A new ship-breaking yard that has come up for the first time in Kerala along the Kannur coast would destroy the state's pristine northern coastline and cause huge environmental problems, activists said on Thursday.
According to environmentalists, the ship-breaking yard at Kannur built by the Steel Industries Limited Kerala (SILK) is similar to the yards operating at Alang in Gujarat.
"The breaking yard at Kannur has floated all established norms such as clearance from competent authorities. Therefore, we want the government to urgently ban the yard from functioning," Greenpeace India ship breaking campaigner Ameer Shahul told rediff.com.
According to Greenpeace, which is campaigning against the ship-breaking yards at Gujarat, the yard at Azhikkal in Kannur is "very close to the fishing harbour, which is highly dangerous."
"The new ship-breaking yard is very close to the fishing area. As the breaking business grows it will displace the fishing industry from that area. Moreover, since hazardous wastes will be thrown into the beaches and the local area, it is going to be an environment disaster considering the high population density in the area," Shahul pointed out.
Reports said that SILK has already starting breaking vessels at the new yard. The company is said to have already brought one ship from Singapore, dismantled it and sent the steel extracted from it for re-rolling to one of its four steel factories.
Greenpeace activists say ships are now likely to be brought from South-East Asia to Kannur. "The company has employed the labour from Bihar in the Kerala yard as it does not want to involve any local people in the business," Shahul said.
He said that SILK has not conducted any feasibility study at Kannur before it stared the ship-breaking