Guess why we don’t want this canal

Like most of us, I hate it when activists take over the arterial routes of the city to push their agenda. But caught in the traffic for hours a week back, my frustration was more than usual. Then, staring at the windscreen, I went back many years in time.

As a child, I hated my daily glass of milk. One summer morning, I was waiting on the terrace to catch a partial solar eclipse with my mother nagging me to drink up when a visiting cousin of my grandma’s came to my rescue.

This rather formidable granny told my mother that since she hadn’t managed to make me gulp down the liquid yet, she must throw it – along with all the "cooked" food in the kitchen – to avoid contamination by unknown batteries of germs released during the eclipse. My mother looked unsure but had to oblige.

The issue was earlier discussed in my school and I knew from my science teacher that no such contamination occurred. But I was just too happy to have escaped my daily glass to correct the old lady.

That child must have been long dead inside me. But stuck in my car, for a moment, I felt tempted. Could I hitch an unusual saffron ride if it took me to the green station I did not quite know how to reach otherwise?

So what if this faith factor — that brought the capital to a standstill and soon put the Centre on the defensive while no amount of environmental reasoning could make the policymakers so much as flinch – sets a dangerous precedent?

Can’t we hope to offset that precedent tomorrow — through a faith-vs-governance debate — and save India’s most precious marine assets today?

I was tempted. Till I realised the absurdity of it all. There are a hundred scientific reasons to stall the dredging project and I will come to some of these later. For now let’s just forget them all. If we Indians are indeed still so faithful to our Indian-ness, if we are still so spiritually guided by the ancient wisdom of our scriptures, mythology and folklore, I wonder why we required the literal symbol of a Ram Setu at all to contest the dredging of this canal.

Frankly, many like me — deeply unworthy of any spiritual inheritance — would not mind riding a faith wave that challenged the project because it violates the basic tenet of Indian ethos and not some epic divinity in natural shoal formation.

No, I am not trying to patronise the believer. We must understand what is unique about the Indian system of faith. In the West, the Judeo-Christian tradition envisions the entire universe as god’s creation for man’s benefit. It claims that nothing in the physical order has any purpose other than being of use to man.

But Hinduism, and the larger Indian ethos that constitutes the faith system of the believer in our land, finds a soul in every tree, mountain and river. It’s the same soul, it claims, that dwells within us humans.

That’s why our mountains, rivers and even trees are holy. In the Vedas, we have gods and goddesses personifying the natural forces – vayu (wind), agni (fire), swa (sky), bhu (earth) and bhuvah (atmosphere). Atharva Veda’s prithvi sukta is perhaps the most ancient invocation to the environmental cause.

It proclaims the absolute filial bond between us and Mother Earth: Mata Bhumih Putroham Prithivyah (Earth is my mother, I am her son). It goes on to pledge that humankind will protect Mother Earth against every form of violation.

And even people like us – deeply unworthy of any spiritual inheritance – know that the greatest lesson of the Ramayana is not in marine architecture but the importance of dharma in life.

Dharma is what holds together – it is about order and harmony in the spiritual and natural life. The Vedic hymn of peace invokes Om, the primordial resonance, to seek "harmony in the sky and on the earth in the waters in the herbs in the vegetation and the forests… "

If it were indeed the Indian faith system talking, we would see a dignified resistance to a project that seeks to destroy the natural harmony and with it, the nation’s most valued marine assets.

But since it’s vote politics playing on the streets, we have unruly activists seeking inspiration from the monkey army that had apparently built the bridge for the lord.

But in the Indian democracy, militant faith often achieves what scientific reason fails to. So last week’s roadshows attracted more attention than the newsprint and airtime managed by the environmental concerns expressed over several years.

To appreciate how frustrating that might feel, please consider these factors:

    * The obvious risk the project poses to the coral reefs and a host of marine diversity in the Gulf of Munnar and the Palk Bay, has been highlighted time and again.

    * Any damage to the Gulf of Munnar, India’s hottest marine biosphere, will spell disaster for fish-breeding and immediately affect an estimated 70,000 families. Over 10 years, the fishing industry will lose at least Rs 24,000 crore.

    * During dredging or navigation, any accident leading to oil spill will leave little room for damage control and ruin this rare biosphere for good.

    * The claim that canal will cut down navigation time by 36 hours is highly ambitious. Ships will have to move here at half the speed toeing a pilot vessel. Moreover, the ships cannot discharge even treated sewerage in the canal and this will add to overheads. Chances are thin that this route will become economically viable and invite many ships.

    * The claim that the canal would help strategic defence interest is all bunkum. Defence manoeuvering with Navy vessels is impossible in such a shallow and narrow canal.

    * Poor soil investigation has left doubts about the nature of the bottom strata which if turns out to be rock will shoot up dredging cost considerably and may even require blasting, destroying the Palk Bay eco-system.

    * The tsunami in December 2004 caused immense damage to the Palk Bay eco-system and sedimentation rate nearly doubled. A number of studies concluded that in many areas, the sea is now at half-depth as before the tsunami. Also, this area witnesses a cyclone every 4-5 years when sediments get dumped in Palk Bay. The government did not factor in that the total amount of material to be dredged would be many times higher than the original estimate.

    * With not enough safe dumping sites identified even for the estimated load, it is anybody’s guess where the additional sludge will be discharged.

    * The average speed of the tsunami wave was 800-850 km per hour but when it moved in Palk Bay it surprisingly slowed down to 30km per hour. Intervention will upset this natural buffer.

    * Dr Tad S Murty, editor of the internationally acclaimed magazine Science of Tsunami Hazards, cautioned that the entrance to the setu channel should be reoriented to the eastern side to avoid creating a deep water route for another tsunami causing huge destruction in Kerala. In such a scenario, the entire shoreline shielded by the Palk Bay would be exposed.

    * Surprisingly, the two year-long NEERI environment impact assessment was concluded in 2004 and it did not even factor in the tsunami threat (or the impact of the cyclones).

    * The PMO, in March 2005, objected to this project, saying there was no comprehensive environment impact analysis after NEERI conducted a two-year-long survey. Then the government conducted a 13-day study (from April 1-13) that apparently cleared all the doubts ahead of Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Enough? For people like you and me – to pause and ask do we really need this canal?

Even if it seeks to materialise a very-much thrust-upon Tamil dream?

Even if a desperate DMK needed to free this genie after 150 years in sarkari files ahead of a tricky poll? Even if the PMO of a lameduck UPA had to swallow its legitimate concerns in a matter of weeks to appease an overbearing ally?

And when people like you and me thought there was no hope to stall this official sell-off, we heard Jayalalithaa question the project but only because Karunanidhi trumped her to the inauguration. And now, the BJP and lakhs of Indians are up in arms against the canal but only because they revere Ram.

Oh, for the love of the lord, please don’t bother taking a printout of the dozen reasons we thought were enough to stall the project. You may yet save a tree.