (ECR) near Thiruvidanthai.

The park is to be developed by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department and the Tourism Department and is likely to have amenities including models of famous temples and deities, yoga parks, cultural haat, walkways and boating.

Deenan of Semmancheri fishing hamlet said that their fishing activities will be affected by this park since the proposal includes usage of the beach front where they park their boats and dry fish and mend nets. “Thiruvidanthai’s burial ground falls within this land. These open lands also form a natural aquifer and have three common wells from which our communities draw drinking water. If built up all these will be affected. We don’t want the project to come up here,” he said.

“The paadu system (system of who fishes when) in this area was registered in the 1960s when the atomic energy compound came up in Kalpakkam and the villages were moved. All that will be affected. At Kovalam when the Blue Flag beach came up, our movements in that stretch has been strictly restricted. We are not allowed there,” said Nirmal, a fisherman.

Fishing community leader K. Bharathi said that the district -level environmental clearance for this project was obtained in a haste. “We hear that the State-level clearance was obtained the very next day. No representative of the fishing community in that area was included in the meeting. The lands belonging to the Sri Alavandar Trust have naturally formed dunes, which are barriers to tsunamis even,” he explained.