Kannamaly highway siege in Kerala over sea incursion called off after three days following talks

The sea incursion-hit residents of Chellanam panchayat along the coastal Ernakulam district in Kerala had laid siege to the Fort Kochi-Alapuzha State highway at Kannamaly for the third day running on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: special arrangement

The three-day-long siege of the Fort Kochi-Alapuzha State highway at Kannamaly in Ernakulam, Kerala, to protest against the worsening sea incursion was called off by Wednesday afternoon based on an understanding reached during the deliberations held by the protesters and a team of Revenue and Irrigation officials.

Deputy Collectors of disaster management and revenue recovery, the Kochi tahsildar and the major Irrigation department executive engineer participated in the talks on Tuesday evening. The highway blockade at Cheriyakkadavu was lifted shortly after the talks held on Tuesday.

Though the siege at Kannamaly was also called off simultaneously, a few protestors resumed it on Wednesday morning in contravention of the understanding reached during the talks. Traffic through the highway had to be diverted when the blockade was in place.

“The protest being largely unorganised, a few youngsters among them resumed the siege at Kannamaly on Wednesday morning. A majority of the protestors found this against the consensus reached at the meeting and alerted us. Following this, the Kannamaly Station House Officer reached the spot and warned the protestors of the registration of cases if they persisted with the siege,” said Revenue department sources.

The siege of the State highway started on Friday evening when the sea erosion turned particularly bad. It was called off following an assurance given during the talks that the component for the Chellanam Panchayat of the ₹306-crore Asian Development Bank-funded project to protect vulnerable shores in Kerala from sea erosion would be separated and executed on a priority basis. The proposal to speed up the project in Chellanam would be placed at a regional-level review meeting to be attended by the Chief Minister and the District Collector on July 3.

However, the protest rally from Cheriyakkadavu to Kannamaly will be held as planned on Wednesday evening. Besides, priests from the Kochi and the Alleppey archdioceses will sit on a day-long hunger strike at BOT Junction in Thoppumpady, demanding a permanent solution to the sea incursion problem, on June 20.

The Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedhi has also called for a hartal on June 30, demanding that a tetrapod-based seawall and groyne series be pit in place to stave off marauding waves.

Published - June 18, 2025 03:20 pm IST