Pulicat Lake in Grave Danger

Save Pulicat Bird Sanctuary the unlawful reduction of the Eco-Sensitive Zone
around Pulicat Lake will lead to serious ecological threats to this unique wetland.


Pulicat Bird Sanctuary, spanning northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra
Pradesh is the 2nd largest brackish water ecosystem in India. Hundreds of
thousands of migratory waterfowl throng the lake from October to April, including
large numbers of Greater and Lesser Flamingos. Efforts are underway through
national conservation bodies such as Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and
Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural history (SACON) to declare it as
a wetland of international importance and obtain for it the status of
a RAMSAR site.

46 villages (16 island villages and 30 adjoining villages) depend on the lake directly
or indirectly for their livelihood.
However, this fragile wetland ecosystem is under serious threat because of a plan
to build a world-class port and ship building centre, which will lead to massive
dredging and also result in many ancillary industries coming up in the area. In
order to facilitate this project, a notification was issued by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MoEF) to reduce the mandatory Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ)
around the sanctuary from 10 km to 2 km in an attempt to blatantly bypass the
law. Public concerns voiced and official petitions were ignored.

BACKGROUND

Following a Supreme Court order in WP 460/2004, the MOEF issued guidelines on
declaration of Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ) around all Wildlife Sanctuaries to act as
shock absorbers for protected areas by regulating and managing activities
around them. All activities in the ESZ shall be governed by the provisions of the
Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and carefully regulated.

As per this guideline, the ESZ of Pulicat Bird Sanctuary was earmarked by the
Andhra Pradesh Forest Department as 10 km in a letter to the Government from
the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Andhra Pradesh, dated 05-03-
2007, Reference Number 779/07/WL-1. However, in a draft notification by the
MoEF dated 03-01-2014, the ESZ has been reduced from the proposed 10 km to 2
km.

On 16-09-2013, the government notified the creation of a major shipping port with
an extent of 5028 acres at Dugarajupatnam of Pulicat Bird Sanctuary with another
9700 acres earmarked for future requirements. The reduction in the ESZ and the
proposed major commercial shipping port right next to a major and significant
wetland area will cause irreparable harm and damage to the Pulicat Bird
Sanctuary and will also affect the livelihood of the fishermen in the area. This
reduction of the ESZ by the MoEF is completely unwarranted and is an invitation to
ecological disaster.



RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Increase the Eco-Sensitive Zone for Pulicat Bird Sanctuary to 10 km around
the entire Sanctuary. There should be no relaxation of any sort offered to
establish any ecologically damaging activity like hazardous industries,
thermal power plants, seaports or airports in the 10 km width ESZ.

2. Explore other alternatives for the port in non-ecologically sensitive areas.

3. MoEF and State Forest Departments of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu
should jointly work towards proposing Pulicat Bird Sanctuary as a RAMSAR
site.

For more information contact ARCHANAA SEKER seker.archanaa@gmail.com

http://savepulicatlake.wordpress.com





{ 9 June 2014 SITREP : Pulicat vs Port }