FIGHT
AGAINST
POOMPUHAR POWER
PROJECT :2009
The Collector of Nagapattinam District 23.09.2009
Tamilnadu
Respected Collector
Subject: Historical and Environmental
reasons cited to oppose the proposed Thermal Power plant regarding
We appreciate the District Collector of
Nagapattinam for calling for this public enquiry. Our views will be in Tamil’s
historical interest and the traditional rights of indigenous communities like
fishermen and farmers of Tamilnadu.
Pichavaram to Kodikarai is highly
important area for unearthing our civilization since ancient harbours existed
in this belt with hidden heritage at sea. It needs to be subjected to
researches highly important for marine
archaeology and coastal archaeology.
Already 250 km out of 1076 km of
Tamilnadu coast is without fishermen. The need for preserving the catamaran
people and their traditional knowledge is important. Hence all development
projects must aim at protecting indigenous communities like fishermen and
farmers and should not uproot them from where for centuries they made a
livelihood. In fact more assistance to these communities with new scientific
equipments would enable them to earn more foreign exchange to our country’s
coffers than offering soaps at the cost of public exchequer to projects of
plunder. Generating alternative renewable energy like ocean thermal energy,
ocean tidal energy will be more helpful. Developed countries have bid adieu to
thermal power. Coal bearing ships and conveyer arrangement will be hazard for
the coastal area and will stimulate global warming through carbon discharge.
The waste generated from plant will create pollution at sea .Thoothukudi lost
its pearl culture of the past cultural heritage by the non ocean oriented
people. Bearing these in mind we urge the Government of Tamilnadu to stall all
thermal power projects coming up in Nagapattinam District, more particularly
the one near Poompuhar.
▼ We all are aware that apart from the Indus Valley
excavations, equally important cities of our ancient civilization could not so
far be unearthed in South India due to our own
lethargy. We have stone inscriptions, copper plates and burial pots and this is
not sufficient to establish the greatness of our past. Our literary evidences
on submergence of ancient Tamil land illuminate us about our past but western
scholars look for more scientific proof. Hence there is a need for
undersea-archaeological search to find out our roots. No other ethnic group of
Earth possesses so much literary evidences but remains lazy to go to the
submerged cities of their ancient land. Though we have a place named as
Poompuhar where Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanithi during his rule erected monuments to
recapture the past, it could only serve as tourist spot and could not satiate a
researcher’s quest to unravel a hidden city of our ancient civilization beneath
the bowels of our sea in Bay of Bengal . We all
know about the changes that continuously occur and the ancient Port City of
Chozha Empire is not the Poompuhar of our times, but it is within the sea nearer
or far to current Poompuhar’s coast.
▼ Graham Hancock wrote many books out of
which Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization by Crown Publishers,
New York 2002 containing 760 pages ISBN 1400046122 hardback priced $ 27.50 is
of relevance to our Poompuhar. He
undertook marine archaeology in 2002 and brought out as reported in Dinamani
that a city with 9500 year old civilization remains hidden off coast of Poompuhar . [Dinamani news clipping enclosed] His earlier
books Fingerprints of the Gods and Heaven’s Mirror had mentioned about his
findings. But in this latest book, he lays out evidence “based on modern
scientific research, comparative mythology, religious and spiritual
observances, first hand diving exploration of underwater megalithic structures
and ancient maps to demonstrate the likelihood that a technically advanced
civilization unrecognized by modern science capable of navigating the globe and
with a profound understanding of architecture and building existed and was
washed out by global flooding”.
▼Inundation maps created by Dr.Glen
Milne of Durham University Bangalore
▼We like parrots were repeating 2000
years as time limit of our ancient civilization, and when Graham Hancock
updated Tamil history with fresh facts, the Government of Tamilnadu which is
going to celebrate World Tamil Conference, must take pains to employ more scuba
divers and marine archaeologists to find out about our Kaveripoompattinam. We
should honour Graham Hancock in that Conference.
▼The coast or sea near Poompuhar should
not be plundered and kept free from industrialization if our ancient glory brought
out powerfully by Dr.Kalaignar had to be proven scientifically. Mr. Graham
Hancock investigated about our “Kumari Kandam, an anti-diluvia civilization
said to have existed thousands of years ago around South
India . It is believed to have been a greater center of learning
with magnificent academies which may have left a legacy of cartographic and
astronomical knowledge which exists today in the ancient Indian texts.
Interestingly the author spoke to local fishermen who described often diving to
free their nets caught on underwater temples and columns, pyramidal pagodas and
buildings with doorways”.
▼Coinciding to our Poompuhar, in Gulf of Cambay to city which is 7500 years old was found
but media highlighted that and did not do justice to Poompuhar’s findings. If a
scientist within few weeks with the help of National Institute of Oceanography
could bring out so many artifacts, is it not the duty of Tamilnadu Chief
Minister Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanithi who instilled in our hearts the greatness
of Poompuhar by his powerful pen to employ all scientists, marine
archaeologists, scuba divers, and constitute a multi disciplinary
State-Sponsored Task Force under Anna University and Tamil University of
Thanjavur to explore our exclusive economic zone and our territorial waters in
Bay of Bengal at least to begin with to pick up the thread from where Mr.
Graham Hancock left in 2002.
▼▼ Dravida
Peravai hence appeals to the District Collector of Nagapattinam in the public
hearing on Public Hearing on the proposed 2x500 MW Coal Based Power Plant by
M/s. PEL Power Ltd to stop this power project. Allowing such plants to be set up here with
whatever technology will disrupt the scientific and historical research that is
needed to unearth our past beneath Bay of Bengal
off Poompuhar. We are enclosing a map which shows how much land near our coast
had been submerged.
This is an indication of how much more
land would have been submerged for centuries running into thousands of years
back. My article Save the Coast in New Indian Express is enclosed. Letting out
effluents or dumping waste into rivers and seas had been going on unabated
though technically they will promise to use clean technology and blinded by
that promise our environmental agencies will give them clearance. First of all
we should bear in mind what all technology we get is outmoded and unwanted in
developed countries, hence such technologies are dumped on developing countries
like India
▼Coal based power projects are being set
up in Tamilnadu coast. There seems to be a policy which permits setting up of
power plants near coal mines, so that through National Power grid equivalent
quantum of power can reach the power seeking State. Under this policy a current
Union Minister of State before he came to power got a Coal Block allotted in
Orissa.In this project of a Tamilnadu politician Puducherry Government’s PIPDIC
is a partner. This joint venture plans to set up power project in Orissa to generate
power and pass on to the grid so that Puducherry Government will get power
without polluting the Union Territory of Puducherry. If a tiny state like Puducherry could follow this route, what
compulsion prevails for Tamilnadu to bring coal all the way by ships to set up
a power plant in the Nagapattinam coast that too near ancient Port city of Poompuhar
▼ There seems to be a race to set up
more and more ports without planning what products could be brought in or
exported from these ports. The Former Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he visited Kanyakumari announced a scheme
called Sagar Mala, which means
Garland of the Seas. In fact I mooted the suggestion to create a National
Seaway on the lines of National Highways to introduce ship connectivity to all
the 138 minor or intermediary ports to bring inland cargo that was coming by
Lorries and to ferry passengers. This suggestion through Planning Commission
reached then Prime Minister who wanted to make use of existing infrastructure
to connect all ports in Indian coast. At that time only Gujarat
particularly Gujarat Maritime Board was making good use of its minor ports.
Tamilnadu which
launched a Poompuhar Shipping Corporation under DMK rule lost the race by
making its vessels ferry coal and did not think of diverting cargo and
passengers from road use to sea lanes. Roads could be re-laid year by year
but traffic congestion, loss of lives, making more and more lanes, land
acquisition etc could be avoided if our existing ports could be connected under
the Sagar mala scheme of Vajpayee. Instead opening new ports with no cargo to
handle breeds even sand smuggling to Maldives Kaveripoompattinam
▼Interestingly the National Institute of
Oceanography , Chennai had announced that its scientists in collaboration with
Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Engineering of the Russian Academy
of Sciences had developed a vehicle
named ROSUB 6000 capable of exploring the ocean up to a depth of 6 kilometers
and can be remotely operated. Though we have to go further deep not only off
the coast of Poompuhar but also even beyond
our exclusive economic zone, this vehicle could be used to gather further evidences
on our submerged Port City of Poompuhar.
▼International Seabed Authority has
allocated 150,000 square kilometers of seabed in the Indian Ocean to India Port Cities
With Regards
Yours sincerely
N.Nandhivarman
General Secretary Dravida Peravai
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