Leaders Of Isolated ‘Public Movements’: Jaseera And K C Sreekumar
By S. Mohammed Irshad
30 October, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Jaseera's protest in front of government secretariat Kerala
Ms Jaseera from one of the coastal areas of Kerala has opened a new method of struggle for conserving environment in the capital city of the country. She had started her struggle in front of government secretariat Kerala. The ministry of Kerala Mr Adoor Prakash accused her by saying that she is funded by fundamentalists, and Mr Abdullakutty a former DYFI (democratic youth front of India- a CPI (M) organization) leader turned ultra right MLA of Congress party claimed that she is misleading the society.
Ms Jaseera’s movement had not got wider public concern in Kerala; however it does not mean that it is not relevant. This small piece is attempting to explain a similar issue in another coastal areas of Kerala, where Mr K C Sreekumar and his movement , Coastal Area Protection Council has been fighting for the same issue for the last 30 years, like other such movements his movement also termed as anti-development and anti-national.
There two villages Vellanamthuruthu and Ponmana in Kollam district of Kerala have completely washed away by sea surge due to extensive sea sand mining. The 1996 land resurvey had decided not to levy land tax from 7200 hectors of land owing to the absence of any activities and settlements. The issue came into the public domain by a public interest litigation filed by Mr Bhagvan Sing a retired government servant in the high court of Kerala, following this, court has asked the Kochin University to assess the land loss and the university report explained that 18 acres of seashore is disappeared. This area was a vast Paddy field couple of years before, continuous mining and resultant sea wall construction to protect the sea surge had already taken a vast area of sea shore. There is no activity possible in these areas, not even to dock the fishing boats.
The coastal area protection council claims that apart from legal sand mining by two public sector companies Kerala Metal and Minerals Limited and Indian Rare Earth limited, there are huge illegal sand mining is happening. These villages were badly affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. Mining had already made their life difficult; Tsunami extended the calamity for a long term. Continuous mining required non-intervention by the local community. The tsunami has helped the companies to evacuate more than 1200 fishermen families from the area, and the entire coastal stretch is now open for mining activities. The coastal regulation zone 2011 had legitimized the mining by giving reference to the special provision of the act such as the exemption of mining by Nuclear Power Corporation and the availability of rare minerals in the region. The whole area can be open for mining at any time since it is fulfill the exceptions of the act. The latest avatar is a private company, CMRL which the local community claims that is trying to get licenses for mining.
Jaseera has experienced an issue and she anticipates a total disappearance of coast, here it has already happened. The political parties are having the same response as what Mr Adoor Prakash and Abdulla Kutty showed i.e. term the movement and leaders as fundamentalists and anti-national. The leaders of the coastal area protection council were questioned by the police when they expressed solidarity with anti-Kudamkulam struggle. Council leaders are not getting any support from the local political parties towards the protection of coast from the sand mining lobby including private companies.
Sand smuggling
The resources on the coast are still having huge economic value, and there were a history of sustainable mining as well. The mechanized mining had led huge coast loss. Recently Tamil Nadu government officially declared that the state is getting sand from Kerala coast. This remark had directly indicated the real sources of sand. The coastal area protection council leaders suspect a nexus between the officials and some private individuals in such smuggling. The un-sustainable mining had badly impacted the local community. The fishing community is worst impacted, the community loses the land and fresh water sources due to extensive mining.
Jasereea’s struggle and the 30 year old struggle waged by the coastal area protection council are fighting for the cause which is completely against the interest of the state and the emerging capitalist class as well. Both K C Sreekumar and Jaseera have never learned the theory of environmental conservation from text book as what most of us do, they have learned the lessons from the life experience. K C Sreekuamar and his movements are not being funded by any foreign agency; they are getting support from fellow fishermen activists.
Coastal protection council’s argument for conserving the coastal environment and development are not something which is quite fitting into the conventional understanding of the coastal development approach. They demand a kind of social ownership on the coastal resources, rather than just beneficiaries. The economic value of the resources should be distributed among the poor fishermen. This is political argument too and it is a democratic right as well. The current neo-liberal resource ownership pattern never accepts this political vision of the community and indeed, the business model cannot accept such a concept.
Conclusion
Jaseera and K C Sreekumar are not representing any private interest, however, the public right which they are articulating is unfit to the contemporary development models. My interaction with Sreekuamar gives a completely different approach towards coastal resources, including the schools and health facilities. They know what ought to be development; however, their perception does not satisfy capitalist economic interest. This conflict will continue since the whole society is confronting such conflicts, hence, Jaseera and Sreekuamar are really representing another side of our development democracy, which is politically right yet completely wrong for the political elite.
S. Mohammed Irshad PhD
Assistant Professor
Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
E-Mail: [email protected]
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