Project will ruin Konkan ecology, say activists

Activist Satyajit Chavan, arrested last weekend and barred from entering Ratnagiri district, emphasised the continuation of protests against a planned petrochemical complex in Konkan, Mumbai. He spoke of the need for a separate development model for the region that did not include ?red category? industries, which have a significant ecological footprint. Chavan cited examples of industrial areas in Maharashtra, such as MIDC Tarapur and the Lote Parshuram industrial area in Ratnagiri, where locals had no faith in regulatory authorities? promises to keep a check on industrial pollution.

Mumbai: Satyajit Chavan, activist and key figure in the ongoing protests in the Barsu-Solegaon region, made his first public comments in Mumbai on Friday after he was arrested over the weekend by the police and barred from entering Ratnagiri district for 15 days.

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As violence unfolded on the ground in Barsu, Chavan was joined by Narendra Joshi and Vaibhav Kolvankar of the Barsu-Solgaon Refinery Virodhi Sanghatna at the Mumbai Press Club. Chavan strongly emphasised that resistance to the project on ground would continue. “We have just one demand, and that is to scrap this project,” he said. “Such polluting industries are not welcome in the Konkan. People think we are protesting against just one refinery but we are against the larger petrochemical complex that is being planned here. It will completely change the economic, cultural and environmental conditions of the area.”

The speakers emphasised the need for a separate development model for the Konkan that did not include ‘red category’ industries, which have a significant ecological footprint. “We are not opposed to development,” said Chavan. “Educational universities, IT parks or other less polluting industries can provide employment to the locals. A similar petrochemical complex in Dahej, Gujarat, has impacted local livelihoods and we cannot allow a repeat of the same in Konkan.”

Citing examples of industrial areas in Maharashtra, such as MIDC Tarapur and the Lote Parshuram industrial area in Ratnagiri, Chavan added that locals in Barsu-Solegaon had no faith in regulatory authorities’ promises to keep a check on industrial pollution. “Everyone knows that all pollution control rules are blatantly violated by industries,” he said. “You can’t drive by Lote Parshuram without covering your nose, the smell of effluents is that strong.”

Emphasising the ecological value of the area, Chavan said that the entire laterite plateau around Barsu was an ecologically rich area that supported mango and cashew farmers and remarkable biodiversity. “Historically, these lands have been shown in revenue records as ‘barren’,” he said, “but they are actually sponges for water that percolates deep into the ground and facilitates agriculture in surrounding villages.”