Eroding Shores, Silenced Protests: A Fact-Finding Report on the Honnavar Port Project
A fact-finding report on the human rights violations in Honnavar by All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Fridays For Future Karnataka (FFF-K), and People’s Union for Civil Liberties-Karnataka (PUCL-K) was released on 4th November, 2025 at Press Club, Bengaluru. The report is a follow-up to a fact-finding conducted in 2024, to document more recent violations and bring the widest possible attention to the resilience and demands of the Honnavar fishing community. Medha Patkar, renowned social activist and founding member of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, launched the report.
Since 2010, when Honnavar Port Private Limited (HPPL) was granted permission to develop a commercial port in Kasarkod, the region has witnessed growing unease and resistance. The port is planned across 44 hectares of land belonging to five fishing villages -Tonka 1, Tonka 2, Pavinkurva, Mallukurva and Honnavar Rural – and the report finds that this has taken place without the informed consent of the local community or adherence to constitutionally mandated environmental safeguards.
There are two components of the development of the port: one, the construction of the port itself (44 hectares), second, the construction of a four-lane four-kilometer road connecting the port to NH66. The report found that the surveys to ascertain ‘encumbrances’ for the road construction were conducted only after the violent repression of peaceful protests against the port project organized by the fishing communities. First, prohibitory orders were issued the night before the survey, under Section 163 BNSS. The next morning, a large number of police officials accompanied company officials to conduct the survey. Community members gathered and raised their voices against the port and road construction, but were met with brutal police violence and unlawful detention. The report also documents that the police were present during the medical examination of victims of police violence and the doctor refused to document injuries from police violence. The harassment and intimidation by police continues in the form surveillance and deployment of personnel.
Apart from losing their homes and land to the project, the report found that the construction of the port threatens both the livelihood of the fisherfolk and the ecological balance of the region. The construction of breakwaters will lead to the gradual erosion of the coast itself. The Sharavathi estuary is home to a variety of fish, including prized estuarine species, and the beach serves as a nesting ground for the Olive Ridley Turtle, an endangered and protected species under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The report also highlights the lapses in the clearances and approvals obtained by HPPL, and provides an update of the legal proceedings in the NGT and the High Court.
The report calls for accountability of the police for the violence inflicted on peaceful protestors, and the withdrawal of all cases, as they are baseless allegations to silence dissent. The report also calls for the revoking of the Environmental Clearance and permissions for construction of the port project.