Honnavar Port : A tragic tale of a fishing community’s resistance met with violence and criminalisation
Jun 01, 2025By Vidya Dinker, Rajani Rao, Growthwatch
While their ongoing fight for justice is far from over, the long-drawn struggles of the fisherfolk of Kasarkod Tonka 1 & 2, fishing villages in Honnavar Taluk along the west coast of India in Karnataka state deserve to be shared and retold.
The small but strong fishing community here, which originates from 5 different villages in Honnavar have been putting up a resistance since 2012 to defend the coastal ecology, their livelihoods, and their homes against the proposed Honnavar port by Honnavar Port Pvt. Ltd. (HPPL). The port is being developed on land belonging to five fishing villages of Kasarkod Tonka 1, Tonka 2, Pavinkurva, Mallukurva and Honnavar rural. However, since the beginning of this project, the fishing community were unhappy since they were never consulted since the time the port was first proposed and approved. It is their case that the port threatens the livelihood & futures of over 23,500 fisher-folk who are dependent on fishing and fish drying as their only source of livelihood.
A big percentage of these are women who are not just part of the fish drying industry but play a crucial role across the supply chain. The fish trade is almost completely women centric. Women from Kasarkod and nearby villages, and as far as Honnavar town, used to come and work in the docks and in the fish drying areas to clean, salt, dry and pack the produce. The locals are upset that the upcoming port has resulted in these women losing their sources of livelihood permanently. The land that is now the port area was earlier used as a common fish drying area with sheds for seasonal storage. However, the same was allocated to the port, forcibly evicting them from common land and private patta land which submerged and remerged over the years. According to them, the port will permanently destroy the pristine ecosystem including their livelihoods that are unique to the estuary of the Sharavathi River that they have safeguarded for generations with their sustainable fishing practices.
What is also a striking aspect of life here in Kasarkod Fishing Jetty is that around 50,000 to 60,000 migrants from surrounding places of Honnavar come during the fishing season, earning a living through activities related to fishing and the fish trade. They include, among others, fisher folk, women labourers at the docks, fish vendors, loaders, truck-drivers, entrepreneurs and those who operate the boats. They express fear that the entire local Tonka market and the work infrastructure would collapse once the port is built, creating mass displacement, unemployment and deprivation. They raise pertinent questions on their right to life and livelihood – “Where will all of them who are dependent on the fish trade go? What will happen to the ocean and marine life they worship? What will happen to their ancestral homes that have lined the beach for years? What will happen to the fishing villages here as the land they stand on come increasingly under private control?”
The Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 has the objective of greater participation of the people in the governance and decision making for their villages (Gram Panchayat, Taluk and District level) and informing the people, holding discussions, and taking decisions through the Gram Sabha of the concerned Village Panchayat. As per the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution of India, it is now a constitutional requirement to ensure participatory decision making. It is therefore incumbent upon the government to consult the people, and the local bodies to determine a project’s need and discuss with the people the impact vis-a-vis the construction of a port allied infrastructure through common land. However, the people of Kasarkod have been completely left out of the process that impacts their lives irreversibly.
Repressive measures against Kasarkod fishers
Even though the upcoming port is set to harm the ecological balance of the area and their livelihood, leaving the community no choice but to embark on democratic protest – a right guaranteed to them under the Indian Constitution, the State government in the last 4 years has resorted to illegal means of using force to threaten, intimidate and even detain for weeks those who have raised their voices to educate, organise and resist. This is a community of peaceful and hardworking intergenerational indigenous fisher people. The local men and women of the community are being repeatedly harassed and intimidated by the current dispensation, through the filing of false FIRs on trumped up charges involving petty issues. The police have indulged in instances of verbal abuse and powerful intimidation, while blowing out of proportion everyday matters. All this because the community members are simply standing up for their rights and protesting peacefully against the proposed private port. There is now an atmosphere of fear, oppression, intimidation, lack of trust in the village. The tranquil villages, it’s quiet roads and small bylanes are frequently filled with policemen. The villagers have been threatened, harassed and intimidated frequently in the name of law and order and to facilitate the illegal and underhand activities of the Port Department and the project proponent, Honnavar Port Private Ltd.
False FIRs, cases have been slapped on the protestors, especially the leaders of the community, including the women who came out to protect their homes and their livelihoods. The children are stressed and traumatised since their parents have been arrested and detained for several days and even weeks without both their parents being at home. Representations to State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), Karnataka, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), State Women and Child Welfare department etc., have fallen on deaf ears and the response from all departments of the state from the District Collector to the Police or the Environmental departments, is standard, that the Port has to come up and “villagers who are protesting are a handful of vested interests who are creating nuisance and blocking the project unlawfully”. The irony is hard to miss.
In November-December 2016, the fisherfolk saw the first instance of police deployment for demolitions of the sheds in the port area. As per villagers’ accounts, JCBs were brought in and sheds demolished, police resorted to Lathi charge as well. This marked the beginning of the loss of trust in the police felt by the villagers and the administration also began to brand the protesting villagers as “troublemakers” who need Police to control them when port construction is to be done.
On June 26, 2021, in the middle of the monsoon season and the second wave of the pandemic, a large police force arrived to supervise the demolition of a shed, where the fishers kept their boat equipment and nets. There was no advance notice to anyone, and everyone was caught off guard. This was the first forced action taken in order to lay an illegal road, where police officers including women police were deployed to tackle the women fishers from the village present. Until the trucks and machinery arrived, the fisher people were not aware that the port access road was to be constructed on the beach just outside their homes. When they came out to protest, they were pushed and shoved and shut down. The fisher people stood in the rain for hours, helpless.
In January 2022, full-fledged construction of the port access road was attempted in the midst of the turtle nesting season, without any permissions or due process being followed. The Port Department and HPPL sought the help of the Police Department and about 600-700 police personnel were deployed. Some of the fisherwomen sat in peaceful protest that morning and kept asking the authorities to share a copy of the clearance/permissions required to construct the road. They were forcibly picked up and illegally detained for many hours. Many were injured due to rough handling and indiscriminate force used by the police. A nursing mother was also held and one of the women who was pregnant, miscarried the very next day. In violation of their rights, phones were taken away and there were no women constables provided to escort them back late at night. It was just the beginning. Subsequently multiple false/fabricated FIRs were filed against those who have been active, vocal and determined to ask for justice for the fisher community and resisting the illegal construction activities. There are close to 15 FIRs now on approximately 150 people in the fishing village.
Continuing police excesses and the threat of loss of homes
On January 31, 2024, around 3:00 PM, once again without any advance information to the Gram Panchayat, police force in large numbers arrived and asked villagers to stay away from the beach, the common areas outside their homes and all public spaces, since authorities were to conduct a survey. Meanwhile, all the villagers had gathered in large numbers to hold peaceful demonstrations since once again no process had been followed, and the police force was being used again to support the port activities. The police resorted to manhandling of villagers during this time and many who have been vocal in the opposition of the upcoming Honnavar port were singled out and dragged into the police vans. The male police personnel dragged women into the police vans, hurting some of them in the process. While 18 villagers were kept in judicial custody for 5 full days, the survey activities were completed. An FIR was filed with completely false charges accusing the detained men and women of attacking police personnel. Hundreds of villagers were present, and hundreds of police forces were deployed when the incident occurred. There were many video recordings made by police and the citizens, which reveal the manner in which the fishers were treated. A complaint has been filed by Mr. Chandrakant Kochrekar, State Secretary (Karnataka) – National Association of Fishermen on February 3, 2024, with the SHRC, Karnataka.
On February 25, 2025, the Karnataka State Port officials arrived at the Tonka with massive police protection to facilitate an unofficial land survey for the connecting road from the main highway to the proposed private port site. The police arrived at 7.00 AM and the survey officers arrived at 9.30 AM creating a sense of immense curiosity and restlessness amongst the villagers. The survey work was being carried out in spite of villagers opposing it in January by sending a representation from the villagers. As the villagers started gathering near their homes, the police started to drag many of them into the waiting vans. Many of the police personnel did not wear name tags and were wearing masks raising serious questions about what was at play. Some of the fisherfolk, disappointed and helpless, jumped into the sea, willing to give up their lives in the view of the constant injustices they were being subjected to. By afternoon, more than 30 people had been taken to various police stations in neighboring areas. Women, old people and many youngsters were detained. In the evening, around 4:00 PM police personnel went into the homes of the village, searching for people and dragged some of them out of their homes and took them to unknown locations in different directions ; some of them who were dragged from their homes by the police included women who had small children, leaving the children weeping for their mothers. Police beat up young men and those who made videos were yelled at and hurled abuses and the phones snatched away. If they were returned, a factory reset was unauthorisedly carried out to erase the data including photos and videos; however, for some of the arrested people, their phones were taken and never returned.
Until much later in the day, no one knew how many villagers were detained and their corresponding locations. By late night, the women and a few youngsters who were detained later in the evening were let go. But until the early hours of February 26th morning, the whereabouts of the others were not known. Those of us in Bangalore, following up with the State Home Minister’s office were informed that they were taken to Dharwad, produced before court with serious charges filed against them and sent to prison. By February 26th, it had come to our notice that an FIR had been lodged against 45 fisher people of Kasarkod, Honnavar. They have been falsely charged under as many as thirteen sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita that even attract punishment extending to death sentence and life imprisonment. Amongst those criminally charged include 38 men and 07 women named in FIR No. 0049/2025 registered against them at Honnavara Police station on February 25, 2025.
False information in the FIR including naming persons as accused who were not present in the area: What is shocking is that the FIR No. 0049/2025 includes names of the fisher people who were not present in the village on the day. Two of them had come to meet a representative of the Chief Minister on 25th February, around the same time as when the FIR was filed. Additionally, Rekha Rajesh Tandel who was critically injured when she jumped into the sea was taken away in an ambulance to a hospital. Bhaskar Tandel shown as Accused No. 10 also was not present in the area since he accompanied Rekha Rajesh Tandel to the hospital. Accusing them of an offence that cannot be committed in absentia, is a new level of injustice!
In light of the recent survey of February 2025, the community is now faced with the threat of losing their homes in addition to the pre-existing nightmare of loss of their livelihoods. Many of them are additionally burdened with severe mental and financial distress due to the false cases they face. A peace loving small indigenous fishing community that was living in dignity through their hard toil in the sea and on land is today on the brink of annihilation through a series of actions to bring up a Port on a small sandspit in an environmentally sensitive zone.
Vidya Dinker and Rajani Rao are activists voluntarily supporting the fisherfolks opposing the port project since 2021. Vidya is a founder of Growthwatch and activist involved in social and environmental movements. Rajani is an environmentalist based in Karnataka and part of Growthwatch.