The Docks of Death :Alang: Asia’s biggest ship-breaking yard
When prosperity comes at the cost of nature, the prices to be paid sometimes are too high. That is what one could derive from the situation at Alang. The ship-breaking yard near Bhavnagar in Gujarat is supposed to be the largest of its kind in Asia. What was once the peacefully picturesque coasts of western Gujarat, turned almost at the wink of an eye into a busy bustling giant junkyard in 1983, when Alang was commissioned for dismantling “decommissioned” ships, as they are called after being declared unusable. It was a story of dream-come-true for the ship-breakers, their employees and all other associated industries for the next 2 decades. The yard reached its peak in 1997-98 with all of its 180 plots, as the individual yards are referred to as, fully functional and ready to cater to nearly 350 ships. At that time the yards employed more than 40,000 workers, ho hardly fell short of work. But then things started changing, almost as if at the wave of some black magic wand. A mere stati...