Activists gatecrash beach party to protect turtles, get beaten up by police

Activist Shravan Krishnan and his associates Nishanth Ravi and Antony Rubin claimed that a group of 20 cops had attacked them following a verbal duel over violation of court orders. 

“When we found out that the activity was happening within 100m of the beach, we went to Neelankarai Police Station to file a complaint, but the inspector there refused to register it. We returned to the beach, not even the beachfront of the property, to document the violation, when a group of 20 policemen roughed us up and sub-inspector Anbazhagan also slapped me and used filthy language, threatening they would get us beaten up by the local fishermen. When I went back to the Neelankarai station to complain about the assault, the personnel asked me to speak to the inspector, who was not available in person or on call,” said the activist. Shravan added that the event had flouted every direction of the court, which he has documentation for. 

“The event, which went on till 3 am, had bright lights facing the beach. In addition, participants were on the beach until late. Further, the event was taking place in the lawn of the private resort, which is hardly 55m from the beach. This lawn itself is a violation since it falls under CRZ 3, which is a no-development zone up to 200m. In addition, the organisers were setting up a stage, when the court had asked them not to conduct any activity 100m from the beach. Why is the police protecting an event that is flouting all the norms?” questioned the activist, who will be filing a petition on the violations. 

“This is just one event. We will be praying for the court to act tougher on events conducted on the beachfront,” he added. CRZ notifications 2011 clearly state that, “Live fencing and barbed wire fencing with vegetative cover may be allowed around private properties subject to the condition that such fencing shall in no way hamper public access to the beach.’ Activists and researchers pointed out that the beach is not “private” property. 

Pooja Kumar, a researcher from Coastal Resource Centre (CRC), said, “There is no such thing as a private beach. These are classified as ‘kadalkarai poramboku’ or coastal common lands, which cannot be privately owned but comes under government custody. When these common lands are ‘privatised’, the fisherfolk who use it for their livelihoods are deprived.” 

Nimisha Sara Philip, one of the organisers of the festival, refuted the allegations of flouting court orders. She said, “We have not broken any law – the festival was on a private grass lawn within a bounded property (shown to the judge who agreed), which has been there for over 40 years overlooking the beach. You can’t prevent people from going to a public beach. We also had the coastal police watching the beach all the times, ensuring that no mishaps took place. The police personnel were there to prevent any law and order problems. I am also an animal lover and we can both be on the same side but he needs to learn to find a middle ground, where he is not implementing blanket rules on people.” 

When contacted, a senior officer from Chennai City Police said they are aware of the incident and are currently looking into it.