Killer waves

With ten whales dying along the Rameshwaram coast since July, environmentalists are blaming the Sethusamudram canal project for the deaths, reports Jaya Menon

Environmentalists are raising the war cry again. The ruling DMK8217;s pet project, the Rs 2,400-crore dredging for the deepening of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal in the Palk Bay, is facing strident protests over an unprecedented number of whale deaths reported along the Rameshwaram coast. The Gulf of Mannar, 20 km from where the dredging is to be undertaken, is rich in corals and is home to endangered species of marine flora and fauna.

Activists claim that the dredging has resulted in at least ten whales being stranded ashore, either dead or unconscious, since July this year. Dredging for the Sethusamudram Canal began in the Park Bay in June 2005, off the Vedaranyam coast, several kilometres north of Rameshwaram. Environmentalists say the whales8217; navigation sensors are affected by the loud noise, ten times louder under sea, due to the dredging and the active sonar machines used for marine surveys. The mammals lose their sense of direction and get stranded in shallow waters near Rameshwaram. 8220;What is alarming is that while ten whales have died in just nine months since July this year, during the period 1841 to 1945, there have been reports of only 95 whale deaths in this region,8217;8217; says Ossie Fernandez, convenor of the Coastal Action Network, a Chennai-based NGO. He points out that Union Shipping Minister TR Baalu who recently inaugurated the dredging in the Adams Bridge area near Rameshwaram, talked about 26 whale deaths from 1907 up to 1999 in the region, but made no reference to ten deaths in just four months.

Krusadai Island is an uninhabited dot on the map, about seven kilometres from Rameshwaram, connected to the mainland Ramanathapuram district by the 2-km-long Pamban Bridge. But Krusadai is a source of livelihood for fisherwomen from the nearby Chinnapalam village who make furtive trips, swimming to the forbidden Island to collect seaweed and corals, which find a lucrative market in the pilgrim town of Rameshwaram. During two such trips to the island, the women spotted dead whales on the beach.

The 200-odd Gulf Of Mannar Protection groups that have sprung up across fishing hamlets sound an alarm. 8216;8216;As soon as we sight a whale, sea cow, dolphin or dugong on the shore, we alert wildlife officials. They come and conduct a post-mortem on the spot and bury the remains,8217;8217; says Easwaran Karuppiah, who heads such a group in Kundakkal village where two whales washed ashore in July and August this year. The Forest and wildlife department have prohibited entry of fishermen in the 21 islands close to Rameshwaram in a bid to protect the marine life in the region.

The Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park wildlife warden, S Shenbagamoorthy, says seven whales, a sea cow and a green turtle have been washed ashore since April this year. S Velpandian, a senior official with the State Fisheries Department in Rameshwaram, who was present during some of the post-mortems conducted on the dead whales, says they died of 8216;8216;natural causes8217;8217;. Their deaths, he says, had nothing to do with the dredging.

Admitting that the number of deaths was a cause for concern, Velpandian, however, dismisses theories that sonar waves could kill whales. TL Kumaran, a marine mammal consultant for the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, is categorical that the dredging had little to do with the whale deaths. 8216;8216;I don8217;t think so. Whale strandings have been going on forever. I have data for the last 200 years. From the pictures I have seen of whale deaths on the Rameshwaram coast, I would say they were brought by strong winds and currents.8217;8217;

According to Lal Mohan, who worked for 17 years with the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute at Mandapam and later with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 8216;8216;there has been an unusual number of deaths of whales. We have no option but to correlate it to the dredging going on in the region. These mammals have very well developed tympanic membrane ear-drum. So the noises would be magnified manifold and have a terrible impact on the whales8217;8217;.

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The debate may go on but it hasn8217;t yet prompted the Sethusamudram project managers to undertake a serious study on the environmental impact of dredging and its long-term effects on the fragile ecosystem in the Gulf of Mannar.