“How Tamil Nadu Lost The Sea To Gujarat And Maharashtra — And Its ₹30,000-Crore Bet To Win It Back”, Swarajya, April 05, 2026
“On a humid morning in Thoothukudi, sometime last year, I stood watching a group of fishermen push their fibre boat into the water. It was not a dramatic launch. Just a quiet, practised choreography. One man checked the outboard motor, another adjusted the nets, a third stood ankle-deep, watching the tide as if it were a clock he was reading time from.
An older man, perhaps in his sixties, noticed me watching. “You see that line?” he said, pointing to what seemed to me like the horizon, but in his eye it was something specific. “That’s where the sea changes. If you don’t know it, you don’t go.” He said it with the conviction that experience provides. “One look at the sea and I can tell what is in store. Not just me, but there are many like me.” He said this just in case I was thinking it was specialised information he alone was privy to. “Our family and many others have been on the seas for heaven knows how many centuries,” he added with quiet pride.
There were hundreds like him, and I ran into quite a few during my trip to Thoothukudi…..”
Read full article at swarajyamag.com
