For the fish workers, the harbour has not just created a death trap for them. They fear it threatens their very existence.
An old woman and her grand child in a fishing village north of Muthalapozhy fishing harbour waits for return of their family members who went for fishing. Photo: K A Shaji
An eerie silence prevailed in the areas surrounding the Muthalapozhi harbour a day after one person died and three others went missing when their fishing boat met with an accident at the harbour’s mouth in the early hours of Monday, 10 July.
It was before the bodies of the missing three were retrieved, and a collective wail went out to the sea. The deceased have been identified as Suresh Fernandez, 58, Biju Antony, 45, Robin Edwin, 42, and Kunhumon Cycil, 48.
Cycil’s body was found soon after the incident, but others were recovered from the gaps of the breakwater about 48 hours later.
Remains of boats that crashed against the breakwaters or capsized in the unpredictable estuarine waves in the last decade can be seen left unattended in the surroundings.
People still catch fish from the sea and sell them at the local fish landing centre. Children still go to school, and youngsters still move around in their two-wheelers.
But black flags and posters with black borders are visible everywhere, quietly shouting about the latest tragedy on the northern coastal edge of Kerala’s capital district Thiruvananthapuram.
In one of the houses, young sisters Malasha and Merlin were inconsolable. They had just returned after the funeral of Malasha’s husband, 40-year-old fish worker Cycil, who died in the latest accident.
The breakwaters at Muthalapozhi. (KA Shaji/South First)
Merlin’s husband, who had gone missing in the choppy waters, was later found dead.
Asked about the total number of casualties in accidents involving fishing boats in the Muthalapozhi harbour, District Collector Geromic George informed South First that the official figure was 69 in the past 10 years — since the breakwaters became operational. Over 700 others were seriously injured when boats capsized at the mouth of the harbour.
There were 11 accidents in the past two months alone, he added.
But the local fishing community told South First the number of people who died in recurring boat accidents at Muthalapozhi has crossed three digits.
The locals accuse the government and officials of hiding many cases to sweep under the rug the possible concerns that might be raised by civil society on knowing about the frightening situation here.
The under-construction Adani seaport at Vizhinjam. (South First)
Members of the fishing community said they have no livelihood option other than ignoring the threats and continuing fishing, despite the risk involved in taking their boats out in Muthalapozhi.
Muthalapozhi is about 40 km from Vizhinjam, where fish workers started a movement some months ago against corporate major Adani Group’s mega seaport project, saying it would ruin their livelihood.
The Kerala government suppressed that agitation with the support of all political formations across the spectrum.
The fish workers in Muthalapozhi are also waging a losing war against a governmental system that pays scant regard to their concerns.
For an outsider, the mouth of the Muthalapozhi Harbour, where the Vamanapuram river meets the sea, is a postcard-worthy picture of tranquillity.
In the evenings, numerous tourists gather on the Muthalapozhi bridge to witness the panoramic views of the harbour, where the river merges with the sea by passing between two parallel breakwaters.
The location is barely 26 km from the state’s secretariat and the offices of ministers.
During early mornings and late evenings, when large-scale fishing activities take place, engine-powered fishing boats speeding from the sea meet with accidents as soon as they reach the estuary mouth.
Fish workers say a mysterious force pushed their boats into a phenomenon akin to a whirlwind.
As an afterthought, they correct their statements and say the accidents are man-made as there were no such accidents a decade before.
Making the statement more accurate, they say accidents — leading to deaths — began exactly in 2002, when the construction of the tow backwaters started.
Officially declared as completed in 2020, the Muthalapozhi fishing harbour is now synonymous with recurring deaths and official apathy.
The people there call the estuary the “mouth of death”. Whenever the sea turns rough in the heavy monsoons, the waves become monstrous, rise to dangerous heights, and crash instantly.
Coastal erosion near Anjengo has become worse since a fishing harbour was built at the Muthalapozhi estuary in Thiruvananthapuram district (KA Shaji/South First)
That process pulls the boats to the rocky edges of the backwaters.
Once known for its large-scale coir manufacturing units, Muthalapozhi has witnessed a decline in the cottage industry.
Then the whole region found fishing as the sole means of sustenance.
The fish workers here confess that the demand to construct an all-weather fishing harbour facilitating the profession even in the rainy season emanated from their ranks. The area witnessed several agitations in this regard.
The technical know-how for the project was given by the Ocean Engineering Department of IIT Chennai, and Kerala’s Harbour Engineering Department took responsibility for the construction.
By 2005, several modifications were incorporated into the original project, and people now allege that these finally turned fatal for the fishing community.
There were many discrepancies in the following years of construction as well.
As soon as the breakwaters were completed, areas north of the project started facing massive sea erosion. Many houses and properties were submerged in the sea.
Ultimately, the dream of converting the estuary into a permanent approach channel for fish workers failed to become a reality despite spending a lot of money from the exchequer.
With accidents becoming the new reality, people started becoming insecure.
In the face of large-scale local resentment, the government approached IIIT Pune to review the work done at Muthalapozhi.
The institute concluded that the initial project was faulty. It said the whole project was unscientific.
Then, the government announced some tourism infrastructure development in the locality to decrease the dependence of the local community on fishing using the harbour.
However, concrete steps to that end are yet to materialise.
While Adani was struggling to get the required rock for the 4-km breakwater required for the international seaport being built at the southern tip of Kerala, the thought arose that rock chiselled out of the Western Ghats could be brought to Vizhinjam partially by road and partially by the sea.
Thus, Muthalapozhi was opened up to the Adani Group to construct a stockyard on the beach.
Large rocks excavated from the Western Ghats would be stored at a single spot there before being transported through barges to the construction site in Vizhinjam.
While giving a green signal to Adani, the government claimed the corporate would help dredge the harbour mouth to reduce accidents, apart from developing a tourist centre close to it. Therefore, the people there would be assured of greater safety as well as job opportunities, it reasoned.
Adani has almost completed its aim of transporting rocks using barges and has little interest in Muthalapozhi. So, corporate-aided tourism and dredging remain only on paper.
Meanwhile, the death toll at the unscientifically constructed breakwater at Muthalapozhi continues to rise.
Thanks to a local agitation, the government was under tremendous pressure to remove the earth and loosen large rocks between the breakwaters.
Leveling work at Vizhinjam seaport. (Wikimedia Commons)
At this juncture, the Adani Group came into the picture as a saviour for the government and the local people.
“The Adani Group gave assurances that it would increase the depth of the approach channel by removing the earth and rocks free of cost,” recalls Jisha Elizabeth, who researched the Muthalapozhi issue.
“In return, it demanded permission to build a temporary stockyard at Perumathura beach, to use it till the rocks for the Vizhinjam seaport were transported and to build a private wharf for docking the barges,” she added.
“During the initial days, it was said that luxury cruises and cargo ships could be docked at the wharf. But nothing has happened,” said Jisha.
The Adani Group has almost left Muthalapozhi, and no promised rectification works have been initiated.
“Adani did not come to save us. It needed a temporary base to transport the rocks. The fishermen were organising strikes to remove the earth from the estuary. At that time, Adani came promising to remove the earth. Everybody believed,” recalled Dr Benny Chiramel, a researcher on coastal issues.
Muthalapozhi’s issues became a subject of debate in Kerala on Monday, 10 July, when one fisherman died and three others went missing after their boat capsized at the mouth of the harbour after being battered by strong waves. The bodies of the three missing were recovered 48 hours later.
Minister Antony Raju with his cabinet colleagues V Sivankutty and GR Anil. (KB Jayachandran)
Coming to know about the incident, ministers V Sivankutty, Antony Raju, and GR Anil rushed to oversee rescue activities.
The ministers were taken aback by the high-intensity protest of local fisherfolk and relatives of the four fishermen, whose main complaint was that the government did not do enough to rescue the missing persons.
They also alleged that authorities have been reluctant to resolve the recurring deaths of fishermen at Muthalapozhi.
The local community said the agitators were provoked by one of the ministers who termed the protest was stage-managed.
But the issue turned into a political controversy when Sivankutty blamed Thiruvananthapuram archdiocese vicar general Eugine H Pereira, who was also convenor of the Vizhinjam Action Council, for creating enmity between people by campaigning against the government.
“He [Eugine] directed people to block the ministers and the district collector. He thought people would listen to him and create a law and order issue. Eugine led the Vizhinjam protest. The protest was called off when it elicited a poor response. The past malice was clear to see. He should not have incited a riot,” Sivankutty said.
Eugine dismissed the allegation that he had given a call to violence and accused Sivankutty of repeating what he had said during the Vizhinjam protest.
“People were ready to talk to the ministers. But they were rude. Party workers were called in to provide them with security. When Sivankutty saw me, he told me not to ‘show off’. I am unsurprised because even during the Vizhinjam protest, he had painted fishermen as rioters and anti-nationals,” Eugine said.
Subsequently, the police registered a case against Eugine on the charge of provocation with the intent to create a riot.
Kerala’s Opposition leader VD Satheesan said on Tuesday that the ministers had provoked the fish workers and created the controversy to divert attention from the larger issue.
He demanded quick scientific solutions to prevent the recurring accidents, and that Muthalapozhi must not continue to be a death trap.
According to local fish workers’ leader Valerian, even experienced fishermen find it tough to climb back once they fall off the boat in the face of strong opposite drift from the estuary. As a result, they are violently tossed back into the sea.
Anglers say the sand deposited by the sea at the mouth of the estuary, heavy winds, and the breakwaters are causing deaths at Muthalapozhi.
They say the sands are accumulating as mini hillocks under the water, and the boats collide with them.
For the fish workers, the harbour has not just created a death trap for them. They fear it threatens their very existence.
They say after the harbour came into existence, the entire stretch of coast from Muthalapozhi to Anchuthengu has been almost fully eroded.
Latin Catholic Church leaders at a recent meeting with a cabinet sub-committee on Vizhinjam. (South First)
“There is a bit of a beach left in Mambally. Otherwise, no beach is left in most areas north of Muthalapozhi, like Thazhampally, Poothura, Anchuthengu and Nedunganda. Even if there is some beach left in these areas, it will not be more than one metre,” said Max Martin, a researcher on coastal situations in the region.
A study by Kerala University and National Centre for Earth Science Study, published in 2022, seems to confirm the fears of the fish workers.
It predicted that major erosion activity would be in the coastal stretches north of the under-construction Vizhinjam port and Muthalapozhi Harbour.
“The hard shorelines protection structures like breakwaters and groynes bring relief at one end while unprecedented erosion occurs further up,” the study observes.
The sad part is that the state government denied the basic reality.
When Satheesan raised the issue in the state Assembly recently, the fisheries minister said such a huge number of casualties in Muthalapozhi never came to the attention of the government.
May 08, 2024
May 08, 2024
May 08, 2024
May 08, 2024
May 08, 2024
May 08, 2024
