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        Dandi Swami Sri Vidyananda Bharati in his Demand Notice Petition to the Government of India and the Government of Tamilnadu has highlighted the following vital 'Environmental' and other connected issues which have been totally ignored or overlooked by the Government of India and the Government of Tamilnadu while giving their final clearance to the Setusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP). Government of India and the Government of Tamilnadu will be putting our whole nation in a state of mortal peril if they choose to ignore the grave and timely warning signals given by Sri Vidyananda Bharati, wholly based on rigorously analysed and scientifically and technically valid points and arguments adduced by him, in his Demand Notice Petition.

        The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in the Government of India while giving its environmental clearance on 31 May, 2005 displayed a total non-application of mind as is evident from the fact that issues regarding unplanned and uncontrolled 'ingress' of alien species of flora and fauna into the Gulf of Mannar, as well as the Palk Bay, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, consequent upon the digging of the Setusamudram Canal, have been completely overlooked by the MOEF. India became a signatory to the UN CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY that was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This Convention set before itself the following three main goals:

        1. Conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity);

        2. Sustainable use of its components; and

        3. Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

        In other words, its objective is to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. This UN Convention Document has been viewed as the key document regarding sustainable development.

        Article 8 of the UN Convention Document clearly sets out the measures to be taken and policies to be adopted for In-situ Conservation. Article 8 of the Convention states as follows:

        Each Contracting Party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate:

        (a) Establish a system of protected areas or areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity;

        (b) Develop, where necessary, guidelines for the selection, establishment and management of protected areas or areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity;

        (c) Regulate or manage biological resources important for the conservation of biological diversity whether within or outside protected areas, with a view to ensuring their conservation and sustainable use;

        (d) Promote the protection of ecosystems, natural habitats and the maintenance of viable populations of species in natural surroundings;

        (e) Promote environmentally sound and sustainable development in areas adjacent to protected areas with a view to furthering protection of these areas;

        (f) Rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery of threatened species, inter alia, through the development and implementation of plans or other management strategies;

        (g) Establish or maintain means to regulate, manage or control the risks associated with the use and release of living modified organisms resulting from biotechnology which are likely to have adverse environmental impacts that could affect the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account the risks to human health;

        (h) PREVENT THE INTRODUCTION OF, CONTROL OR ERADICATE THOSE ALIEN SPECIES WHICH THREATEN ECOSYSTEMS, HABITATS OR SPECIES;

        Despite the fact that India became a signatory to the UN CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY as early as in 1992, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), for reasons best known only to itself, blatantly ignored Article 8 of this UN Convention in general and more particularly Article 8 (h) detailed above while giving its environmental clearance to the Setusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) on 3, March, 2005. I can only draw the simple and straightforward inference that the MOEF is more committed to the petty political (Both Regional and National!!) and commercial ambitions (!!!) of T R Baalu than to the overriding cause of protection of the natural environment in the Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Mannar and the Indian Ocean. For MOEF the 'protection' (!) of T R Baalu seems to be overridingly fundamental and the protection of the environment casually incidental!!

        NEERI in its study report, while accepting the richness in Biodiversity of the Gulf of Mannar, had specifically referred to the grave risk of introduction of alien species into this pristine and unique habitat in the following words:

        “The Channel will facilitate the movement of fish and other biota from the Bay of Bengal to the Indian Ocean and vice versa. By this way, the entry of oceanic and alien species into the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar, as also the dispersal of endemic species outside the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar could occur.”

        “Excavation of the channel in the Adams Bridge sector would provide a deeper passage in the sector, which is shallow at present, and serves only as a barrier. Underwater currents play a significant role, not only in the transportation of large marine organisms, plankton biota, fish eggs and larvae but also on shore dynamics, especially of the islands, reef and paars. Strong current would erode the banks of the canal and carry the sediments from one sector to another, which ultimately results in accretion of sand in one sector and erosion in another sector. ONCE THE CANAL IS DEEPENED, THE PASSAGE WOULD GREATLY INCREASE THE MOVEMENT OF FISHES AND OTHER LARGE ANIMALS FROM BAY OF BENGAL TO INDIAN OCEAN AND VICE VERSA. Hence, the entry of oceanic and alien species into Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar and also dispersal of endemic species outside Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar would be facilitated.”

        This dangerous aspect highlighted by NEERI has not been adverted to at all in the environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) on 31March, 2005. Thus the MOEF has thrown overboard Article 8 (h) of the UN Convention referred to above. No steps have been prescribed to cater to this inevitable eventuality and its impact on the local marine population. The argument that some water from the Bay of Bengal enters Palk Bay and has always flown over the Ram Setu even before the Project is no answer because the mid-ocean channel envisaged under the Project would be 12 metres deep and 300 metres wide. Such a deep, wide channel will permit a much greater range of sea-going species to pass through into the Gulf of Mannar, which until now has offered a relatively sheltered habitat for numerous endangered species. Such uncontrolled migration will certainly lead to the extinction of numerous species.

        In its Environmental Impact Study (EIS) NEERI itself had predicated, without any valid or relevant or established scientific basis, on the absence of cyclones and other severe weather conditions on the Bay of Bengal. This was a strange, wrong, unfounded and untenable assumption. The known and established fact is we have had numerous cyclones in the SSCP region at periodical intervals during the last 200 years. In view of this, the NEERI's study itself was fundamentally flawed. No environmental clearance could have been or should have been granted based on NEERI's study if this total absence of cyclones in the region was the underlying assumption of the whole exercise.

        Further the NEERI in its EIA Study Report had specifically stated that 'dredging may also require blasting if hard strata are encountered and in the event of such blasting, adverse impact on sea bottom fauna is envisaged'. This crucial aspect, emphasized by NEERI above, found no mention at all in the environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) dated 31.03.2005.

        Since the environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) on 31 March, 2005 does not advert to the possibility of blasting at all, it does not prescribe any safeguards or conditions in this respect. Taking note of all these factors, Dandi Swami Sri Vidyananda Bharati in his Demand Notice Petition has come to the right conclusion: 'In the respectful submission of the petitioners, a reading of the environmental clearance shows that it does not prescribe specific, concrete and tangible measures/safeguards regarding environmental and ecological protection, but merely pays lip service, as it were, by setting out vague and generalized conditions, such as the following:

        'Strict monitoring should be undertaken at four hourly interval round the clock to monitor the movement of sediments of dredged material in the dredging area and daily on the coast and other sensitive areas of Gulf of Mannar Biosphere/National Marine Park'.

        'Effective monitoring of aquatic ecosystem may be done to ensure that no damage is done to the turtles, dugongs, flora and other endangered species'.

        'Such vague and general conditions, which are basically unenforceable, are not what is expected of a body such as the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) which is charged with protecting the environment under the Environment Protection Act.'

        Dandi Swami Sri Vidyananda Bharati in his Demand Notice Petition to the Government of India has indeed spoken on behalf of all the shattered and battered Hindus of India. He has given this message to the Government: 'The sacred and immemorial rights of all the Hindus of India are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty Government records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of Hindu human nature right from the dawn of Human History, by the hand of the Divinity itself rooted in Sanathana Dharma which mocks at TIME and remains unaltered and imperishable, can never get erased or obscured or cast aside by any petty dictatorial Government or pernicious mortal political power dressed in brief authority for a moment'.