Rise in whale death not due to dredging: Baalu

Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Dec 11 (UNI) Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport T R Baalu today said the alarming increase in whale death in Gulf of Mannar was not due to the ongoing dredging work for the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project.

Talking to reporters after launching the second phase of dredging at Adams Bridge here, he said statistics provided by the Central Marine and Fisheries Research Institute clearly showed that the death of whales was a recurring phenomenon and in no way it was connected to the dredging work.

About 15 dead whales, which were washed ashore last year, Mr Baalu said since 1907, there were cases of whale deaths every year and in 1982 the figure touched 40, including a sea cow.

In 1999 alone 46 dead whales were washed ashore, he said and added that this was prior to the commencement of dredging work for the project.

He said the channel's alignment, where dredging was on, was 22 nautical miles away from the nearest islet with coral reefs in the Mannar National Marine Park.

On livelihood of fishermen, he said it would not be affected by the Sethu project and claimed that the fish catch would rather witness an increase.

''In any event the Ministry was not bound to provide any training on alternative livelihood. It was only out of concern and courtesy that certain training programmes were being offered under the SSP to the people living in the project area,'' he said when asked whether the alternative programmes like coir making could fetch the same income for the coastal community, especially fishermen, in case of displacement.

On the plans to deposit the dredged silt in and around Dhanushkodi to reclaim some of the territory submerged during a hurricane in the 1970s, he accused the previous AIADMK Government for not accepting the proposal made earlier and said ''after financial closure, this could not be added to the project cost.'' He said ferry service to Colombo from Thoothukudi, which failed to take off due to stiff resistance from the previous Jayalalithaa Government on security grounds, could be launched if the former Chief Minister, now Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, did not place any hurdles.

Once the Sethu project becomes operational, a ferry service could be launched between Rameswaram and Talaimannar in the Jaffna peninsula in the island nation with the concurrence of the Tamil Nadu Government, he added.

UNI CR AJ AKJ KN2255