For a casual visitor, Muthalapozhi or Crocodile estuary, 35km away from Kerala’s capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, is a breathtakingly scenic coastal stretch that has been featured in films and numerous Instagram reels. Visitors throng the estuary, where the Arabian Sea meets the meandering Vamanapuram River, to watch the two breakwater structures under a bridge and the fishing boats as they enter the harbour in Perumathura, a sleepy village.
But for the fishers, crossing the estuary is a risky roulette wheel because of the fierce waves, which an earlier study had blamed on unscientific breakwater construction. Navigating the pathway between the breakwaters is tricky as boats get hit by the breaking front of the waves, which tosses the craft over or knocks it down, posing a grievous risk for fishers. In the past 10 years, 69 people have lost their lives. Around 700 boat capsizing incidents have been reported in the region, which also left more than 700 people injured, some of them seriously. So dangerous is the spot that fishers have nicknamed it Maranapozhi (Death estuary).
“The dead bodies we recover are in a pathetic state with skulls broken and faces torn-up. Even families cannot recognise them. See my legs, I can't even walk properly and my fingers are in a bad shape. The person who was with me when our boat capsized broke his arms,” says Christhuraj, who had a narrow escape in 2022. Almost every fisher family in Perumathura have terrifying stories of Muthalapozhi to share. Tragedies in which they lost friends or close relatives even as they watched helplessly accidents unfold before their eyes. Some of them had narrow escapes.
Three mishaps were reported in less than three weeks in Muthalapozhi in July and August. The latest one was on August 3, Thursday, when a boat carrying 16 fishers capsized. An incident involving six fishers was reported on July 29 but no lives were lost in these two incidents. But the community is yet to recover from the tragic loss of four lives (Suresh Fernandez, 58; Biju Antony, 45; Robin Edwin, 42 and Kunjumon Cycil, 48) on July 10, following a similar mishap. The men were residents of a stretch near Puthuchira church near Muthalapozhi and used to venture into the sea from a nearby beach and were not used to the harbour. “During monsoons it's not easy to get on the sea from here. So we depend on the harbour, which is not widely used during other months. Now everyone from our village is scared,” said Sujith, younger brother of Biju Antony.
In September 2022, a large boat named Safa Marfa capsized in Muthalapozhi leading to five deaths. In June 2023, Thiruvananthapuram District Collector Geromic George directed harbour authorities to install six-metre high guidelights on the southern side of the estuary apart from safety buoys. The Deputy director of the state Fisheries Department was also asked to ensure that fishers who venture out into the sea wear life jackets.
Watching the boats cross the mouth of the estuary riding the huge waves is scary even for onlookers. For the fishers who need to perform these stunts everyday for the sake of their livelihoods it’s terrifying. On one of the breakwaters one could see broken remains of several boats with mishap. Valerian, an activist of the Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (an independent trade union of fishers) said the construction of breakwaters as part of harbour development led to sand accumulation at the estuary mouth.
“As the water becomes shallow the waves get stronger. Though the fishermen wait till the waves are calm to cross the harbour mouth, the nature of waves are often unpredictable. Because of this fishing boats lose control and hit the breakwater on their right side,” he said.
While several warnings have been issued, fishers take the risk for the sake of livelihoods. “The fish availability is high in June, July, August and September. Our lives in lean months depend upon the catch we get on these months,” he said.
Joseph, a fisher, said there is a whirlpool like current near the mouth of the estuary, that even great swimmers can't escape from. “However hard one tries to move, we get trapped as if in a whirlpool. We make mental calculations before we cross but sometimes the waves are unpredictable, “ he said.
A 2011 study by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) in Pune had reccomended regular dredging of the channel and sand bypassing as it found the deposition of sand and rocks in the channel was making it shallow. Waves become huge because of this sedimentation, which poses risk to the boats.
Bypassing in harbours is defined as artificial transport of sand across tidal entrances to help prevent its accretion on the updrift side and control downdrift erosion to ensure the channel is navigable. The government failed in addressing the issue with the seriousness it needed despite several deaths and regularity with which boats capsized. In 2022, the state government again entrusted the same agency to study the Muthalapozhi phenomenon. The study is yet to be completed. Activists and fisher organisations are of the view that a second study was needless.
Rev Eugene H Pereira, Vicar General of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram, said the state government, in 2018, had promised to float a global tender for sand dredging when J Mercykutty Amma was the fisheries minister. “But that is when Adani ports came into picture. They broke one of the break waters for the easy movement of barges carrying stones to the construction of Vizhinjam port. We had warned them that the situation would get worse. But more than 100 metres of one of the breakwaters was broken,” he said.
The Adani group had promised to increase the width of the channel by removing rocks and other material from the seabed. Instead they wanted permission to build a stockyard at Perumathura beach for storing granite rocks for Vizhinjam port construction. Fisher organisations have alleged that the Adani Ports did dredging of sand for two years till 2021 and then stopped it.
“This year alone around 13 accidents have happened. This region is important for fishers who have to travel from Valiya Veli to Varkala. But it has turned out to be a dangerous trap,” said Fr Eugene.
A J Vijayan, a social activist who has been working with fishing communities since 1975 and one of the founding members of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) said Muthalapozhi had several limitations in being developed as a harbour. The harbour was built in 2002 but initially it was rarely used by small fishers who preferred to sail off from beaches close to their homes. “Regular removal of sand can solve the issue but if this is not done on a regular basis, accidents cannot be avoided,” he said.
Vijayan said sand bypassing is being successfully done in Visakhapatnam, by pumping back eroded sand into the beach. “It should be followed here too. The accidents recently increased because the breakwater was broken by Adani Port,” he alleged.
He said Adani Ports had a temporary need to break the structure. “But it has long-term implications. The contract with Adani ends in 2024, so basically the government is responsible for this. They did not follow the recommendations in the 2011 study even before Adani came into picture,” AJ Vijayan said.