Virus-hit Indian resort turns pool into fish farm

Yahoo – AFP, Arun CHANDRABOSE, August 24, 2020

The pool at the Aveda Resort now houses thousands of pearl spot fish

A luxury resort in southern India has turned its swimming pool into a fish farm to stop the business sinking amid the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Normally the 150-metre (500-feet) pool at the Aveda Resort in Kerala state is packed with European tourists. Now thousands of pearl spot fish are causing the splash.

The complex was forced to shut in March when a nationwide coronavirus lockdown was ordered. Few hotels have been allowed to reopen since.

Of those which are still shuttered, not many boast a pool with 7.5 million litres of water, which can be put to alternative use.

"We have had zero revenues, so in June, we put around 16,000 two-month-old pearl spot fish in the pool," Aveda's general manager Jyotish Surendran told AFP.

The fish, which takes about eight months to reach full size, is a popular ingredient in dishes in southern India and the Middle East.

The resort's manager hoped money from the fish farm would help cover 

basic bills until tourists return

"We plan to harvest by November and will export to the Middle East," Surendran said, predicting about four tonnes of pearl spots growing in the swimming pool could be worth $40,000 on the market.

The makeshift farm would not cover the losses from the pandemic, which has driven many hotels to bankruptcy, said the hotel boss.

But Surendran was hopeful that the money would help cover basic bills so the business can keep running until tourists return. 

And the Aveda plans to keep faith with the pearl spot even when business resumes.

"We can't continue with this farm in the pool, but we are trying to find alternative land where we can build up this knowledge for bigger projects," he said.

Himalayan glaciers granted status of 'living entities'

Yahoo – AFP, April 1, 2017

The status of "living entity" was given to two glaciers as well as swathes of
the Himalayan environment, including waterfalls, meadows, lakes and forests

An Indian court has recognised Himalayan glaciers, lakes and forests as "legal persons" in an effort to curb environmental destruction, weeks after it granted similar status to the country's two most sacred rivers.

In a decision that aims to widen environmental protections in the mountainous region, the court granted the legal standing to glaciers Gangotri and Yamunotri that feed India's venerated Ganga and Yamuna rivers, which won the status in a landmark judgement in March.

"The rights of these entities shall be equivalent to the rights of human beings and any injury or harm caused to these bodies shall be treated as injury or harm caused to human beings," the highest court in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand said in its ruling on Friday.

It said Yamunotri glacier, which is the source for Yamuna river was shrinking at an alarming rate.

Gangotri, which feeds the river Ganga and is one of the largest glaciers in the Himalayas, is also "receding fast", the court said.

"In over 25 years, it has retreated more than 850 meters (2,800 feet)," a two-judge bench of justices Rajeev Sharma and Alok Singh said.

The court also extended the status of "living entity" to swathes of the Himalayan environment, including waterfalls, meadows, lakes and forests.

On March 20, the same court ordered that both Ganges and Yamuna rivers should be given "living entity" status to conserve them, in a decision cautiously welcomed by activists who expressed hope that it would signify more than just a symbolic gesture.

Both rivers are considered holy by millions of Hindus, who ritualistically bathe, drink and scatter the ashes of their dead in the water.

The rivers which criss-cross most of the country before flowing into the sea have witnessed massive pollution near human habitations mainly due to dumping of untreated sewage and industrial waste.

The court argued the unusual step was necessary because the hallowed rivers upon which Hindu rites are conducted were "losing their very existence".

New Zealand earlier last month recognised its third-largest river, ancestral and spiritual waters for its Maori people, as a living entity.

Successive governments in India have attempted with limited success to clean up the Ganges, which snakes 2,500 kilometres (1,553-mile) across northern India from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal.

45 whales die after southern India stranding

Yahoo – AFP, January 12, 2016

Forty-five whales have died after becoming stranded on a beach in
southern India (AFP Photo/Frederic J. Brown)

Forty-five whales have died after stranding themselves on a southern Indian beach, a government official said Tuesday, with local fishermen struggling to save others.

The pod of whales started beaching themselves on Monday afternoon along a 15-kilometre (9-mile) stretch of coast near Tiruchendur on India's southernmost tip.

"At least 45 short-nosed pilot whales beached were later confirmed dead on the coast of Tiruchendur," district collector M. Ravikumar said, adding that the pod may have been hit by a passing ship.

About 50 whales altogether had become stranded, local forestry officer S.A. Raju said, while the Press Trust of India and other local media put the total number at more than 100.

"It's very strange and we are examining the whales. We found some of the whales are still alive and struggling for their lives," Raju said.

Raju added he and his team were seeking help from the district administration to try to rescue those still breathing.

Fishermen and others were attempting to push those whales back into the water along the coast, located some 700 kilometres from the city of Chennai, local media reported.

Fishermen raised the alarm after the whales, about 15 feet (4.5 metres) long, starting coming ashore.

"On Monday evening there were more than a dozen whales beached at many places on the shore," said S. Thiraviyam, a resident of the town of Manapad.

The southern tip of India is close to major shipping trade routes.

India counters Xi's 'belt and road' with competing project

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-01

Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi meet in New Delhi on Sept. 18,
2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

Chinese president Xi Jinping's "belt and road" initiative to link China with with Europe through Central and Western Asia and to connect with Southeast Asian countries will be met with staunch challenges from India's own competing proposal, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Xi's ambitious strategic plan, announced last year, comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt, a land-based belt from China via Central Asia and Russia to Europe, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a maritime route through the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East and East Africa.

Pang Zhongying, an international relations professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, says while Xi has personally invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to join the belt and road initiative, New Delhi has never expressed a clear indication of support.

Instead, India will soon be launching its own Project Mausam, a transnational initiative meant to revive its ancient maritime routes and cultural linkages with countries in the region.

Mausam is a "threatening and competing" initiative will pose a major challenge for China's belt and road plans, Pang said, noting that the project intends to stretch from East Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago — all the regions forming the extent of India's cultural influence.

As the primary "organizer" of security and trade in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi has a central and unique role in the region, Pang said, adding that the competing initiatives could turn into a major tussle between the world's two biggest rising powers.

India's economic influence has also been growing, with reports that its national GDP for the upcoming financial year will outdo China and soar to a four-year high of 8.5%.

The Economist even described the competitive dynamics between China and India as akin to the tale of the hare and the tortoise, adding that India's economic prowess could very well eclipse that of China's in the near future.

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The dialogue meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Nov. 8. 

(Photo/Xinhua)

BRICS create development bank, based in Shanghai

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Pakistani boat blows self up after India navy chase

Yahoo – AFP, 2 Jan 2015

All four people on board the vessel from near the Pakistani port city of Karachi are

 believed to have been killed in the dramatic episode in the Arabian Sea on New 

Year's Eve, according to India's defence ministry

The crew of a Pakistani fishing boat blew up and sank their vessel after trying to evade capture at the hands of the Indian navy in a high-speed chase at sea, officials said Friday.

All four people on board the vessel from near the Pakistani port city of Karachi are believed to have been killed in the dramatic episode in the Arabian Sea on New Year's Eve, according to India's defence ministry.

Indian Coast Guard ships and aircraft tried to intercept the boat near the maritime border with Pakistan, around 365 kilometres (225 miles) from the coastal state of Gujarat, following an intelligence tip-off.

"However, the boat increased speed and tried to escape away from the Indian side of maritime boundary. The hot pursuit continued for nearly one hour," a defence ministry statement added.

Although the boat did eventually stop after warning shots were fired, the four-man crew then hid themselves below deck before setting the boat on fire which triggered a large explosion.

"Due to darkness, bad weather and strong winds, the boat and persons on board could not be saved or recovered. The boat burnt and sank in the same position, in early hours of January 1," said the statement.

Although the defence ministry would only say that the crew were planning "some illicit transaction", it also stated that the boat was carrying explosives.

The incident has evoked memories of the 2008 Mumbai attacks when Pakistani militants managed to sneak into India's financial capital by sea and then began a 60-hour siege of India's economic capital that left 166 people dead.

India reacted furiously last month to a Pakistani court's decision to grant bail to the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, although he has since been detained again.

Australia ‘Offered Asylum Seekers Lifeboats to Go to India’

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Aug 04, 2014

In this handout photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue
 Agency (Basarnas) on July 4, 2012 and taken from an Indonesian Air Force aircraft
 shows a boat believed to be carrying up to 180 asylum-seekers spotted off Indonesia
 about 50 nautical miles south of Java island and sailing towards Australian waters.
(AFP Photo)

Sydney. Asylum seekers held on an Australian customs vessel at sea for weeks were given lifeboats and told to make their own way back to India, a lawyer for the group said Monday.

The boatload of 157, who lawyer Hugh de Kretser said were mostly Christian Tamils fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka, set sail from India hoping to get to Australia.

“The clients we spoke to were absolutely terrified at what lay ahead for them,” said de Kretser, who is executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre.

“They were terrified of the prospect of being dumped in the ocean on lifeboats, without experience in navigating or operating a boat and having to take responsibility for the families that were on the boat.”

The group, which includes 50 children, were picked up by Australian authorities towards the end of June.

They spent weeks on a customs boat, mostly locked in windowless rooms, before they were taken to Australia around July 25, their lawyers say.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who claims they are mostly economic migrants, said they could be returned to India — even if not citizens of that country — under an agreement with New Delhi.

But all refused interviews with Indian consular officials on Australian soil and were instead transferred to a detention camp on the Pacific island of Nauru.

De Kretser said that after interviews with 15 of the 107 adults onboard, it appeared nine of them were separated from the others while they were still on the customs vessel and told how to use the lifeboats.

They were instructed in English that there would be 50 to 60 people on each boat and they would have to navigate them back to India.

“When they refused, saying they had no experience in operating or navigating a boat, and couldn’t take responsibility for ensuring the safety of those onboard, the officers told them that it was an Australian government decision and they had to obey,” he said.

De Kretser claimed access to the group had been extremely limited, but said some told him they had been living in India for less than six months when they made the voyage.

He said they had spoken of a precarious existence in India, where they were unable to work and their children could not attend school, while some had fears about their safety.

“These 157 men, women and children have been subjected to a level of cruelty that has no place in modern Australia,” he said.

Under Australia’s hardline policy for asylum seekers, designed to prevent deaths at sea, those arriving by boat are sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru and denied resettlement in Australia even if found to be genuine refugees.

Canberra also has a policy of turning boats back when it is safe to do so, while asylum seekers coming ashore in Indonesia have claimed Australian authorities put them on lifeboats and turned them back. 

Related Articles:

Australia's detention regime sets out to make asylum seekers suffer, says chief immigration psychiatrist

Australia Sends Asylum-Seekers to Nauru, as India Offer Refused

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Aug 02, 2014

A vehicle, destroyed by a fire, is seen after riots at the Australian detention and
processing centre on the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru in this July 20, 2013
 handout from the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
(Reuters Photo/Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citizenship)

Some 157 asylum-seekers who were detained at sea for weeks by Australia have been sent to the Pacific island of Nauru after rejecting a return to India, officials said Saturday.

The group, thought to be mostly ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka and including 50 children, left the Indian port of Pondicherry in June but were intercepted by Australian authorities and held on a Customs ship for weeks.

They were eventually brought to the Australian mainland so they could be interviewed by Indian consular officials with a view to returning them to that country, but Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Saturday they all refused to meet the officials.

“The 157 illegal maritime arrivals… have been transferred to Nauru overnight for offshore processing, following their decision to refuse to meet with Indian consular officials,” Morrison said in a statement.

Morrison said the government had provided a “rare opportunity” for many of those onboard the vessel to “go back to where they had been living in safety in India, where they have family and friends, rather than go to Nauru”.

“It is very disappointing that after having had access to their legal representatives on July 29, all 157 illegal maritime arrivals coincidentally chose not to talk to Indian consular officials,” he said.

Lawyers representing many of the group have challenged their treatment by Australia in the High Court, claiming false imprisonment, but Morrison said the government had acted methodically since they were picked up.

He has previously said the group were likely economic migrants who had been living in safety in India for some time.

Morrison said Saturday that by refusing to speak to Indian officials the group were now unable to take advantage of the offer made by the Indian government to consider taking them back, even if they were not Indian citizens.

“There will also now be around 50 more children on Nauru, many of which, if not all, could have been going back to India,” Morrison said.

The group is the first boatload of asylum-seekers to reach the Australian mainland since December, after Canberra hardened its policy on unauthorised boats to ensure some were turned back where possible.

Under Australia’s policy to stop people-smuggling boats, all asylum-seekers arriving by boat are sent to Nauru and Papua New Guinea for processing and resettlement, even if they are found to be refugees.

Morrison said in the current case, if they were found to be refugees they will be resettled on Nauru, not in Australia.

“If they are not found to be a refugee they will go back to Sri Lanka, not India. Going back to India, where they are likely to have family and friends, is no longer an option for those who were living there,” he said.

Agence France-Presse

UN tribunal rules for Bangladesh in maritime border dispute with India

Bangladesh and India have welcomed the decision of a UN tribunal that established a new maritime border, ending a decades-long dispute. It's thought the ruling will allow more economic exploitation of the Bay of Bengal.

Deutsche Welle, 8 July 2014

On Tuesday, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled on the disputed area of the bay of Bengal, awarding the greater share of it to Bangladesh.

In its verdict, binding on both countries, the court awarded 19,467 square kilometers (7,516 square miles), from a total disputed area of 25,602, to India's smaller neighbor.

The ruling was welcomed by India, which said it paved the way for greater economic cooperation between the two countries.

Bangladesh declared the result a "win-win situation for the peoples of Bangladesh and India." The development is expected to open the way for Bangladesh to exploit of undersea resources and further develop its fishing industry.

"We commend India for its willingness to resolve this matter peacefully by legal means and for its acceptance of the tribunal's judgment," Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told a news conference on Tuesday.

The ruling means that Bangladesh will once again be eager to open up its waters for foreign companies to explore for hydrocarbons in the resource-rich sea. The maritime dispute is believed to have deterred firms from investing in the "sea blocks" being offered by Bangladesh.

In 2012, Bangladesh resolved a similar sea border dispute that had been a long standing point of contention with neighboring Myanmar, with a ruling made by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.

Bangladesh, with a population of 160 million and strong economic growth, has struggled with energy supplies in recent years.

rc/mkg (AFP, Reuters)

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Philippines, Indonesia Sign ‘Model’ Maritime Border Accord

Australian brings reef fight to Deutsche Bank

A tourism operator from the Great Barrier Reef has come halfway around the world in a last-ditch attempt to save his business. He's hoping to convince European banks not to fund a coal terminal expansion on his doorstep.

Deutsche Welle, 28 May 2014

Signage of a protest against the proposed coal port at Abbot Point, reading Reef In Danger, at the Great Barrier Reef

Tony Brown is a long way from home. Dressed in a navy blue suit, he's sitting in the breakfast room of his Frankfurt hotel, a boiled egg and Brötchen on his plate.

The last time Brown came to Germany, he was in his 20s and the Berlin Wall was still standing. Now a specific mission has brought him back. In a few hours he's planning to address more than 4,000 shareholders at Deutsche Bank's annual general meeting.

"I think our story is compelling, and I think it's important that the banks hear it," he tells DW.

For the past 11 years, the 51-year-old has worked as a tour boat operator in the town of Airlie Beach on Australia's tropical north-east coast. His company takes visitors on sailing trips to the paradisiacal Whitsunday Islands and world-famous Great Barrier Reef.

"There are pristine waters and it's a beautiful place to take people snorkeling and diving, because you can walk straight off a beach into the fringing reefs," he says.

But the expansion of a controversial coal port at Abbot Point, on the reef's doorstep, could put the health of the ecosystem - and Brown's livelihood - at risk.

Tony Brown: 'It's important the
banks hear our story'

The development would make Abbot Point the biggest coal terminal in the world, and involve dumping three million cubic meters of dredged sediment into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

"That's enough spoil to build a five-meter high, one-meter wide wall from Hamburg to Munich," he says. "If this volume of spoil was dumped in the Black Forest, imagine the response from the people of Germany."

Taking on the banks

This is where the banks come in. Deutsche Bank was one of three lenders to help Indian conglomerate Adani Group refinance the lease on the 30-year-old coal port. Adani is now trying to raise billions more to expand the terminal.

In a final effort to stop the project, Brown bought shares in potential investors - including Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank and HSBC - and travelled to Europe to urge the banks to stay away.

Brown has just come from Paris, where the Societe Generale AGM didn't go quite as planned. He's disappointed, he reports, because the board wasn't interested in what he had to say.

"I'm not going to profess that I'm the oracle on this, but I certainly have looked into this deeply, and tried to understand what is going on here," he says. "Presenting that information is important. At least I'm putting some balance into the discussion."

Reef in trouble

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral structure in the world, home to 1,625 types of fish, and an abundance of other marine species, including turtles, whales, dolphins and dugongs.

Brown says he's already seen an increase in shipping traffic in the area, and he worries dredging could have an irrevocable effect on water quality and marine life.

"I'm a business person who's concerned about his business, and I have other operators out there who are concerned about their business and livelihood," he says. "Sea dumping is not best practice, and it needs to be changed if we have any hope of turning around the recovery of the Great Barrier Reef."

 

There are 600 different types of coral and an abundance of marine
life in the Great Barrier Reef

The reef is already under threat from climate change and bleaching coral. UNESCO has also expressed concerns about increasing development along the coastline and is threatening to list the reef as World Heritage "in danger."

Last resort

After breakfast it's time to go. Brown is optimistic about the meeting, and he has some local support behind him. In the past few days more than 180,000 Germans have signed a petition calling on Deutsche Bank not to back the mega coal project.

Heffa Schücking, director of German NGO Urgewald, arrives to accompany Brown to the AGM. It's the one place, she says, "where they have to listen to you."

"If there's anyone out there who does care about this, this is the only way we can reach them. Our experience has been that sometimes at AGMs surprising decisions can be taken to move away from a project."

Making the case

The massive convention center hall at Messe Frankfurt is almost full. Several hours pass, and a string of shareholders speak, before Brown's name is finally called.

He's prepared a statement, but as it has to be in German, an interpreter is on hand to read a translation.

He tells shareholders how the Great Barrier Reef's tourism industry provides almost 60,000 jobs, and annually generates more than 6 billion dollars for the Australian economy.

He also tells them that more than 2 million people visit the reef each year - including 200,000 tourists from Germany.

But before Brown's speech is over, there's some good news. Jürgen Fitschen, one of the bank's co-chief executive officers, turns on his microphone and confirms that the company will not finance the development without an assurance that it would not damage the Great Barrier Reef.

"As there is clearly no consensus between the Australian government and UNESCO regarding the impacts of the Abbot Point expansion on the reef we will not consider financial applications of an expansion," Fitschen says.

Mission accomplished

Back at his hotel, hurriedly packing a suitcase (He has a plane to catch), Brown is pleased with how the day has gone. But he admits there will always be more investors who could step in to fund the coal port.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living
 structure on Earth, spanning 2,300 kilometers
(1,430 miles)

"We know the reef's in trouble and needs strong steps to be managed into the future, and Deutsche Bank made those strong steps today," he says.

Heffa Schücking isn't so sure. "As an organization which has over 10 years experience with watching Deutsche Bank, we do have to be careful and stay on our toes," she says. "We will monitor where Deutsche Bank sends its money. We don't want to see indirect financing going towards that harbor or anything else that would destroy the reef."

Next stop on the European tour: the HSBC AGM in London. Brown is hoping he'll have some more good news to take back to his colleagues who live and work on the reef.

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Time running out for Great Barrier Reef: scientists

Japan prepares to mark three years since devastating quake

Islanders afraid to go home 60 years after Bikini Atoll H-bomb


"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution / Oil spills ...  > 20 Min)

Indian navy chief resigns after submarine accident: govt

Google – AFP, 26 February 2014

A Indian kilo-class submarine is anchored off the shore of Mumbai, on

February 14, 2001 (AFP/File, Sebastian D'souza)

New Delhi — India's navy chief resigned on Wednesday after a submarine accident off the coast of Mumbai saw two sailors missing and another seven injured, the defence ministry said.

"Taking moral responsibility for the accidents and incidents which have taken place during the past few months, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral DK Joshi today resigned," a ministry statement said.

The seven sailors suffered breathing problems after trying to contain the smoke which filled the living quarters of the INS Sindhuratna during a training exercise, according to the navy.

Another two crew members have not yet been found on the Russian-built submarine, which was still seaworthy after the incident and was returning to port in Mumbai, the statement said.

The incident comes after 18 naval crew were killed in August last year when the fully-armed Russian-built INS Sindhurakshak exploded in flames and sank in a military shipyard in Mumbai.

The disaster was thought to be the Indian Navy's worst since the sinking of a frigate by a Pakistani submarine during a war with its neighbour in 1971.

Last month another submarine, INS Sindhughosh ran aground while returning to Mumbai harbour. No loss of life or damage was reported.

Coal port plan will kill Great Barrier Reef: activists

Google – AFP, 11 December 2013

Conservationists have slammed Australia's approval for an Indian firm to

 expand a major coal port on the Great Barrier Reef coast, shown in a NASA

satellite image, warning it would hasten the natural wonder's demise (NASA/

AFP/File, Ho)

Sydney — Conservationists on Wednesday slammed Australia's approval for an Indian firm to expand a major coal port on the Great Barrier Reef coast, warning it would hasten the natural wonder's demise.

"The Great Barrier Reef is dying and (Prime Minister) Tony Abbott is hastening its death," Greens leader Christine Milne told reporters.

"(He) has made it clear that industrialising the reef, giving approvals to coal mines and gas facilities for his big business mates, is a much greater priority for him than protecting the reef and the 63,000 jobs that depend on it," she said.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Tuesday gave the green light to the project by India's Adani Group, under what he labelled as "some of the strictest conditions in Australian history" governing environmental protection.

Adani can now dredge some three million cubic metres from the seabed to allow for freighters to dock at the port in Abbott Point, lifting the facility's capacity by 70 percent to make it one of the world's largest coal ports.

WWF Australia said the material dredged during the expansion would be enough to fill 150,000 dump trucks that "lined up bumper-to-bumper would stretch from Brisbane to Melbourne", a distance of more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).

Greenpeace said Hunt had ignored the "serious concerns of scientists, tourism operators, fishers and UNESCO" to approve a development just 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the pristine Whitsunday Islands.

The Great Barrier Reef is now formally considered to be in "poor" health

 by scientists, with overall coral cover declining by 15 percent since 2009 due to

 cyclones and floods, pollution and attacks by the coral-eating crown-of-thorns

starfish (AIMS/AFP/File, Ray Berkelmans)

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is to decide in June whether to list the Great Barrier Reef as being in danger, Greenpeace campaigner Louise Matthiesson noted, "and this decision will cause alarm among the international community".

"If these plans succeed, and Abbot Point becomes the world's biggest coal port, Australia will be speeding up the climate crisis that threatens our children's future."

The reef is now formally considered to be in "poor" health by government scientists, with overall coral cover declining by 15 percent since 2009 due to cyclones and floods, pollution and attacks by the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority -- whose board is currently under investigation for its links to the mining industry -- must now issue a permit allowing the dredge material to be disposed of within the park.

It said it would reveal its intentions within the next 10 days.

Hunt has also approved a major liquefied natural gas plant and transmission pipeline at Curtis Island, which is also within the reef marine park, for Australian firm Arrow Energy under 53 environmental conditions.

Related Article:

Australia probes Great Barrier Reef board over 'mining links'

Sri Lanka eyes South Asian hub with Chinese mega port

Google – AFP, Amal Jayasinghe (AFP), 4 Aug 2013

This photograph taken on July 24, 2013, shows a container ship at the

state-run Jaya Container Terminal (AFP/File, Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)

COLOMBO — A $500 million Chinese-built port opens Monday in Sri Lanka, giving Beijing a vital foothold on the world's busiest international shipping lane as it seeks to secure maritime supply routes.

The massive terminal in Colombo is located mid-way on the lucrative east-west sea route and has facilities on a par with Singapore and Dubai.

The Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), which is 85 percent owned by the state-run China Merchant Holdings International, is designed to handle mega ships -- a first for Sri Lanka which is aiming to become the region's shipping hub.

The involvement of such a large Chinese company appears to conform to a pattern by Beijing after it sealed a deal in January to acquire the Pakistani port of Gwadar at a time when it is also building a $14 million "dry port" in the Nepalese city of Larcha, near Tibet.

Chinese loans and expertise were also instrumental in the construction of a new $450 million deep-sea port at the southern Sri Lankan city of Hambantota which opened in June 2012.

Independent shipping expert, Rohan Masakorala, says the new terminal made economic sense for China to tap in to the growing South Asian container cargo and gave Beijing a foothold along a strategic sea route.

"Terminal investments are a good business which can give a very good return," said Masakorala, a former secretary-general of the Singapore-based Asian Shippers Council.

"Through this investment, China is also securing the safety and efficiency of their main supply chain."

Masakorala, who heads the Shippers' Academy Colombo, said about half of all world sea trade passed through the east-west shipping route and a presence at a mid-way point along that gives China a commanding position.

"For China to maintain economic growth at home, they also need to go out and secure their supply routes. In that sense, coming to Colombo is a strategic commercial investment."

The Chinese investment in Sri Lanka, which is under pressure from Western powers and India over its human rights record, has raised fears in New Delhi about Beijing's influence in the neighbourhood.

But Priyath Bandu Wickrama, chairman of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), insisted that India had nothing to fear from the new Colombo port and could in fact be a major beneficiary.

"We will not allow any military base at our ports nor will we allow them to be used for any strategic military purpose by anyone," Wickrama said.

Wickrama said shippers in India could save up to four days by routing their cargo through Sri Lanka rather than using Singapore or Dubai.

"Earlier, Indians along the east coast had to send their cargo to Singapore if they wanted to catch a mega ship going West. Now these mega ships will be going through Colombo and picking up Indian cargo," he told AFP.

"That saves time and a lot of money."

The two major ports of south India, the Port of Cochin and the Port of Tuticorin, are too shallow for mega vessels such as the world's largest container ship, the MV. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller.

Saliya Senanayake from the London-based Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport says that "India is about five to six years behind Sri Lanka when it comes to port infrastructure".

Sri Lanka has been an important stop in the ancient Silk Sea Route and today hundreds of ships pass its southern coast daily while plying the world's busiest international shipping lane.

With a capacity of over 18,000 containers, the M.V. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, which was commissioned about two weeks ago is expected to make up a fleet of 20 mega ships in the next two years plying the East-West route.

The SLPA is pouring millions of dollars into infrastructure around the island and says it is on course to increase container handling capacity by 1.6 million containers to 6.4 million by April.

It hopes to have a container capacity of 10 million by 2020, while revenue is forecast to triple to one billion dollars by 2020.

Hambantota, which is just 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) away from the East-West sea lane, is being promoted as a key service centre and industrial port where large ships can re-fuel or take on fresh food.

In April, Colombo's port is due to open another mega terminal just next to the Chinese-managed CICT. The new addition will initially be able to handle about 800,000 containers a year, according to the SLPA.

Professor Tsz Leung Yip, head of the International Centre for Maritime Studies at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said Chinese expertise coupled with Colombo's strategic location would make Sri Lanka a key stop-over for international carriers who want to avoid the threat posed by Somali pirates operating off the Gulf of Aden.

"In the presence of Somalia pirates, it is safer for ships (from the Far East to Europe) to stop over at Sri Lanka and head to Cape of Good Hope, without calling at Dubai port," he told AFP.