Go fish! Why the proposed ‘Pen statue’ for Karunanidhi is raising concerns in Tamil Nadu

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and a littérateur of renown, late M Karunanidhi, will soon have a ‘Pen Monument’ to honour his contribution to Tamil literature. The Tamil Nadu government has proposed a 42-metre-tall monument in the Bay of Bengal off the Marina beach. As per reports, the monument will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore. What is the Pen Monument? The gigantic Pen Monument will be called the ‘Muthamizh Arignar Dr Kalaignar Pen monument’ and it has already got the state-level authorities’ nod and is awaiting the green signal from the Union Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate change. It will be a part of the under-construction memorial for the late chief minister at the Perarignar Anna Memorial and Museum campus, which is being built at a cost of Rs 39 crore. The Pen Monument will be connected to the memorial via a bridge that would be 360 metres over the sea. The bridge in total would be about 650 metres long. According to The Wire, the statue will be erected over half an acre of reclaimed sea at a point where the sea is 6 metres deep, with a glass-bottomed pedestrian pathway from the high-tide line for 350 metres. The monuments of former Chief Ministers, late MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa are also situated at the Marina beach. What is the protest over the Pen Monument? Activists, experts and fishermen have questioned the Tamil Nadu government’s plan to erect the statue at the Marina beach, arguing that construction in the sea is harmful for the ecosystem, environment and will cause long-term damages. “They have enough land at the memorial site and across the city. Why erect a monument inside the sea that will impact the marine ecosystem and marine life. Also, as per the national assessment of shoreline changes along the Indian Coast, published by the central department of Geosciences, more sand is accumulating on Marina beach. It has one of the highest sand accretion and this would impact it further,” said G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, a Chennai-based environment organisation, as quoted by the Times of India. The proposed monument is also objected to by fishermen associations and communities who have written to the government. According to the TOI report, they have said that as per rules, three fishermen should be part of the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNCZMA) and their approval is important for passing any project along the coast. “While preparing the coastal management report as their fishing nets and boats would require adequate space if the monument was to be constructed there. They should abandon this project,” stated the South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association in their letter to the government. As per The Wire, despite a court order directing the State Coastal Zone Management Authority to comply with the law, none of the villages were consulted in the drafting of the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP). The coastal zone map and plan don’t reflect the fishing grounds off the Marina. As per the law, the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) notification, under which CZMPs are prepared, requires planners to consult fishers and highlight their fishing grounds at sea. This is to avoid conflict and disturbance of fisher rights and economies. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.