Vessels with hazardous chemicals will not enter Sethu canal

Madurai, July 30 (UNI) Responding to the apprehensions of conservationists, Chairman of the Environmental Monitoring Committee for the ongoing Sethu Samudram Project today made it clear that oil tankers and vessels with hazardous chemicals will be prohibited from entering the channel, connecting the Gulf of Mannar with the Bay of Bengal.

Talking to newspersons after the meeting of a reconstituted monitoring committee, Chairman Prof S Ramachandran, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of Madras University, said the prohibition was intended to protect the rich eco-system and marine wealth of the area.

As such, ships carrying materials which posed a danger to the environment would not be allowed passage through this channel, he maintained.

Responding to questions, he asserted that the ongoing dredging work in the Adams Bridge area had not affected the environment. No major impact had been affected and even the minor changes were well within the permissible ranges, hence negligible, he pointed out.

Dredging, both inland and offshore, according to him was a daily universal phenomenon without which a very large number of ports and waterways around the world could not function. Therefore fears raised about dredging affecting the eco-system was termed as an exaggerated one.

To a question, he refuted the charge of dwindling fish catch and citing statistics pointed out that it had rather increased manifold.

Only in the immediate aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami there was a shortfall in the Tamil Nadu coast, he said and added the situation had changed and right from Nagapattinam to Kanniyakumari as the average fish catch had witnessed a quantum jump.

On the reports of dead dolphin and sea cows being washed ashore, he contended that it was part of a natural phenomenon and had nothing to do with dredging in the Adam's Bridge area. In fact water connectivity between the Gulf of Mannar and the Pak Straits proved to be beneficial for the growth of marine wealth, he claimed.

The monitoring committee, with experts from various fields, had reviewed the continuous and intensive assessment made during the past 22 months.

UNI