The Tamil Nadu government is considering a proposal to build a ”pen” statue at sea to honour the late DMK leader M. Karunanidhi. The Public Works Department has approved of the building of the statue.
However, environmental activists have raised concerns that this project would drastically damage the coastal ecosystem of Chennai in the years to come.
The plan is to put up a 134 feet statue to be built 360 metres inside the sea and to be connected by a bridge from Karunanidhi memorial.
Puvulagin Nanbargal, an NGO that takes up the cause of the environment, has stated that CRZ IV (A) only permits construction of memorials in exceptional cases and that the pen statue does not come under this exception. Activist Nityanand Jayaram stated that if the statue is built, it would destroy the Chennai coast by a thousand cuts. He felt that if at all, a pen statue must be built, it can be built on land.
