by Alfredo Quarto and Kate Cissna
Mangrove Action Project
"Fishing communities and farming communities have
joined in action to stop the destruction of our environmental wealth and
our people's livelihoods. The people have begun the second movement for
freedom on the 50th anniversary of our independence."
- Dr. Vandana Shiva,
Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology
In India, the world's
largest democracy, resistance to the spread of industrial shrimp farms has
taken on an almost revolutionary fervor, pitting industry and government
officials against a mounting people's movement.
On December 11, 1996, India's Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, ordered
that "aquaculture industries/shrimp culture industries/shrimp culture
ponds... be demolished and removed... beginning March 31, 1997." The
decision called for the dismantling of more than 100,000 acres of existing
shrimp ponds constructed within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the high-tide
line -- nearly two-thirds of the industry. The court took this bold step
to protect coastal resources and communities whose livelihoods, food sources
and drinking water have been degraded by shrimp farms.
The Supreme Court ruled that no further intensive aquaculture industry would
be permitted in coastal states including Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
The court further ordered that local farmers would be compensated for losses
caused by the shrimp industry and workers of the outlawed aquaculture industries
would be paid compensation plus six years' wages.
The decision was surprising since even the shrimp industry's lawyers had
stressed the fact that shrimp exports provided India with one of its largest
sources of foreign capital. Even the court acknowledged "the dollar-based
argument," Vandana Shiva observed, but "upheld the value of life
above the value of dollars earned from shrimp exports."
Yet even a decision from the highest court of the land has had to undergo
a fierce battle on the ground. The deadline for the shrimp industry to begin
dismantling ponds already has been postponed twice.
Outraged at the severity of the court's decision, India's powerful shrimp
industry has tried to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling by lobbying the
Indian Parliament to challenge the Coastal Regulation Zone legislation on
which the court based its decision. "Every extension is helping the
industry to violate the Supreme Court order and establish new farms",
notes Senior Court Advocate Indira Jaising.
Grassroots groups (including the National Fishworkers Forum, an alliance
of small fishing associations; Grama Swaraj, an environmental justice group
whose founders worked alongside Mahatma Gandhi; and Orissa Krushak Mahasangh,
led by a former member of Parliament) filed contempt petitions against the
shrimp industry for its refusing to dismantle ponds. Their petitions, based
on documentation by PREPARE and CASI, two Indian nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), were ignored by the court.
On August 15, the 50th anniversary of India's independence, PREPARE staged
a direct action in New Delhi to protest further postponements of the Supreme
Court ruling. Thousands of protesters joined in the march and sit-in (or
satyagraha, Gandhi's term for peaceful resistance), led by Shri S. Jagannathan
and Shri Banka Behary Das - two of India's most eminent Ghandian "freedom
fighters" - as well as Tom Koecherry, president of the National Fishworkers
Forum, and Jacob Dharmaraj of PREPARE.
When reviewing the questionable government process that led to the current
crisis, Dharmaraj commented wryly,"We bring to the table a briefcase
full of scientific reports, while the opposition brings two briefcases full
of money!"
Summer Shrimp Wars Pit People Against Prawns