UNEARTH
SUBMERGED PORTS
OF
CHOZHA EMPIRE
The Collector of Nagapattinam
District 23.09.2009
Tamilnadu
Respected Collector
Subject: Historical and
Environmental reasons cited to oppose the proposed Thermal Power plant regarding
We appreciate the District
Collector of Nagapattinam for calling for this public enquiry. Our views will
be in Tamil’s historical interest and the traditional rights of indigenous
communities like fishermen and farmers of Tamilnadu.Pichavaram to Kodikarai is
highly important area for unearthing our civilization since ancient harbours
existed in this belt with hidden heritage at sea. It needs to be subjected to
researches highly important for marine
archaeology and coastal archaeology.
Already 250 km out of 1076 km of
Tamilnadu coast is without fishermen. The need for preserving the catamaran
people and their traditional knowledge is important. Hence all development
projects must aim at protecting indigenous communities like fishermen and
farmers and should not uproot them from where for centuries they made a
livelihood. In fact more assistance to these communities with new scientific
equipments would enable them to earn more foreign exchange to our country’s
coffers than offering soaps at the cost of public exchequer to projects of
plunder. Generating alternative renewable energy like ocean thermal energy,
ocean tidal energy will be more helpful. Developed countries have bid adieu to
thermal power. Coal bearing ships and conveyer arrangement will be hazard for
the coastal area and will stimulate global warming through carbon discharge.
The waste generated from plant will create pollution at sea .Thoothukudi lost
its pearl culture of the past cultural heritage by the non ocean oriented
people. Bearing these in mind we urge the Government of Tamilnadu to stall all
thermal power projects coming up in Nagapattinam District, more particularly
the one near Poompuhar.
▼ We all are aware that apart
from the Indus Valley
excavations, equally important cities of our ancient civilization could not so
far be unearthed in South India due to our own
lethargy. We have stone inscriptions, copper plates and burial pots and this is
not sufficient to establish the greatness of our past. Our literary evidences
on submergence of ancient Tamil land illuminate us about our past but western
scholars look for more scientific proof. Hence there is a need for
undersea-archaeological search to find out our roots. No other ethnic group of
Earth possesses so much literary evidences but remains lazy to go to the
submerged cities of their ancient land. Though we have a place named as
Poompuhar where Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanithi during his rule erected monuments to
recapture the past, it could only serve as tourist spot and could not satiate a
researcher’s quest to unravel a hidden city of our ancient civilization beneath
the bowels of our sea in Bay of Bengal . We all
know about the changes that continuously occur and the ancient Port City of
Chozha Empire is not the Poompuhar of our times, but it is within the sea
nearer or far to current Poompuhar’s coast.
▼ Graham Hancock wrote many books
out of which Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization by Crown
Publishers, New York 2002 containing 760 pages ISBN 1400046122 hardback priced
$ 27.50 is of relevance to our Poompuhar. He
undertook marine archaeology in 2002 and brought out as reported in Dinamani
that a city with 9500 year old civilization remains hidden off coast of Poompuhar . [Dinamani news clipping enclosed] His
earlier books Fingerprints of the Gods and Heaven’s Mirror had mentioned about
his findings. But in this latest book, he lays out evidence “based on modern
scientific research, comparative mythology, religious and spiritual
observances, first hand diving exploration of underwater megalithic structures
and ancient maps to demonstrate the likelihood that a technically advanced
civilization unrecognized by modern science capable of navigating the globe and
with a profound understanding of architecture and building existed and was
washed out by global flooding”.
▼Inundation maps created by
Dr.Glen Milne of Durham
University shows vast
tracts of mostly coastal land which were submerged by three waves of
cataclysmic flooding between 17,000 and 8000 years ago. Nearly 5 percent of
Earth’s surface or 25 million square kilometers of land stands submerged. These
maps and other sources made Graham Hancock to set his foot in Tamilnadu. Graham
Hancock used scuba diving and found many artifacts and evidences roughly 2000
pieces which he displayed in Bangalore
exhibition, as per media reports of the day. Graham Hancock had updated Tamil
history to 9500 years old.
▼We like parrots were repeating
2000 years as time limit of our ancient civilization, and when Graham Hancock
updated Tamil history with fresh facts, the Government of Tamilnadu which is
going to celebrate World Tamil Conference, must take pains to employ more scuba
divers and marine archaeologists to find out about our Kaveripoompattinam. We
should honour Graham Hancock in that Conference.
▼The coast or sea near Poompuhar
should not be plundered and kept free from industrialization if our ancient
glory brought out powerfully by Dr.Kalaignar had to be proven scientifically.
Mr.Graham Hancock investigated about our “Kumari Kandam, an anti-diluvia civilization
said to have existed thousands of years ago around South
India . It is believed to have been a greater center of learning
with magnificent academies which may have left a legacy of cartographic and
astronomical knowledge which exists today in the ancient Indian texts.
Interestingly the author spoke to local fishermen who described often diving to
free their nets caught on underwater temples and columns, pyramidal pagodas and
buildings with doorways”.
▼Coinciding to our Poompuhar, in Gulf of Cambay to city which is 7500 years old was found
but media highlighted that and did not do justice to Poompuhar’s findings. If a
scientist within few weeks with the help of National Institute of Oceanography
could bring out so many artifacts, is it not the duty of Tamilnadu Chief
Minister Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanithi who instilled in our hearts the greatness
of Poompuhar by his powerful pen to employ all scientists, marine
archaeologists, scuba divers, and constitute a multi disciplinary
State-Sponsored Task Force under Anna University and Tamil University of
Thanjavur to explore our exclusive economic zone and our territorial waters in
Bay of Bengal at least to begin with to pick up the thread from where Mr.
Graham Hancock left in 2002.
▼▼
Dravida Peravai hence appeals to the District Collector of Nagapattinam in the
public hearing on Public Hearing on the proposed 2x500 MW Coal Based Power
Plant by M/s. PEL Power Ltd to stop this power project. Allowing such plants to be set up here with
whatever technology will disrupt the scientific and historical research that is
needed to unearth our past beneath Bay of Bengal
off Poompuhar. We are enclosing a map which shows how much land near our coast
had been submerged. This is an indication of how much more land would have been
submerged for centuries running into thousands of years back. My article Save
the Coast in New Indian Express is enclosed.Letting out effluents or dumping
waste into rivers and seas had been going on unabated though technically they
will promise to use clean technology and blinded by that promise our
environmental agencies will give them clearance. First of all we should bear in
mind what all technology we get is outmoded and unwanted in developed
countries, hence such technologies are dumped on developing countries like India .
If we are really a super power we should follow the Swedish precedent to completely
abandon thermal power projects to save its environment. Here it is not only to
save our environment but also to prove to the world we are an ancient
civilization, we need to keep Poompuhar coast and seas close to Poompuhar free
from industrial garbage and litter.
▼Coal based power projects are
being set up in Tamilnadu coast. There seems to be a policy which permits
setting up of power plants near coal mines, so that through National Power grid
equivalant quantum of power can reach the power seeking State. Under this
policy a current Union Minister of State before he came to power got a Coal
Block allotted in Orissa.In this project of a Tamilnadu politician Puducherry
Government’s PIPDIC is a partner. This joint venture plans to set up power
project in Orissa to generate power and pass on to the grid so that Puducherry
Government will get power without polluting the Union Territory of Puducherry. If a tiny state like Puducherry could
follow this route, what compulsion prevails for Tamilnadu to bring coal all the
way by ships to set up a power plant in the Nagapattinam coast that too near
ancient Port city of Poompuhar ?
▼ There seems to be a race to set
up more and more ports without planning what products could be brought in or
exported from these ports. The Former Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he visited Kanyakumari announced a scheme
called Sagar Mala, which means
Garland of the Seas. In fact I mooted the suggestion to create a National
Seaway on the lines of National Highways to introduce ship connectivity to all
the 138 minor or intermediary ports to bring inland cargo that was coming by
Lorries and to ferry passengers. This suggestion through Planning Commission
reached then Prime Minister who wanted to make use of existing infrastructure
to connect all ports in Indian coast. At that time only Gujarat
particularly Gujarat Maritime Board was making good use of its minor ports. Tamilnadu which launched a Poompuhar
Shipping Corporation under DMK rule lost the race by making its vessels ferry
coal and did not think of diverting cargo and passengers from road use to sea
lanes. Roads could be re-laid year by year but traffic congestion, loss of
lives, making more and more lanes, land acquisition etc could be avoided if our
existing ports could be connected under the Sagar mala scheme of Vajpayee.
Instead opening new ports with no cargo to handle breeds even sand smuggling to
Maldives
which was caught red handed by you, the Hon’ble Collector. Hence we Dravida
Peravai, a splinter of DMK but with great regard for Dr.Kalaignar in view of
personal friendship undiminished by parting of ways, urge Nagapattinam to
accord to priority to unearth our ancient city of Kaveripoompattinam and keep this coast free
from polluting industrialization.
▼Interestingly the National
Institute of Oceanography , Chennai had announced that its scientists in
collaboration with Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Engineering of
the Russian Academy of Sciences had developed
a vehicle named ROSUB 6000 capable of exploring the ocean up to a depth of 6
kilometers and can be remotely operated. Though we have to go further deep not
only off the coast of Poompuhar but also even
beyond our exclusive economic zone, this vehicle could be used to gather
further evidences on our submerged Port City of Poompuhar.
▼International Seabed Authority
has allocated 150,000 square kilometers of seabed in the Indian Ocean to India for
exploration of cobalt, manganese, nickel and copper which are in the form of
polymetalic nodules. Well Government of India will be happily exploring Indian
Ocean for minerals and metals but let Government of Tamilnadu explore Indian
Ocean to discover the lost continent of Kumari and the Port Cities
of Chera, Chozha and Pandyas, including the ancient capitals of Thonmadurai and
Kavadapuram which our literature speaks.
With Regards
Yours sincerely
N.Nandhivarman
General Secretary Dravida Peravai
No comments:
Post a Comment