A Socio-Legal Study Of Chilika Lake Movement

Manaswini Nakkina, Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University

ABSTRACT

Save the Chilika lake movement or Chilika bachao andolan was a movement by people, especially by local fisherman who were successful in resisting the early 9o’s integrated shrimp farming project for shrimp cultivation and export that was signed by Tata steel India Limited and Government of Orissa. This project is a direct threat to livelihood of fishing communities living around the lake and indirect threat to many who are inter dependant on the fish trade.

The fishermen in their struggle were supported by farmers, students, intellectuals, human right activists and environmentalists. The scenic spot was stirred with voices of resistance and andolans for saving the lake against Tata commercial house and the state government. They criticized them for making commercial use of natural resources and reducing local sustainable and subsistence use in the name of development. The movement was episodic in nature and the vigour, intensity and speed was uneven. There were different streams of thought and action among which it was not always possible to achieve synchronization. Yet all these separate formations together gave the resistance a form of movement. Despite the internal conflicts and contestations among the people and the leaders, the worth of the resistance lies in rising some critical governance issues pertaining to policy formulation, resource use and control, socio-economic equity not only with regard to the specific instance but with regard to the broader question concerning the prevalent paradigm of development, as well, and more importantly in pointing out the way the Indian state relates to ordinary people would like to refashion this relationship.