Michael's Kattur

 Michael lives in Kattur, a village north of Chennai on the delta of the Arani and Kosasthalai rivers. His house is part of a small hamlet surrounded by vast open lands. There are coconut trees, mango trees and some  plants around his house. I planted these coconut trees when I was 12, says Michael. He plucks some tender coconuts, gives one to me and the others to his brother’s children.

Michael giving coconuts plucked from his trees

Michael, who is 31 years old, switched to organic farming six years ago. He switched to traditional varieties of rice such  as Kattuyanam and Mappilai Samba, replacing the hybrid rice variety BPT Ponni that everybody else in the village grew.  He also stopped using fertilizers and pesticides that the high-yielding hybrid varieties demanded.

“I made the change because I really wanted to lead my life in a nature-friendly way, without consuming chemicals or putting chemicals in the soil, or feeding chemical-laced fodder to the cows."   

"The change was difficult. My father opposed me.  At that time I was the only one in the village who was growing organic varieties. It is difficult to grow something different from everybody else. For example, these varieties take 20 days more to mature, and in those last 20 days my crops  are the only ones standing in the field, so kattupanrri (wild pigs) would go for them. I alone had to guard my crops night and day."

"The hybrid variety of rice fills one’s stomach, but it is devoid of nutrition. Most people grow those because its yield is higher, for them it is just about money. "

"I work part-time as a crane driver. If I take a job in a factory,  I can only work in my field on Sundays, and that’s too difficult to manage."

"Anyway, all of this is for a couple of years. After that I won’t have any land to farm on.”

Rajalakshmi's Gunankuppam

Gunankuppam is a settlement of  Pazhaverkadu that lies on a thin barrier island separating the Bay of Bengal from a distributary of the Kosasthalai river. The settlement is a grid of colourful houses home to about 500 families. In the afternoon heat when I visited, groups of people hung out under trees or under sheds chatting. There were women playing little gambling games such as dayaboss and maniattam. Some women were laying out their fish to dry.

Where is Gunankuppam?

The proposed extension of the Adani Kattupalli port, once constructed, will result in a steady erosion of land that will eventually lead to this barrier island fully submerging into the sea. The residents of the village did not learn about this upcoming project from the government. Rather, they learned about it from activists opposing the Adani port about 4 years ago. Since then, they have very little information about the progress of the project and the fate that awaits their village.

Aside from the existential threat facing Gunankuppam, the character of the village  has also  changed over time as fishing yields have dropped. Subsistence fishers  around the world have seen their yields drop because of acidification of oceans resulting from climate change, excessive fishing by large trawlers,  and local pollution. In this area, fish catch has been affected by the gradual industrialization of North Chennai, and it got a sudden jolt from the oil spill of 2016. Rajalakshmi, who is in her mid-forties, has lived through these changing times. She was born in Gunankuppam and has lived here all her life.