News Excerpt:
According to experts, the centre's oil exploration plans off Kanniyakumari coast could severely impact fertile fishing ground, marine biodiversity and wadge bank ecosystem.
About the oil exploration program:
- Recently, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Directorate of Hydro-Carbon has put out a Notice Inviting Offers (NIO) for the exploration and development of oil and gas blocks in India, under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP).
Why are Local people protesting?
- The Centre’s notice inviting offers for the exploration of oil and gas blocks has raised serious concerns in Kanniyakumari district where experts say, the Wadge Bank Ecosystem (a part of the sea that is a fertile fishing ground and rich in biodiversity) could be badly affected.
- Wadge Bank is an invaluable treasure that indigenous people and communities depend on for food and resources that are important to their culture and daily life.
- Experts say that targeting these sensitive places for oil development would destroy tradition, employment and livelihoods of local people.
About Wadge Bank Ecosystem:
- The Wadge Bank is situated to the South of Cape Comorin and lies generally between latitudes 7°10’N and 8°00'N and longitudes 76°40'E and 78°00'E, but outside the territorial waters of India.
- The Bank shelves gradually up to 200 metres depth with its most extensive flattening in an East-West direction between the 50 metres and 100 metres contours.
- The sea-bed consists of sand and shell and is rocky in places.
- Significance
- Wadge Bank is an invaluable treasure that indigenous people and communities depend on for food and resources that were important to their culture.
- It is like a warehouse, a feeding house for the fish, and a number of reef systems exist in this region with over 200 varieties of rare fish species and more than 60 kinds of aquatic species.
