HONNAVAR (UTTARA KANNADA): Rajesh Tandel stares impassively as the sea breeze shifts the sand, spraying it against the fragments of fishing nets strung up on poles at the beach beyond his home at Kasarkoda, a village in Honnavar taluka of coastal Karnataka.
Within each net are hundreds of eggs laid by the reclusive Olive Ridley turtles over the past few weeks, but with the nesting nearing its end and the hatchlings yet to emerge from the 49 protected nests that still remain, Tandel has begun to worry for them.
Tandel, now in his mid-30s, grew up watching the waves crash upon the shore as the tides ebbed and flowed, ran out to sea with the ramponn (fishing net) at a moment’s notice every time he or a member of his fishing community noticed a shoal of sardines close to the shore, and season after season the Olive Ridleys laid eggs and the hatchlings went out to sea.
“I have seen days even in the recent past when the entire beach would be filled with sardines in the shallow water and we could literally pick them up by the basket,” Tandel says. He and his community of kharvis (fishermen) who grew up learning and understanding the sea were officially named as community co-protectors of the forest department’s turtle conservation programme when it was launched more than 30 years ago.
All that is at risk now, as large heaps of red laterite boulders, mud and gravel hastily dumped atop the pale sands stand testimony to what was a ham-handed attempt to force through a 4km road right atop the beach to gain access to the site of a new proposed port at the mouth of the Sharavati river.
Today the sandy beach that is home to eight vaddos (hamlets) of fishers lies buried under bounders, rocks and gravel when in January 2022 hundreds of trucks began dumping rubble, mud and gravel as part of a project to build a four-lane, dedicated road corridor from the national highway to what is a proposed Honnavar Private Port Limit (HPPL). Villagers who protested were arrested and released only after the work was complete.
“There are 49 turtle nesting sites on this beach. HPPL built the road without any permissions — no permission from the CRZ (coastal regulation zone), or any other authority, resulting in failed nests. Many nests were buried under the mud and rubble they have dumped under the road. The forest department has been keeping quiet,” said Prakash Mesta, a marine biologist and resident of Honnavar.
Thankfully for the villagers, their petitions to the National Green Tribunal resulted in a stay on the work, providing relief for now.
Coastal development
Kasarkoda’s tale is not unique. The coast of the Uttara Kannada district — from Karwar in the north to Bhatkal in the south — has seen massive fishermen led protests against the state’s coastal plans. As per plans drawn up by the Karnataka Maritime Board that was set up in 2015, there are seven minor ports that are at various stages of planning, a bigger port at Karwar as well as new minor ports at Belekeri, Tadri, Pavinakuruva, Honnavar and Manki.
A railway line between Hubballi and Ankolaa coastal town south of Karwar — also stalled because of environmental concerns — is being planned to help improve the connectivity of the upcoming ports and the interior of the state and beyond. The line, too, has not been given permission since it will involve cutting through the biodiverse Western Ghats.
Honnavar, a town on the banks of the Sharavati, is a historical port that once was a thriving hub for traders during the height of the spice trade from the Arabs, to the Portuguese, the Dutch and later the British. Privateer Timoja Nayak, who induced the Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque to attack and conquer the port city of Goa, hailed from Honnavar, where ruins of the fort he operated from remain.
“Over the years, despite attempts from the Portuguese and British and later even a Japanese company, Honnavar has never been a successful port because this has been a highly eroding area. Everyone who set up here had to walk away with losses,” Mesta said”. The coast and sand moves by the hour and no navigator can tell where the sandbanks lie.”
It should come as no surprise then that the maritime board’s plans have not been smooth. Owing to protest and litigation, and even poor response to the expressions of interest to appeals for private investment for some of the ports have ensured that many projects are stuck at various stages of completion.
At Honnavar, where as many as three ports are proposed — Pavina Kurva, Honnavar and Manki — aggrieved fishermen approached the Karnataka high court, which granted a stay. The fishermen also approached the National Green Tribunal, which has ordered to stop the work on the road being built atop turtle nesting sites. The road and port project has now become a bone of contention between the numerically and politically strong fishing community.
At Karwar, appeals by fishermen first before the court and tribunal have ensured that the expansion plan, which needed forest clearance, is stayed.
Local protests
“In 2019, they started work on the expansion of the Karwar port, without CRZ clearance, without consent of the pollution board. About 10,000 to 15,000 people held a protest that blocked the bridges. But they continued with the work despite our protests,” said Vikas Tandel, a fisherman and activist. “We went to the high court with a PIL (public interest litigation) and got a stay in January 2020. The work was stopped and remained stopped during the Covid period.”
Uttara Kannada is an environmentally rich district that covers a massive geographical area bordering Belgavi in the north, Dharwad and Haveri and Shimoga in the east and Udupi in the South. It is where the waves of the Arabian Sea crash against the outer reaches of the Western Ghats, offering a rich and diverse spectrum of plant and animal life. Though geographically wide, the district is home to only six assembly constituencies — Haliyal, Karwar, Kumta, Bhatkal, Sirsi and Yellapur.
In 2018, the death of Paresh Mesta, a youth from the fishing community of Honnavar taluka that was initially said to be a communal murder, vitiated the atmosphere in the taluka. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the case, after four years of probe said it was an accidental death.
The issue helped the Bharatiya Janat Party win four out of the six constituencies in the district, three of which — Karwar, Kumta and Bhatkal (Honnavar is split between Kumta and Bhatkal) — were coastal constituencies.
“Because of the death of Paresh Mesta, the BJP got a huge majority. In the end, the CBI, too, contended that it was an accidental death and that no one was involved. Ananthkumar Hegde (BJP MP from Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha seat) used to win on the strength of the fishermen’s votes. But now they have blamed us and labelled us anti-nationals because we are opposing the port projects,” said Vikas Tandel, a fisherman activist.
“The fishermen were the backbone of the BJP. But because of the port, people have reversed their choice. Just because of the ports, many have turned against the government,” he added.
The Bhatkal constituency comprising the fishing villages is currently represented by the BJP’s Sunil Naik, who narrowly won the seat by around 5,000 votes against Congress’s MS Vaidya, who was the MLA from 2013 to 2018. Vaidya who survived a crude bomb assassination attempt 2018 is once again up against Naik.
In Karwar constituency, BJP candidate Roopali Naik is seeking a second term while Satish Sail, who came third in 2018 behind the BJP and JD(S) candidates is taking a second shot at wresting the once Congress constituency from the BJP.
BJP district president Venkatesh Naik, however, played down the impact of the protests and labelled them politically motivated.
“The protests are politically motivated. The foundation stone was laid during the Congress regime. But now, when we came to power and started the work, only then they began protesting. I do not see any impact of the protests on the fate of our candidates,” Naik told HT.
“The Congress is confident of winning the seat after five years of misrule from the BJP, whose local MLA has shown herself to be arrogant and uncaring towards her constituents,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity. “This despite some confusion regarding the handing out of the ticket, we are confident that the people will rally behind our candidate in order to defeat the BJP.”
The fishermen fear the ports will ruin their livelihood.
At Karwar, home to the Seabird naval base, Uday Tandel, a traditional fisherman, says increased industrialisation of the coast brings with it a fear that the expanded port and additional breakwater will accelerate the erosion of what is now a critically vulnerable coastal area (CVCA). “Once the port is given approval they will ask us to move out and shift the fishing jetty elsewhere, to a place that is a few kilometres away and is not a natural harbour leaving our boats at risk,” Tandel says.
At Honnavar, fishermen allege that the traditional fishing ground and fish drying lands have been illegally usurped for a port that is being built — stupidly they say — on a stretch of land that is here today gone tomorrow, owing to the shifting sands and changing currents.
“These are among the richest fishing waters in the country. Here you can get fish by the truckload and very close to the shore. It offers jobs to thousands of people. How many jobs will the port offer?” asks Rajesh Tandel.
For Vikas Tandel, theirs is not an environmental battle alone, but one that will seek to establish the political bargaining power of the fisher communities.
“It is important for us to defeat the BJP. If there is a non-BJP government, it gives us a chance to fight against the projects. The present regime has challenged us that they will complete the projects no matter the opposition. If we do not win then they will be under the impression that no matter the opposition, they can go forward with the projects,” he said.
Political analysts say the fishermen’s protests will impact voting trends, but the impact may be limited. “At one point, it seemed like the BJP was on the back foot. But prior to the elections, there was a lot of people moving parties, including some who opposed the ports joining the BJP. In Honnavar, where the bigger protests were held, there will definitely be an impact, but in Karwar the votes will be split,” a local journalist said, declining to be named.
In Karwar, the fishermen claim a voting figure of 40,000 out of a 2 lakh population and have accused the BJP of supporting them, when they were in the opposition but of having turned pro-development soon as they came to power.
“When they were in the opposition, he (BJP Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada Anantkumar Hegde) was supporting our cause. But when he joined the government, he became ‘pro-development’. We reminded them that we were opposing the port project, including when the Congress was in power and even now,” Vikas Tandel said.