‘Tharoor’s Bastion but’: How Will Coastal Votes Sway in Thiruvananthapuram? [Video]

As loud waves crashed against a low wall built along the shores of Poonthura – a coastal village in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram – Michael Joseph pointed to a large pile of concrete rubble in front of a one-storey house on the edge of the coast. 

“There were four lanes of houses in front of this house. They were all taken by the sea over the years,” he told The Quint.

Joseph, a resident of Poonthura, worked in Dubai for 18 years. Two years ago, he returned to his village, bought a boat, and began fishing. “But how are we supposed to survive when we are losing our coast? And it has only gotten worse since the Vizhinjam seaport project,” Joseph alleged.

For years now, coastal erosion has been a concern in Thiruvananthapuram – the district with the longest coastline in Kerala, stretching 78 kilometres. About 24 percent of the fisher population in …