Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant - Feel Safe??

Earthquake activity around Koodankulam Atomic plant created using Google Earth 

The above CLICKABLE image shows the soup of seismic activity that surrounds the KKNPP. Each red dot represents a recorded earthquake; the size is indicative of the intensity - smallest dot is a magnitude 4.0 earthquake while the biggest one towards botton left is a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, 1500 km away. The red line on the image represents a 250km scale. Remember that the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami that devastated the Tamil Nadu coast was triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra - about 2000 km away!!!

Are we sure we are ready to have Koodankulam 1 go critical? Then, brace yourselves guys...

Death of Democracy

Democracy Died Today in Tamil Nadu. At 3 pm. Democracy died for men, women, young, old, and of all faiths, living in the vicinity of the Koodankulam power plant and opposed to this nuclear monstrosity for the last eight months - staking their all in this struggle for life.

Democracy Died today when people became mere pawns in political games of a powerful few, who could wilfully decide whose and how many lives should be sacrificed, when.

Democracy Died when national good was no longer about any larger or common or good; when the dictates of life or free will of many could be sacrificed to absurdities and whims of leadership with enormous and self-appropriated powers. Democracy is not a bully's weapon for imposing sacrifices on some, to benefit others.

Democracy Died today when fundamental rights to life and livelihood were bartered for the sake of money already spent, on an unnecessary technology - too risky for liability, and in areas of volatile seismicity - without consideration of benign alternatives.

Democracy died today with a single nod to the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. And, yet, can the will of so many be denied? Will their voices and their will, not jolt the nation out of its slumber? Will this Death of Democracy itself bear seeds of a new generation, of true freedom, and of a truly awakened nation?

Why Koodankulam Nuclear Plant Cannot be Allowed to Happen: Voices of Women from the Area

To:

Hon’rable Chief Minister,

Tamil Nadu                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            16/3/12

Re: Why Koodankulam Nuclear Plant Cannot be Allowed to Happen: Voices of Women from the Area

Dear Madam,

We write to you as women against KKNPP and also as emissaries on behalf of mothers, sisters, daughters who have been in staunch and steadfast opposition to the project., KKNPP will irrevocably ruin lives and livelihood of many future generations, if allowed to  operate. We do want energy and electricity for our homes, villages and communities. Yet, as women, we resolutely oppose KKNPP because

1. We will not be mute observers to a real threat of a nuclear accident which depends on occurrence of natural disaster, guarantee of technical safeguards, and also, very importantly, human error and terrorist attack. To claim any nuclear plant is 100% safe is a deliberate falsehood.

2. The impact of radiation on biological and reproductive health of women and girls in particular has been well documented around nuclear power plants. We cannot endanger lives and health, current and future, of our families, our people, our communities, our land, our air , our water, our sea , and our seafood  because the GoI deems us expendable. We urge you to please put the welfare of the people of your state before the irrational nuclear ambitions of GoI.

3. Nuclear Energy is unnecessary. There are sufficient alternate and renewable options for Tamil Nadu. Immediate solutions include enormous gains via conservation (example switching to CFL bulbs, solar thermal water heaters) and reduction in transmission losses which eliminates the need for such large, complex, unsafe technologies.

4. Many countries are moving away from a nuclear option to meet their energy needs. Current generation nuclear technologies with a high cost of insurance undermine nuclear power being the 'cheapest' energy option - as promoted by the industry. Post Fukushima, and with China entering the photo-voltaic market, solar energy will soon be competitive in providing a viable safe and renewable power alternative.

5. KKNPP has unanswered and unresolved technical issues like the known seismic activity of the region; it is also the only nuclear plant in the world that depends entirely on the desalination plant for its entire fresh water supply. 

We write to you from Idinthakarai, the seat of people's opposition movement. What we saw here, inspired us and moved our hearts. Womenfar outweighed men in sheer numbers, their intensity, their loud and vocal opposition, and their complete commitment to the cause. We saw women sit for eight hours without food, water, carrying babies in their arms, and transfixed in attention to what was been spoken on the strage. They had taken to streets, under sun, rain and the elements, to protect their children and their future generations. Their faces showed that they had already crossed a threshold of no-return. They would protect their children and their lives at all cost. They have been at the forefront of a battle for life itself. We urge you, please, to take their side; please take our side, and call an immediate halt to this mindless project.

Arati Chokshi (People’s Union for Civil Liberties - PUCL)

Lalita Ramdas (Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament & Peace –CNDP)

Gowru Chinnapa (People’s Union for Civil Liberties - PUCL)

Raminder Kaur (Anthropologist)

Dipti Desai (JANASTU) &

Thousands of Women from the KKNPP Struggle Area 

Gujarat Grief, Gujarat Guilt : Ten Years Old on 28/2/2012

The original blog contained poems reproduced from 'After Gujarat and other Poems' by Seeme Qasim - without permission. Seeme's poems authenticated my imaginations of Gujurat violence; they pained  my waking days and scattered nightmares into my dreamless nights.
With apologies to Seeme, I have now deleted her words.

Whatever caused this...
















also deliberately caused this...




           






















































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Lest we forget....


...we are all born 
from ashes 
of the same stars 
that celebrate our nights, 
and are children 
of the same Sun 
that warms our days... 
We are all the same 
and also the One - 
the Universe 
and also its illusion
We are all One.                           ---- Arati Chokshi
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** all images are taken from a google search for 'gujarat riots'

A Citizen’s Response To Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Interview in Science, 24-2-2012

Mr. Prime Minister,

I was shocked to read of your interview in Science Magazine on Feb. 24, 2012.  While drawing attention to India as a democracy, you have failed to respond to the legitimate and widespread democratic concerns of citizens on issues of genetically modified foods, and India’s aggressive nuclear expansionist policies. To sideline serious concerns over the safety and merits of both these programs as merely vested by funds from outside, is incorrect, and does not befit a person in your office. One might cast similar aspersions on the many ‘partnerships’ entered by GoI with foreign nations, which might not be considered by all to benefit our nation.

I ask GoI to respond to safety concerns posed by the independent expert committee report on Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP). Besides these particular safety issues with the KNPP project, there are also high health risks associated with radiation exposures for communities living around any nuclear plant. Two studies carried out in Germany and more recently in France show a spike in incidence of leukemia in children around nuclear power plants – a result that should not be taken lightly.

In any democracy, the voice of opposition or dissent – if heard and responded to seriously, strengthens the democratic process and yields solutions that are more representative of people’s needs and concerns. Yet, you have dismissed all opposition to your individual vision for the nation as effectively ‘non-thinking’.

India is at a serious crossroad – to subserve a State-Corporate nexus by siphoning off all national resources with processes such as SEZs, commodification of water resources, industrial energy subsidies, encouraging GM of our food security and promoting FDIs, or, to reassert the true sovereignity of the citizens of this socialist, secular, democratic republic, so that even the highest appointments of the State must first represent and serve people’s interest.

I ask that you do not resort to potentially slanderous, repressive tactics to gag discussions on nuclear or any other ‘development’ issues using any un-mandated powers of your office, but instead adopt a consultative approach with people of India, to resolve their issues and concerns.  While this process may be slow, we must remember that we are not China, as you pointed out in the interview to Science.

Sincerely,

Arati Chokshi

Fields Will Fly

I have always been drawn to maps. Maps are launching pads for imaginations to distant places, different people, geographies, nature, culture and color. 

A couple of years back I attended a set of three workshops titled "Maps for Change".  This lead to, via a series of learning exercises, a project of layering map of  newly opened Bangalore International Airport over the fields, villages, lakes, communities that once existed there. The result is given below.

(click on image for a full page view)

It was with sorrow and shame that I acknowledged the tragedy of individual and collective loss - as green gave way to gravel, concrete and steel - all in the name of development.

Today, as a part of my study into land acquisitions by state, creations of land banks, and industrial parks, I came across this.  I realised that development was spreading its tentacles all around the region.

(click on the image for a full page view)

Now I no longer had to work illustrating conversions of our green farmlands into a variety industrial estates, each stream lined to do a particular task - the State was already doing it for us; and, it did not balk at the horror of the image it had created. Lands being cleaved into seamless zones of industry after forcefully displacing people, appropriating water, resources, rights - all to develop  and progress.

Now, Fields will Fly...Flights will Land....