Poromboke is not a pejorative intended to demean a person, it refers to land reserved for communities to share.
Poromboke is not for you, nor is it for me. It is for the community, and it is for the city. It is for the earth.
Sitting by the banks of the Ennore Creek, a fly-ash covered toxic environmental crime scene, TM Krishna sings. He reminds us that poromboke land is our responsibility, yours and mine.
He asks what we have learned from the Chennai floods, and answers that it is to only continue encroaching water bodies with massive constructions. He points to the black sky at Ennore, thanks to the Ennore power plant, and then the the massive dumping of fly-ash onto the creek, destroying it forever.
He cheekily says that when we question industrial pollution, the response is Make In India, and that jobs and growth are only excuses.
The video is a nine-minute lament on Chennai’s environmental shame, right in its backyard, and how many of us live oblivious to it.
Watch the video here:
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A campaign film conceived by city-based environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman, the video focuses on the encroachments by Kamarajar Port and the rampant fly-ash pollution by TANGEDCO.
The devastation left by the Chennai floods and Vardah Cyclone, and the disaster to come in the form of heat waves and water scarcity are all a result of how society has abused its poromboke commons, Jayaraman adds.
“At a time when Tamil culture is the subject of a national debate, it is worth remembering that protecting the Poromboke commons is also a revered Tamil tradition,” he reminds us.
Stretching from Pulicat in the north to the Manali marshlands to the south, Chennai’s largest surviving wetland complex drains both the Araniyar and Kosasthalaiyar, and the CMDA has earmarked more than 2000 acres of wetlands for setting up hazardous chemical industries, points out a press release by the Vettiver Collective.
The degraded state of the Ennore Creek is only the symptom; our corrupt, inept and unaccountable regulators are the disease. It is not too late to save the Ennore Creek. The Creek can be cleaned up. But for that, we have to clean up the TNPCB, CMDA, the CZMA and other agencies of the government.
If you want to help save Ennore Creek, fill up the form, sign the petition and hit ‘Submit’. (Petition content here)
The News Minute has focused on the Ennore Creek issue with consistent reportage. Read our stories here.
Explainer: Why Chennai needs to speak up to save the Ennore creek
Chennai fishermen’s call to residents: Join our campaign to save Ennore Creek, save our city
The Ennore tragedy: Thermal power plants have destroyed Chennai’s fishing communities
Have we learned from Chennai floods? Nope, look what’s happening at Ennore
Source: The News Minute