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Tracing the changes in the modes of protests: A study of the resistance at Kattupalli port in North Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India)

Aditya Lakshmi R
Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9730-6892
Kattupalli port is situated near North Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The port was sanctioned to be built as a joint venture between Larson & Turbo (L&T), and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO) in 2008 (LT, 2023). In 2018, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZs) had acquired 97% of the stake at the port facility (LT, 2023). Today, the shipping yard is operated by L&T and the port facility is under APSEZs (LT, 2023). Since 2008, community members of Kattupalli fishing hamlet have been putting forth their demand for securing higher salaries and permanent (Jayarajan, 2021). With the coming of the news of the port expansion in 2019, active mobilisation has also occured on the grounds of resisting the expansion, which is to increase the capacity of the port from 330 acres to 6000 acres (Srimathi, 2023). From organising sit-in protests and hunger strikes, to organising art exhibitions, social media campaign, and sea-food festival, the modes of protests surrounding the port has evolved over the period in between the period of 2018 to 2025. Two different set of protests emerge, wherein one is to secure the livelihoods of the workers in the port facility, and the other is concerned with questions of loss of fishing grounds, potential displacement with the expansion, and acute environmental degradation (Lakshmi, 2021). In this paper, I chart out a brief history of the varying protests that have surrounded the Kattupalli port since 2008. Secondly, I attempt to understand the demands and the modes of these protests, and the changes that they have brought to the working lives of the labour-force at the shipping yard and the port facility. Thirdly, I analyse the current nature of resistance, which integrates the use of digital tools with traditional mode of protests, in an attempt to chronologically describe the changes in the protest sites and the reasons behind them. References: Jayarajan, S. (2021, March 16). 'Waited 12 years’: Displaced residents near TN’s Adani-L&T port seek permanent jobs. Retrieved from The News Minute: https://www.thenewsminute.com/tamil-nadu/waited-12-years-displaced-residents-near-tn-s-adani-lt-port-seek-permanent-jobs-145336 Lakshmi, A. (2021, October 26). Ground Report: Why Fishers Are Opposing Adani’s Kattupalli Port Expansion. Retrieved from Youth Ki Awaaz: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2021/10/fishers-labourers-oppose-adani-kattupalli-port-expansion/ LT. (2023). Revised Master Plan Development of Kattupalli Port: Summary Environmental Impact Assessment Report. L&T Infrastructure Engineering Ltd. Srimathi, G. (2023, August 21). Fresh resistance to Kattupalli Port expansion spotlights broken promises . Retrieved from The Hindu: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/fresh-resistance-to-kattupalli-port-expansion-spotlights-broken-promises/article67215643.ece
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