'Even If We Have To Die, We Won't Let This Port Come Up'

'Modi knows the people here are opposed to this project, but he is using the might of government to push this port down our throats.'

Reportage and Videos: Rediff.com's Hemant Waje, Satish Bodas, Prasanna D Zore.

The seashore where the proposed Vadhavan port, some 130 km from India's financial capital Mumbai, is likely to come up wears a deserted look, a week after Prime Minister Narendra D Modi led the foundation stone for the already controversial project some 40 km away from the project site at Palghar.

To be jointly implemented by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and the Maharashtra Maritime Board, the project, whose first phase will be operational only by 2029, will include four terminals which will be built by dredging sand and reclaiming 1,450 acres of sea, and will be located some 6 km inside the sea. It is estimated to cost Rs 76,200 crore (Rs 762 billion) or $9 billion.

The second phase, which will add another five terminals -- each 1 km length terminal having the capacity to berth three containers at a time -- will finish only by 2040. Once fully operation the Vadhavan port will have the capacity to service 24 million TEUs -- twenty-foot equivalent unit, a jargon used by port builders to define the carrying and servicing capacity of ports and terminals.

'What does progress mean to you?'

As per some reports, the dredging work on the Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) phase-I will begin soon after the monsoon -- that is September end -- but when Rediff.com journalists visited the port site they were greeted with a silent and empty shoreline, total absence of port officials, leave alone cops but angry locals from the Bhandari and fishing community, who say more than 200,000 people will be displaced by the port, and the livelihoods of people five times the number of displaced, will be shattered permanently once the port is fully operational.

"Shockingly," say the locals countering the government's development narrative, "this project will provide only 10,000 to 12,000 jobs to the locals versus the 10 lakh (1 million) livelihoods it supports without the port."

The anger and opposition to the Vadhavan port among the local communities -- Wadvals, Bhandaris, Kunbis, Manghels (fisherfolk) and tribals -- is so high that the state administration, claim these locals, decided to hold Modi's foundation stone-laying ceremony on August 30 in Palghar, some 40 km away from Vadhavan village where the port is likely to come up.

"What does progress mean to you?" asks Vijay Rajaram Vindhe, of Varor village, a small fishing hamlet near Vadhavan.

"Every time our boats go out to the sea they come back with a huge pile of fish," says Vindhe, who is the chairman of the Varor Machchimar Sahkari Sanstha.

"Each boat has a crew of 15 people which includes 6 khalashis (expert helmsmen and navigators), and 10 other fishermen. These 15 people in turn support at least 20 to 25 fisherwomen who purchase the catch and sell it to consumers in local markets," says Vindhe.

"Varor has itself some 30 boats providing jobs to 200 khalashis (and 300 other support staff) people and this fish is then sold in the markets by our womenfolk. There are 3,500 such registered boats in this belt. It is this livelihood chain that will get permanently disrupted if we let Vadhavan port to come up at this site," says Vindhe, explaining why the fisherfolk are so vehemently opposed to the Vadhavan project.

"Then there's this golden belt in the vicinity where all kinds of fish come and breed and move out to areas as far away as Cuffe Parade (in south Mumbai to the north of Vadhavan port) till Daman to the north and supports fishing activity in such a big oceanic expanse," adds Vindhe.

Most of the khalashis who come to Varor or Vadhavan to work on these boats belong to the tribal heartland of Palghar district -- places like Wada, Vikramgad. "Their livelihood is also at stake," says Vindhe.

'Is this democracy or dictatorship?'

Ask him to counter Modi's assertion of development that this port project will lead to, Vindhe asks, "what kind of development will that be?"

"He (Modi) says that it will give jobs to the locals, but at what cost? Vadhavan port will finish off jobs of 2 lakh people who are already employed. It will be only Adani's and Ambani's progress. Even if we have to lay down our lives, we will not let this port come up here," says Vindhe firmly.

"Not just ships, we also enter the sea near the shore to catch fish," says a fisherwoman, who is part of the group that has gathered at a short notice to register their opposition and express their woes.

It is a common practice among fishing communities to use fishing nets, hung between two tall bamboos, during high tide near and catch the fish trapped in the net when the tide ebbs leaving behind a coveted catch.

"Is this democracy or dictatorship?" asks a fisherman from Varor, which houses about 2,000 people.

"This government is using autocratic means to push the port on us. We stand united and totally opposed to such progress," says a young fisherman from among the group of old, middle-aged, and young folk at Varor.

"On August 30, when Modi was here to lay the foundation stone, we showed black flags. Why did he do it 40 km away from here? He should have come here and taken the people into confidence (about the benefits of the port). He knows the people here are opposed to this project, but he is using the might of government to push this port down our throats," says the youth.

Taking on the government's claims that such development lead to jobs for locals, one fishermen asks, "How many jobs did we get at the Tarapur Atomic Power Station projects? We did not get jobs. The people who were displaced by the projects are still fighting for compensation, rehabilitation in the courts."

"This government talks of progress? What progress? The local communities here are already doing well. We are always engaged either in fishing or in die-making. On an average every household in this village earns between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000."

Just one resolve: Scrap Vadhavan port

It is not just the fishing community that is opposed to the mega port.

The Bhandaris and Kunbis, who like the Manghels (fisherfolk in this belt are known as Manghels), also live along the coastline, have their own reasons to oppose the port. The fundamental opposition though revolves around disruption of well-established livelihoods and occupations, which have been nurtured by the locals for generations and some like die-making since decades.

Die-making, a modern skill acquired by the locals is a huge cottage industry in the hamlets of Chinchan, Vadhavan, Ghivli that dot the route towards Vadhavan port when one travels from the Boisar railway station towards Tarapur -- where the Tarapur Atomic Power Station operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has been operational since October 28, 1969, when two 160 MW boiling water reactors became active and whose capacity was further enhanced by two 540 MW pressurised heavy water reactors each on September 12, 2005 and August 18, 2006.

All along this route, locals have plastered banners that convey their resolve: These are our villages and nobody but we will have to protect them. Come what may, we will not allow Vadhavan port to come up here.

Every house in Vadhavan and Chinchan has at least one die-making machine tabled outside on the verandah.

Santosh Jaywant Raut, who belongs to the Bhandari community which is traditionally occupied in toddy-tapping for their livelihood, is a die-maker. Raut, like his father Jaywant, makes blocks of metals called 'die' that has huge demand from jewellers not just from Maharashtra but across India and abroad.

These die-machines are basically moulds that are used to create designs of gold ornaments like rings, necklaces and bangles.

When we visited the villages and the Vadhavan port site, Raut and his younger brother Prakash, along with several of their neighbours, double up as guards and their homes act like check posts.

Ever since Modi laid the foundation stone in Palghar these villages have become a no-go zone for any government official who these villagers suspect could visit the site for surveys to construct roads to transport heavy machinery for dredging sand from the sea.

From die-making to blocking roads: All in a day's work

"We have set up a network to stop all movement of outsiders towards the seashore," says Raut even as he explains how the entire village has earned its well-being by making dies, fishing and finding employment as farmers when there isn't enough die-making work to do.

"As soon as any unknown vehicle enters the road towards the seashore one of our people guarding the node immediately sends a message to us on the phone. If the sender doesn't get a response he calls up the people whose houses line the road on which this vehicle is plying. We quickly come out of our homes and gherao the vehicle peacefully, question them and send them back," says Raut, who has now a computerised die-making machine that almost looks like a mini CT (computer tomography) Scan machine, which, he proudly asserts, even his wife and small children operate proficiently.

"Pick anybody from our village -- be it a Class 1 child or Class 10 child or a double graduate. We all know how to make dies and designs," adds Raut's brother Prakash.

The range of die machines (metal blocks) that emboss jewellery designs made by the villagers cost anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000 depending on the intricacies of designs.

The National Security Angle

"Nothing about this project happened the right way," asserts activist Milind Raut, who is among the 15 local leaders from this belt spearheading the anti-Vadhavan port agitation. These 15 individuals work as environmentalists, land rights activists, farmers and oceanographers across Palghar district, which was carved out from Thane district for administrative convenience in August 2014.

The Supreme Court-appointed Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority (DTEPA) has already given its clearance to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) in 2023. Earlier, in October 2020, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change had approved the port in principle.

"They have not done any surveys (Environmental Impact Assessment). They (the JNPA) haven't even obtained a no-objection certificate from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board or the Department of Atomic Energy for constructing a port so close to a nuclear power station," says Milind Raut.

"JNPA has been lying that they have obtained all such clearances. They are not telling the local communities how the Vadhavan project will not just destroy their livelihoods but also erode their lands and destroy an already fragile marine ecosystem," adds Milind.

The aerial distance between the Tarapur Atomic Power Station and the Vadhavan port, once fully operational, will be just 10 km, he informs. "Where in the world do you have a nuclear power station and a port in such close proximity?" asks Milind.

Like the others we spoke to earlier, Milind Raut too questions the government's carelessness in choosing a port location so close to an atomic power station.

"Imagine hundreds of ships laying anchor off the port, and in close proximity of a nuclear power station, once the first phase becomes operational in 2029. And then imagine the national security threats such ships could pose to the nuclear power station," alerts Milind.

'Manufactured consent through deception'

A jan sunavni (people's hearing) was held as per the Panchayat Extension of Scheduled Areas Act, 1996 on January 19, 2024, attended among others by a member secretary (an IAS officer), and regional officer, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), and Palghar District Collector Govind Bodke.

"The people's hearing is procedurally conducted after completion of environmental impact assessment and only then it is sent to the environment ministry for obtaining environmental clearance following which the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gives its nod," says Milind.

The environmental impact assessment remained incomplete because locals damaged the survey equipment, which was worth Rs 90 lakh and for which the National Highways Authority of India had lodged an FIR against some people.

"This abundantly proves that the people's hearing happened without a complete environmental impact assessment report. Despite 100 per cent opposition of the locals during the people's hearing, the JNPA and MPCB manufactured people's consent deceptively, through the might of state power and sought the environment ministry and CEA clearance," alleges Milind Raut.

"About 34,000 potential project affected people attended this jan sunvai. We submitted 54,000 objection letters to JNPA Chairman Unmesh Wagh but he chose to ignore our petitions," adds Milind.

"The jan sunavni was also compromised. People were not taken into confidence. About 19 gram panchayats have passed a resolution opposing this project. The entire population of this coastal belt is about 2 lakh and in Vadhavan and Tigrepada the population is 6,000. The population of fisherfolks' villages is quite big," he adds.

With the foundation stone now already being laid by Modi, the villagers now brace themselves for a do or die kind of agitation against the project. All along these hamlets they have plastered banners and wall paintings expressing their resolve to fight their battle and their opposition to the project.

Banners in Marathi like Ekach Jidd, Vadhavan Bandar Radd (Only one resolve, scrapping of Vadhavan Port); Aamhi Atmanirbhar, Nako Amhala Vadhavan Bandar (We are self-dependent and self-sufficient, we don't need Vadhavan port to give us jobs); Prakalp Janatela Deshodhadis Lavnyacha, Mhanun Akrosh Bhoomiputracha (The Vadhavan port is poised to destroy the people and their livelihoods, that's the reason the sons of the soil oppose it) dot the landscape: Bus stops, crossroads, busy junctions, fish markets.

Many locals sport t-shirts with these slogans printed on them wherever they travel: Within Palghar or even when they go to other districts for business purposes just so that they spread the word.

Interestingly, the Vadhavan port project which was first mulled in 1997 has been always in the eye of the storm due to fierce opposition by the locals.

Acknowledging the opposition to the project by the locals and wary of its political fallout the then Shiv Sena government then headed by chief minister Manohar Joshi soon put the project on the backburner. Successive state and central governments followed suit until in 2015 the Modi government, under its Sagarmala project, revived it.

'Vadhavan port will decimate our existence'

Even as we speak Milind Raut gets a call about an oncoming vehicle towards the seashore. The seashore is just 100 metres from his home.

He quickly summons his brother Prakash and a few neighbours as they block the road. The vehicle is stopped, the people inside are asked to show their IDs, asked about the purpose of the visit -- "Most government officials dress up as tourists to cheat us," he says -- and are equally briskly asked to reverse their vehicles and exit the village.

This particular vehicle, which Milind Raut stopped on September 5, had two passengers, who said they were bank staff scouting for people who needed loans. Without thinking twice they are asked to return without going further.

Another vehicle had met the same fate a few minutes earlier; an autorickshaw with known faces, though, is allowed to pass through.

"Today, we don't want any government official to come here and do their surveys. We have found out a report by an independent institute, through RTI, which has warned against the impending port traffic so close to the Tarapur Atomic Power Station and the disaster it could lead to. But the government has purposely hidden that report," says Milind Raut.

"The nuclear power reactor at Tarapur is such a sensitive spot and when an independent institute issues warnings, then why don't you take cognisance of such reports and take corrective measures? Why do you make efforts to hide such reports?" he asks.

"We hear reports of some airport in Japan which has been built on land reclaimed from the sea and which is getting submerged by 1 metre every year. Just imagine what will happen to this port built by dredging and reclaiming almost 5,500 acres of sea," he adds.

"And the sand that will be dredged from the sea bed, the way it will be transported, etc. The environmental impact will be huge on the nature as well as on the people who live here."

"It is not just the livelihood of fisherfolk and die-makers that are at a grave risk of getting disturbed, but also of the farming communities which grow capsicum and horticulturists who grow flowers for exports. There are people who depend on coconut, chikoo (sapota) and traditional rice growers who earn their livelihoods from farming."

"Soon there will be proposals to acquire huge tracts of land for building yards and warehouses," says Milind Raut. "The Vadhavan port project along with the allied activities related to construction will entirely decimate our existence, the die-making industry, fishing communities, farming communities."