The curious case of Pondicherry, a city that grew out of a beach. And an even more curious moment of Orofilio Schiavina.
Imagine that you go for a walk every day, or at least every week, to a certain place, close to home. And imagine that, one day, after a few years out of your country, you return to that place… and it no longer exists.
Now You Can Stop Imagining: This Really Happened to Aurophilio Schiavina India,
Orophilio, magazine reports National GeographicI used to walk by the sea In Pondicherry, The city in southern India has a beautiful landscape of Bay of Bengal. (At that time) the student took advantage of the wind provided by the Indian Ocean and walked along the local beach.
He left his hometown, his home country, to complete his academic career in the United Kingdom. This in 1991.
When he returned to India after eight years… the beach was no more,
Although a port was built, in that area. the construction was not executed well, or was not well thought out (or both), and water level was risinguntil the sand “floods”. the beach was under the sea,
Thus Pondicherry became famous: coastal city in india that has no coastline,
Without sand, Indians and tourists were confined to walking Wall of cement, by jagged stone,
And, as the beach disappeared, even tour guides began taking tourists to other parts of the city further from the sea – and Pondicherry has a lot to appreciate: architecture, cafes, boutiques …
Tour guide Bishwajit Banik admitted that over the past 20 years many tourists have asked what happened to the beach, “What ruined the coastal ecosystem” Location.
What happened was the construction of a port, which began in the 1980s. sand moved, instead of maintaining its natural flow, accumulated on the south side of the beach. In the 1990s, the beach was even “swallowed” by the sea. and became “Stone Beach”,
and something more serious: this change in the natural motion of the sand clearly harmed Biodiversity and livelihood of many residents. estimated that more than 7 thousand families stayed Without your own source of income – catching fish.
reverse the situation
It took years to identify the problem. It was Orofilio Schiavina who identified the root of the problem (the transfer of sand) in the construction of the port.
After years of fighting in court and trying to convince local authorities, in 2018 he launched a pilot project that began dredge sand from the mouth of the port; sand a. moved back to the beach area via line pipe In about three kilometers,
The focus of the project is a submerged artificial rock – the first in India – who weighs 900 tons, Water and sediment are diverted towards the northern side of the beach; The tubes, which were fitted along the wall, carried the sand back to the beach.
The initiative was taken by the Pondycan organization. Pondi Citizens Action Network, which has been working since 2009 in collaboration with the Government of India to restore that beach.
three years later, in the last summerthere were about 60 meters of beach,
Now locals and tourists also return to the coastal area to accompany the process. The fishermen thank you and come back.
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, Zap // 
