Why do you think the government has not shown you the sand dug up from there?
Because you cannot prove that there is a canal there. We are willing to be disproved. Our stand is that there is no canal they have dug.
Then what are they doing there?
They are dredging and moving. They are not saying where they threw the dredged sand. If they have thrown away so much sand, which is half of 80 million cubic metres of sand, where is it? They have to put it somewhere, and if they have, it should be there.
What is their reply to your queries?
Nothing. They can't answer because the sand they have dredged is not there. They are just dredging because they have the dredging ships and money and they keep moving. And the monitoring work is not being done according to oceanographic parameters.
There are no oceanographic, geological or sub surface geological experts in the team. They don’t have a single expert in the team to understand soil sedimentation. So, the monitoring team cannot answer these questions. As far as we know, there are about 60 scientists in India who have written papers stating that this canal is not sustainable.
So, what will be the outcome of this dredging?
Nothing is going to come out of this project. It has already damaged the marine life. You have seen the number of whales that are washed ashore. The dredging noise affects the movement of fish. The project is damaging marine life and the lives of the local fishermen.
Image: O Fernandes, the co-convenor of Coastal Action Network and director of the Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation.
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