The majority-Christian villagers who had been obstructing the Adani Group project’s entry and had been protesting for four months have agreed to call off their agitation, according to the protesters’ leaders, and work on a $900 million port is scheduled to resume on December 8 in southern India.
Fishermen have been camped out at Vizhinjam in the state of Kerala since September. They have blocked traffic and stopped development on the project they claim is causing coastal erosion and harming their way of life.
In order to allow work to continue while they await the findings of an expert panel’s environmental impact study, the fishermen agreed to remove the shelter, according to Eugine H. Pereira, one of the Catholic priests leading the protests. He remarked on Wednesday that the walkout had only been temporarily ended. If the fundamental issues we presented are not addressed, we will go back on strike.
According to protest leader Joy Jerald, the protestors have begun to disassemble their 1,200-square-foot makeshift shelter, which was made of poles supporting a corrugated iron roof.
When finished, it will be India’s first hub for container transhipment, competing with Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Dubai for commerce along lucrative east-west trade routes.
The Kerala government has said it is committed to the project, which supporters say will create jobs in the region.
The villagers, however, assert in a seven-point manifesto posted at their shelter that their protest won’t be over until relocation arrangements have been completed for those who have lost their homes and property as a result of the project and coastal erosion.
The villagers now reside in industrial warehouses.
