" I was about six years old when my father embarked
on the project of building a wooden sailboat to take pilgrims from Rameshwaram
to Dhanushkodi, (also called Sethukkarai), and back.
He worked
at building the boat on the seashore, with the help of a relative, Ahmed
Jallaluddin, who later married my sister, Zohara.
I watched the boat take shape. The wooden hull and
the bulkheads were seasoned with the heat from wood fires.
My father was doing good business with the boat
when, one day,
a cyclone
bringing winds of over 100 miles per hour carried away our boat, along with
some of the landmass of Sethukkarai.
The Pamban Bridge collapsed with the train full of
passengers on it. Until then, I had only seen the beauty of the sea,
now its uncontrollable energy came as a revelation
to me."
A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, in "Wings of Fire - An
Autobiography"
To
the wellbeing of our friend
Ananda Ram
Kumar
Preface................................................................................................................................6
1. The Project ................................................................................................................9
2. The Design...............................................................................................................11
3. Sources for the database on theocean
environs of the area-Index...................................................................................................13
4. The Data Base.........................................................................................................16
4.2 The Changing Physiography...............................................................17
4.2.1.Vedaranniyam- Jaffna
Peninsula sector..............................................17
4.2.2 Nagapttinam- Rajamadam
Coast..........................................................18
4.2.3.Kodiakkarai
Rajamadam coastline.......................................................19
4.3.4. Rajamadam- Manamelkudi
coastline..................................................20
4.3.5. Raja madam- Devipattinam Beach Ridges........................................20
4.3.6. Berm Crest Data
from Nagapattinam,
Point
Calimere, Ammapattinam, Mandapam
And
Rameshwaram (1977-1988).......................................................21
4.3.7. Beach Ridges,
Terraces and
Coral Reefs at
Pamban and Rameshwaram Island.........................22
4.3.8. Devipattinam - Kilakkarai
Beach Ridges..........................................23
4.3.9. Rameshwaram Island sand spit..........................................................24
4.3.10. Sediment Load to Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar............................24
4.2.11. Study of suspended sediments
using remote
sensing..........................................................................25
4.2.12. Physico-chemical parameters of Palk Bay........................................28
4.2.13. Longshore currents and
sediment transport..................................30
4.2.14. Studies conducted on the Wave Climate, Tides
and Currents by the NEERI EIA.........................................................32
4.2.15. Studies on Sedimentary Transport
by the NEERI EIA.................................................................................37
4.2.16 Spit Configuration.................................................................................40
4.3. Cyclones
.........................................................................................................42
4.3.1 General
Information ...............................................................................42
4.3.2.
Attributes of a Cyclone ............................................................... ...........44
4.4.3. Classification of the East Coast of India
based on Storm Surge
values................................................................44
4.4.4.
Consequences due to Cyclonic disturbances ........................... ........46
4.3.5. Frequency and Intensity of the Cyclones
of Bay of Bengal - The changing scenario
........................................47
4.3.6. Coasts most vulnerable for severe Tropical
Cyclone - Recent statistical elucidation.............................................48
4.3.7.
Tamil Nadu Data..................................................................
...................49
4.4.8.
Cyclones of Palk Bay - some examples...............................................50
4.4.9. Miscellaneous information on
some Palk Bay Cyclones.........................................................52
4.4. Seismo-tectonics, Volcanism, Tsunami
.................................... ...53
5. Discussion ............................................................................................................55
5.1.
The Issue ...................................................................................................55
5.2. General conclusions..............................................................................57
5. 3. The issue of Sedimentation...........................................................57
5.3.1.
Net annual quantum of sediment
transported into Palk Bay - Problems
yet to be solved ......................................................................................57
5.3.2.
Calculations on the extent of sediment
deposition in various sections of
the PalkBay - The yet to be
answered questions ...........................................................................60
5.4. Handling the Dredged Spoils..........................................................63
6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................66
7.References ...........................................................................................................67
A Personal
Note...............................................................................................................71
Preface:
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, when completed, will
transform parts of the southern coromandal coast qualitatively. Since
historical times, this portion of the coast (Palk Bay, Adam's Bridge) is used
only to fleets of small crafts involved in coastal trading and fishing. Sethu
Canal will transform this into a coast that shall start witnessing fleets of
large vessels involved in overseas trading pass by.
Is the idea that a navigational channel in the Adam's
Bridge-Palk Bay area can be dredged without any major hazard, based on a
correct knowledge base? What are the environmental factors that might have the
capacity to make this idea a failure? What are the actions that would be
required to increase the chances of physical stability of the proposed channel?
These are the questions this monograph seeks to
address.
Southern coromandal coast (South East Indian Coast or the
south east Bay of Bengal coast - stretching from Pulicat to Kanyakumari) has a
long history of shipping. Epics like Silappathiharam and Manimehalai (dated
600-900 A.D) have recorded the shipping activity of this coast. Written memoirs
of the seafarers who had frequented this coast are available at least for the
past 400 years. Pulicat, Sao Tome (now Chennai), Puducherry (Pondicherry),
Cuddalore, Karaikal, Porto Novo, Nagore, Nagapattinam, Muthuppet,
Adhirampattinam, Thondi, Alankulam, Rameshwaram, Periyapattinam, Kilakkarai,
Kayalpattinam, Kulasekaranpattinam, Tuticorin were the important ports at some time in the past
till three centuries back. Many of them have lost this status and have become
mere fishing villages today. Chennai, Tuticorin, Cuddalore are the three ports
that have continued with their status till the present time.
Overseas and coastal trading had flourished in this coast
in the past. However, coastal trade was more prominent than the overseas ones.
Out of the above mentioned ports, Pulicat, Sao Tome and Nagapattinam were the
only ones that were involved in both the above said trades during the
pre-modern times (prior to 1800 A.D.). Rice, textiles, areca, tobacco,
saltpeter and horses were the main goods that these ports had handled.
Pulicat was the prominent port in the late 16th
century. Sao Tome gained prominence in the first two decades of 17th
century as Pulicat lost its glory. Sao Tome lost its prominence to Nagapattinam
in 1630 and Nagappattinam retained this glory till the end of that century.
'The coastal trade was carried on in a relatively large
number of small craft, in marked contrast to overseas trade which was carried
on in a relatively limited number of sizable vessels. These coastal vessels
ranged from mere dugouts to larger single-masted boats and were termed
catamarans, phares, machuas, champans, tonis, and pagels... It is important to
note that the relatively small individual sizes of these craft are more than
compensated for by the size of the coastal trading fleets.' (Sanjay
Subrahmanyam, 'The political economy of commerce : southern India, 1500-1650'
Cambridge University Press, 1990, p-49)
The conclusions that we may arrive from the foregoing
paragraphs are two: 1) The ports of the coromandal coast seem to have had a
very short lived existence, 2) The sea trade in this area was dominated by
coastal trade and hence by fleets of small vessels.
These two conclusions are important for us in this book.
Why did these ports have an ephemeral existence? What was
the usual navigation route that the fleets of small costal trading vessels took
and what were their navigational experiences?
Rise and fall of kingdoms and empires (fall of the chola,
pandya kingdoms and the Vijayanagara Empire; rise and fall of the Portuguese
and Dutch rule; rise of the English rule) was one of the most important factors
for the short existence of many of these ports. Changing overseas market
scenario was also a major factor. Apart from these political and economic factors,
environmental, geological and oceanographic factors have played a very
definitive role in determining the life period of each of these ports. We are
interested in exploring these three factors in this book.
Coastal Navigation between Pulicat and Nagapattinam faces
the open sea; between Nagapttinam and Kayalpattinam it is protected by the Sri
Lankan land mass in the east and the Indian land mass in the west. We are
interested (in this book) in the navigational experiences of the fleets of
small crafts in this second area (named as the Palk Bay, Adam's Bridge and the
Gulf of Mannar in the modern times).
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) was first
proposed in the year 1860. The idea was to cut-short the distance traveled (by
avoiding circumnavigation of Ceylon) by ships originating from the west coast
and bound for ports like Madras and Calcutta. These ships would travel through
the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay and enter the Bay of Bengal.
Thus, for the first time an idea has been proposed to
throw open the Palk Bay (where fleets small vessels have only operated from the
time immemorial) to large vessels participating in overseas trade. However,
this idea has remained in hibernation for the last 144 years.
1860 to 1922 saw nine different proposals presented to the
British Raj. Govt., of India appointed the Sir.A.Ramasamy Mudaliyar Committee
to study and give its opinion on the project in 1955. In 1968, it appointed
Venkateswaram committee to evaluate the project once again. In 1981, the Ministry
of Shipping and Surface Transport appointed Lakshminarayanan Committee to
evaluate the project and present its comments. In 1996, the Tamil Nadu
Government asked the Pallavan Transport Consultancy (PTCS) Ltd., to review the
project and present its suggestions. After all these efforts, the Tuticorin
Port Trust (TPT) commissioned the National Engineering Environmental Research
Institute (NEERI), in 1998, to prepare a report on the status of the
environment through which the channel will pass through. Once this Initial
Environmental Evaluation (IEE) was ready, TPT commissioned NEERI to do an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed project in May, 2002.
The EIA was completed and was presented to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control
Board (TNPCB) and the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoE&F) for
obtaining a clearance for the project in June 2004. Following this, the TNPCB
had arranged a series of Public Hearings (PH) at various district headquarters
to gather the opinions of those people who might be affected by the project and
from the people who are concerned, in mid September, 2004. All these PHs were
subsequently cancelled and were postponed to 20th to 25th
November, 2004 as the TNPCB wished to gather furthermore opinion on the
proposed project.
The NEERI EIA and the Technical Feasibility Report (TFR)
state that the project is feasible technically and has the potential to operate
without any environmental hazard. These two reports are the ones from which the
current SSCP proposal draws its legitimacy. The present book analyses those
portions of the EIA and TFR that are directly linked to the physical stability
of the channel and offers a critique and suggestions.
The author of this monograph is a medical doctor and not a
marine geologist or a meteorologist or a (macro) structural engineer. Hence,
the inferences are made only after the original works are quoted extensively;
This may, at times, seem to be a cumbersome process, but it will certainly help
the readers of this book to refute the arguments of the author as the original
works are in front of them to make their own conclusions.
R.Ramesh
16 November 2004