Despite the state sponsored propaganda campaigns to greenwash itself, the villagers raised concerns over the wind farms and their impact on the local fishing community.
The people of Mannar are already at war for their livelihoods with illegal Indian bottom trawlers eating into their fishing resources daily; the 30 wind turbines have made the situation worse. Fisherfolk in the area told Groundviews that the shadows that the towering structures cast on the water and the noise created by the massive wings turning in the wind have scared fish away from the waters they have been fishing in for generations. There is no scientific evidence to back this claim because no social impact studies or environmental impact assessments have been done to research the impacts of the turbines on the fishing resources and consequently the communities of the area.
The age old battle between generational knowledge and scientific evidence stands at a stalemate – all that exists is a reduction in the amount of catch that they are bringing home to feed their families since the turbines were put up.
The unassessed constructions are also affecting other aspects of the lives in Mannar. Badly engineered roads and the arbitrary cutting down of palmyrah trees, a staple in the socio- economic and environmental ecosystem of the Mannar basin, have resulted in drainage issues and severe flooding.
The only action taken by the state to relieve the locals of the calamity of the flood waters is the digging of random ditches across the island in hopes of draining the water.
Regardless of the statements of reassurance and never ending press briefings by the CEB, the State, Adani Group and other parties involved, the locals of Mannar say that there hasn’t been acomprehensive study that included the locals in the dialogue.
“The last time I experienced flooding in this island was in the 1950s, and then again last year,” said Anton, a villager, who added that the local fishing culture from the food they take onboard to the fish migration is heavily intertwined with the ecosystem. “We take care of the island and the island takes care of us in return,” he said, adding that its decline was out of their hands.
Srijah, a widow who depends on the dry fish industry to feed her four children, claims that they were not allowed to have their say. “They never asked us what we feel about the proposed wind farm,” she noted. Locals are in the dark on what they are to expect once the ambitious wind farms are put up. “How will we be affected once it’s complete? How will I be able to take care of my children?” asked Srijah.
“When it starts flooding they run around cutting down palmyrah trees, digging up ditches hoping to drain the water, destroying our houses and the nesting grounds of birds. The fish, the bird, the trees,and us…We are all part of a much larger system. The system of the Mannar island,” she said. “But to the state, we are nothing more than another palmyrah tree. Ready to be felled for the greater good of the nation.”