Why Kapico Resorts demolition can’t undo the damage done

It was just another day at work for the fishermen of Panavally Panchayat in Kerala’s Alappuzha. They were busy checking their fishing nets and baits after landing on the Nediyathuruth Island when they noticed an unusual clearing of grass and the mangrove forests around.

A little more proactive than the others, Shylan (then 36) began enquiring around and soon found out that the ‘unusual activity’ was the preliminary work for the construction of villas by the Kapico Resorts Pvt Ltd. The five families for whom the Nediyathuruth Island was home, had sold off their land to the company. The fishing community, whose consent was never sought, soon found that the construction work had destroyed their fishing nets triggering a demand for a compensation of Rs 1.30 lakh. A full 15 years later, the reluctance to pay that rightful compensation is witnessing the demolition of the Rs 350-crore seven-star Kapico Resorts.

Nediyathuruth is a tiny lush green island rich in mangroves in the Vembanad Lake – India’s longest lake. Vembanad Lake was listed as one of the internationally important wetland systems under the Ramsar Convention for conservation and sustainable utilisation in 2002. It is considered an ecologically sensitive area and hence a Critical Vulnerable Coastal Area.

Speaking to The Federal, Shylan recollects how the fishermen of Panavally Panchayat were completely dependent on the island for their livelihood as it provided a wetland ecosystem conducive for paddy-fish cultivation. Nediyathuruth was the kind of wetland where fresh water pours for six months and saline water for the next six. The Panavally Panchayat fishermen community enjoyed legitimate land title, patta, for cultivating rice and fish since 1965 in the region.

Livelihood destroyed

There were 13 traditional fishing nets which are used to catch fish in the lake based on tides. “All our fishing nets were destroyed when they started piling works. They were not only doing the constructions on land, but were also encroaching the lake by depositing sand brought in huge vessels. We never thought of confronting them because they are big people. We only wanted compensation for our damaged fishing nets,” Shylan tells The Federal.

With this understanding, Shylan went to talk to Ratna Easwaran, the director of Kapico Resorts and the eighth respondent in the case.

“I explained to him the situation and told him that they had to give us Rs 1.30 lakh as damages. Without even sparing a thought, Easwaran flatly refused. He said they did not follow any practice of settling issues by providing money. He instead offered that the company would give us fishing equipment,” Shylan recollects.

“What stayed with me from the brief conversation was the arrogance in their attitude and the repugnance for our traditional occupation,” he says.

“His offer that they would give us fishing equipment only and not the compensation we demanded was an insult to our community. We are people with equal dignity even if we are not as rich as them. I asked only for a reasonable amount to cover our losses because I did not want to enter a dispute by demanding too much,” he adds.

Unfazed, Kapico went on with business as usual constructing 54 villas and a main block among other facilities over a period of seven years from 2007.

His dignity hurt and a just claim denied, Shylan, who wanted an amicable resolution, had to undergo a 13-year-long legal fight that ended in January 2020 when the Supreme Court ordered the demolition of the high-end resort. The court came to the conclusion that the resort had not only destroyed a few fishing nets but also the livelihood of fishermen permanently and caused irreparable damages to the ecosystem.

The fishermen use a traditional net-device for catching fish in an area that sees tides. Bag nets tied between two fixed stakes or poles erected in the water body at a distance of four meters each across the area that experiences both high and low tides. The fishes enter during high tide and get stuck in the bag nets tied during low tide. The traditional nets are placed where the water is at least five-metre deep.

The damage caused

The work on the resort not only destroyed the spike nets but also dumped construction waste in the lake damaging the wetland ecosystem due to which the island is no longer a habitat for fish breeding.

The illegal activity destroyed the lives of hundreds of fishermen.

“We have been fishermen since generations. My father and grandfather used to do fishing in the lake surrounding the Nediyathuruth Island. We used to get expensive varieties of fishes, including prawns. It was a rich ecosystem for fish breeding with the presence of a diverse range of plants and mangrove forests,” 57-year-old Bhasi, a native of Panavalli Panchayat, who too was affected due to the resort, tells The Federal.

Instead of addressing the problems raised by the local fishermen, the Kapico management chose to lock horns. “They filed a case against us in the magistrate court alleging that we encroached upon the island. They argued that we had no right on the land and entering the island for fishing was illegal,” Bhasi shares.

The case against 15 fishermen, including Bhasi, went on for three years. Bhasi says they had the receipts of tax paid to the fisheries department for the right to use the land for installing stake nets. He said this activity had been going for 50-60 years prior to 2006.

The construction, however, did not just impact the 13 families who constitute the fishing community of Alappuzha.

“Around 1,000 fishermen from three districts of Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Kottayam used to do fishing in this part of the lake. This is the number of fishermen who are directly hit. If you count the income loss, there would be an equal number of fishermen who are indirectly affected,” says 67-year-old Parthan, another fisherman from the same village.

Like Bhasi and Shylan, Parthan also entered into fishing following his traditional occupation. None of the fishermen who The Federal spoke to had any formal education beyond Class 7 and yet managed to hold the Kapico management to account – even if not completely.

“Even though the resort is being demolished, the ecological loss it caused is irreversible,” says Parthan. “The damage to the fish culture had begun in the very initial stages. The frequent traffic of vessels, carrying construction material, also adversely impacted fish breeding.

Parthan said he had to relocate to a neighbouring area to continue fishing as conditions in the Vembanad Lake became untenable. But he is not sure how the demolition would help as the lake, he said, can never be the same again.

“The fishing communities mostly depend on the income from the fish caught by these stake nets. The government has leased the right to catch fish to poor fishermen since time immemorial,” advocate V Ibrahim, who represented the fishermen in the Kerala High Court tells The Federal. All the 13 stake nets were damaged during the construction.

The legal fight

After the conversation with the director of Kapico Resorts failed, Shylan filed a complaint at the panchayat. He also sent a complaint to the office of the then chief minister VS Achuthanandan, who led the Left Democratic Front government. The panchayat, however, was run by the United Democratic Front. Shylan received no reply from anyone.

Later, he filed a complaint to the District Munsiff Court – the court of the lowest order that handles civil matters. The munsiff court passed an order stating no further hassle should be caused to the fishing activities. While the court issued an order to appoint a commission to study the matter, it dismissed Shylan’s petition even before the date on which the commission was to submit its report.

“After that I started filing RTI requests with the help of a teacher in my locality. The information gathered through a bunch of RTIs confirmed one thing — the Kapico Resorts had committed a lot of violations,” says Shylan.

The area of land initially purchased by the Kapico management was 4 hectares (9.8 acres) as per records. However, it was found that the total area occupied by Kapico was 20 acres. According to the documents submitted in the High Court by Shylan, the resort management encroached upon revenue land and the area around the lake.

According to the writ petition submitted in the High Court, the island which had an extent of only 12 acres of land area was expanded to 24 acres by encroaching upon the lake.

The High Court of Kerala found that the Kapico Resorts management has indeed violated the Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 2009 and the Kerala Land Conservation Act of 1957. The High Court pronounced its judgment in 2013 in which it ordered that the resort should be demolished.

Later in 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the order of the High Court and dismissed the appeals filed by the company. The demolition was stalled for nearly two years because of the Covid restrictions. The execution of the demolition order commenced on September 16 which is bringing down the Rs 350-crore property brick by brick.

While Shylan in his petition in the Kerala HC also demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore for the fishing community, the court asked him to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for the same. The fishermen’s claim for compensation was turned down by the NGT on the technical ground that the five-year limitation period for claiming compensation was over.

Undeterred, Shylan and his co-complainants approached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court directed the green tribunal to consider the petition for compensation.

The Kapico Resorts management, meanwhile, has to bear the entire cost of the demolition. If the green tribunal passes the compensation order in favour of the fishermen, the management will have to shell out the amount from its pockets.

The Kapico Resorts management was not available for a response.

Shylan, who stopped fishing long ago, now runs a small business. The ecosystem around the island that sustained fish breeding has been lost irreversibly. While the resort that led to it all is likely to be demolished completely over the next few months, there is a lot more that Shylan and others like him feel they have been robbed off, forever.