Hankon Thermal Power Plant - 7 - Project Shelved on Persistent Agitations

Hanakon thermal power plant project shelved

Ind-Bharath Thermal Power Company Limited (IBTPL) which had proposed to set up a thermal power plant at Hanakon near Karwar has decided not to go ahead with the project following opposition from environment activists and the general public.

The decision of IBTPL and the samiti has come as a surprise to many. The samiti members hurriedly called the press conference and declared that they would withdraw all the criminal cases of forgery and cheating that they had filed against IBTPL. Mr. Vasurao said that IBTPL would withdraw the cases filed against the samiti members. The samiti leaders who had been accusing the company all along for using money and muscle power to curb the agitation against the proposed thermal power plant, lauded IBTPL for deciding against the project. Samiti leaders and Mr. Vasurao said that there was a misunderstanding and communication gap because of which there were problems.

Blaming the forest officials for providing the wrong information about the distance between Hanakon and Curtogoa Wildlife Sanctuary, Mr. Vasurao said that IBTPL relied on their report and went ahead with the project. He said IBTPL had no role in the atrocity committed by the police on the agitators on July 30, and said the guilty should be punished.

Asked whether it was a “give and take arrangement” between IBTPL and the few leaders of the samiti, Mr. Vasurao said there was nothing murky in the whole deal and it was done purely in the interests of the people of Karwar. The samiti offered full cooperation to IBTPL if it sets up an “eco-friendly” industry.

Mr. Vasurao said IBTPL would chalk out an alternative plan to develop the land it had purchased in Hanakon. Later, the samiti leaders and Mr. Vasurao went to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and signed an agreement with regard to the decision not to set up thermal power plant in Hanakon.

The sudden decision of some of the leaders of the samiti has created resentment among the other leaders who stayed away from the press meet. Some leaders who were imprisoned in Bellary Central Jail during the agitation were found arguing outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office with those who signed the pact with IBTPL without informing others.

A committee member, seeking anonymity, said that some leaders who were out to take the political mileage out of the agitation had called the press meet without knowledge of others. He said only the leaders from the Congress party were present and other leaders belonging to different other parties were informed in the last minute deliberately so as to keep them away from the press conference. Source - The Hindu

The Times of India Report of this news - This is the second major power plant project in Karnataka getting shelved in the recent times following protest by the local population and environmentalists. In 2007, the state government had dropped the proposed 1,000-mega watt capacity Chamalapura thermal power project at Mysore following stiff resistance.

In 2004, Karnataka had initially proposed to build a 300 MW thermal power project in Hanakona but subsequently due to power crisis in the state, raised the capacity to 400 MW project. The company had obtained a clearance from the state and the Centre and was awaiting a nod from the Pollution Control Board.

The locals and environmentalists had strongly opposed this project. In early 2009, events took a serious turn when police fired in the air to disperse the mob which was protesting during the shifting of the essential materials in the project site.

This had kicked off sporadic incidents of violence and the leader of the agitators and 17 women had been arrested. Even the reported police atrocity on several of the agitators had created a controversy.

Later, noted activist Medha Patkar and other political and non-political leaders joined the agitation. “We have already written a letter to the ministry of environment & forests about the plans to shift the thermal power plant from Karwar to Tuticorin,’’ Rao said, adding that they will also withdraw all the cases slapped against the agitators. As an alternative plan, he said the company now plans to start an eco-friendly project, including health resort, golf club, engineering or medical colleges with super speciality hospital at the land purchased by it in Hanakona to set up the power plant.

Meanwhile, sources said the company was also miffed with the Goa government for giving them false information which they had sought before initiating steps to set up the project. “The Goa government in a letter to the company had claimed that the distance between the project site and the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary was over 17 km. Later the company on verification realized that the wildlife sanctuary was within 5 km from the project site,’’ company officials said. Source

Ind-Barath to shift project

While company officials refused to comment, government sources confirmed the development. They said the company was planning to set up 3x150-Mw, coal-based, thermal power project, which was first planned for Hankon in Andhra Pradesh.

The land requirement is estimated at 220 acres and is likely to use a blend of imported and Indian coal, in a ratio of 80:20. The imported coal requirement is estimated to be 1.28 million tonnes per annum and will be sourced from Indonesian collieries, added sources.

The project may use the port of Tuticorin to import coal, which is in the process of investing Rs 538 crore to increase the draft at main berths, entry channels and turning circles. Currently, the port is handling around 7.5 million tonnes of coal every year, which is expected to increase to 12.5-13 million tonnes by 2012.

Ind-Barath Power currently has an operating capacity of 375 Mw and is setting up plants with 3,000 Mw of capacity. It has also tied up debt of Rs 2,600 crore for a 800 Mw coal-based power plant in Orissa. Its other projects are coming up in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

In October, the company raised $100 million in funding from Sequoia Capital India, Bessemer Venture Partners and Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI). The troika would be getting an 18 per cent stake in the power generation company, which is valued at over Rs 2,100 crore, according to agency reports.

This was the second round of funding for Ind-Barath, which raised Rs 300 crore in 2007 from CVCI and UTI Ventures.

Clarification

Ind-Barath's power plant was originally planned for Hankon, which is in Karnataka, and not Andhra Pradesh, as mentioned in the story. 

Source - Business-Standard

Hankon thermal plant moves to Thoothukudi

It’s now official. Ind Bharat Power (Karwar) Limited, a private company based in Hyderabad, which proposed the establishment of a 3x150 MW coal-based thermal power project at Hankon near here, officially declared here on Saturday that the proposal had been dropped and the proposed project would be shifted to Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. He said it was pointed out in the letter that the company was not able to implement the project due to political, environmental and other unforeseen reasons. He said the materials brought for the project were being shifted to the new project location in Tamil Nadu.

GOLF CLUB, HOSPITAL PROPOSED: Rao said the company is proposing to establish eco-friendly projects such as a health resort with golf club and a medical college with a hospital on the site at Hankon. The local people had welcomed it, he said. The necessary environment impact assessment study would be carried out in this regard, he added. Source - Express Buzz

Success !!!

The Hyderabad based Ind- Bharath Power (Karwar) Limited has decided to shift its 450-MW coal-based thermal power plant project to Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu from Hanakon in Uttara Kannada district. It is the victory for the people of Hanakon and surrounding villages, who have been fighting against the thermal project for the last two years.

These people had waged a war against the project on all fronts - legal, social, cultural, emotional and political. From the small village of Hanakon, they took their complaint to Delhi, woke the authorities up and convinced them how dangerous the project would be if implemented. They even roped in environmentalists like Medha Patkar to oppose the project. They were so emotional that the Gabit community had even gone to the extent of returning the palanquins the Asnotikar family had donated to a temple in their village.

What is more important here is that these Gabit community members preferred to return the palanquins — a spiritually and sentimentally important symbol for these innocent villagers — to antagonising the politically influential Asnotikar family.

Only those who know the influence of deities in an Indian rural situation can understand how hard it is to take such a daring decision in a remote and conservative village of Uttara Kannada district. During the annual fair of Sateri Devi in Hanakon, the only prayer the villagers had made before the deity was to stop the thermal power project from being implemented.

When the company announced its decision to shift, the first thing the villagers did was to offer special puja and to burst crackers to thank the deity. Had the company not shifted its project to Tamil Nadu, these villagers were ready to launch a Singur style of protest in Hanakon.

The success here is a lesson for the people of Uttara Kannada: Unity and active participation of local leaders can prevent an authority — be it government or a private agency — from implementing any anti-people project.

But what pains at this juncture is when the union government decided to set up a nuclear power plant in Kaiga in the late 1980s there was no similarly satisfactory local support for the people who opposed the project. The protest was led by mostly the outsiders to this region. People from Sirsi and other places used to go there for protest. But Karwar people did not participate. Local people involved in the protest only at the end of the decade-long struggle against the nuclear power project.

The then octogenarian litterateur and Jnanapeetha award winner Dr Shivarama Karanth, who hailed from the neighbouring Dakshina Kannada district, had contested Lok Sabha election in 1989 as a symbolic protest against the Kaiga nuclear power project.

He suffered a humble defeat in the election. The environmentalists protested against the project because the location was situated in an ecologically sensitive area of the Western Ghats and the site of the project had seismic faults. There were many more reasons to protest the Kaiga nuclear power plant.

The nuclear power project would not have come up in Kaiga if there had been an active local participation against that project then, as in the case of thermal power plant in Hanakon.

Going by the list of projects the state government now has on its hand, taking a respite from similar protests seems to be a distant dream for the people of Uttara Kannada. A diesel-based thermal power plant in Tadadi, development of Tadadi into an all-weather port and a large scale steel plant somewhere in Uttara Kannada are under serious consideration of the state government.

Without conducting a study of the ecological bearing capacity of Uttara Kannada district in particular and one of the 12 biodiversity hotspots of Western Ghats in general, will it be feasible to have so many projects in one district? People of Uttara Kannada district will have to question the governments. Hanakon success is in front of them as a model.Source  - Express Buzz

The NPC Kaiga Incident - From the Frontline

Misplaced trust - T.S. SUBRAMANIAN Source - Frontline

Once again a “mischief-maker” is able to expose colleagues to radiation doses at an Indian nuclear power plant. The Kaiga Atomic Power Station, where 65 NPCIL employees were found to have received radiation doses in excess of prescribed limits in November.

ON April 17, 2004, three employees of the Waste Immobilisation Plant (WIP) of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Tarapur, Maharashtra, were exposed to radiation doses when they used, at different times, a particular chair in a room at the plant. Embedded in a fold of the cushioned seat of the chair was a vial of liquid waste containing caesium and strontium, both radioactive substances. The vial should have been sent to a “counter” for “counting” its radioactivity. Instead, it was found lodged in the chair. Top officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) laid the blame for the incident on “mischief” by a “disgruntled” WIP employee, who was dismissed.

Tarapur, about 130 km from Mumbai, then had two nuclear power reactors. (It has four now.) Liquid waste from these reactors is stored in underground tanks. Liquid waste is categorised as high-level and low-level. Solid waste is vitrified (converted into glass) and stored in capsules.

Five and a half years later, on November 24, 2009, at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station on the banks of the Kalinadi river in Karwar district of Karnataka, bioassay tests of the urine samples of 65 employees working in the first reactor building revealed that they had received radiation in excess of the prescribed limits. They were all employees of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which designs, builds and operates nuclear power reactors in the country. They had drunk water mixed with tritiated heavy water from a water cooler kept in the operating island of Unit-1. Tritiated heavy water is a radioactive fluid in the heavy water. The three operating reactors at Kaiga use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as both coolant and moderator.

Two of the 65 employees received radiation doses above the annual limit of three rem (or 30 millisieverts) set by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the watchdog organisation that monitors safety in nuclear installations in India.

A top DAE official blamed the incident on “an insider’s mischief”. He said “an insider had mixed tritiated heavy water in the drinking water kept in the cooler in the operating island of the reactor”.

S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, NPCIL, also called the incident “possibly an act of mischief”. He explained that there was heavy water in the reactor’s moderator system and primary heat transporter. During the reactor’s operation, a part of the deuterium in the heavy water gets converted into tritium. (Deuterium and tritium are isotopes of hydrogen.) While light water contains two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen (H₂O), heavy water contains two atoms of deuterium and one atom of oxygen (D₂O). Tritium oxide, or super-heavy water, contains two atoms of tritium and one atom of oxygen (T₂O). “Trained, qualified workers” took out vials of tritiated heavy water from the sampling points in the reactor building to the chemical laboratory (which, in this case, was situated outside the building) for analysis, Jain explained. This is done every day. When urine samples of 250 workers were tested on November 24, it came to light that 65 of them had received tritium radiation. Investigation revealed that water in the water cooler had been contaminated with tritiated heavy water. “Preliminary inquiry does not reveal any violation of operating procedures or radioactivity release or security breach,” he said.

Jain was confident that since the “computerised access control system has a record of all the personnel who have entered the operating island”, it was only a matter of time before the mischief-maker would be identified.

The DAE/NPCIL do not seem to have become wiser after the incident at the WIP at Tarapur. No closed-circuit cameras have been installed in the corridors/passages leading from the sampling points in the reactor buildings to the chemical laboratories, which are generally situated outside the reactor building.

With touching naivete and implicit faith in their staff, top NPCIL officials explained away the absence of closed-circuit cameras. Their unanimous argument was: “The workers are our staff. Their antecedents were checked before they were appointed. So there is no need to monitor every movement of a worker.” Besides, they argued, it was not feasible to install cameras all over the nuclear power plant “from end to end”, and that cameras had been installed in what they called “strategic areas”, “sensitive spots” or “vital points”.

But all of them declined to reveal what were the “strategic areas” or “sensitive spots” where closed-circuit cameras had been installed. An AERB official frankly admitted: “The closed-circuit cameras have been installed at strategic locations so that nothing is removed without authorisation. But who would have thought a fellow would go out of his mind and mix tritiated heavy water with drinking water?” One NPCIL official said that the vial containing tritiated heavy water would not be detected by radiation-monitoring counters if it was covered with a piece of cloth.

A top DAE official said, “There are a large number of places where closed-circuit cameras have been installed. There were no cameras here because it was a corridor [in Unit-1 at Kaiga]. The cameras were not installed then because the decision at that time was based on a [particular] scenario. Now you have to factor in this scenario [of an employee spiriting away the vial containing tritium and mixing it with drinking water in the cooler].”

The AERB sent two of its officers to Kaiga. They concluded that a drinking water cooler was the source of the tritium contamination. The water tank of this cooler, like other water coolers, was kept locked. “However,” said Om Pal Singh, AERB Secretary, in a press release, “it appears that a mischief maker added a small quantity of tritiated heavy water to the cooler, possibly from a heavy water sampling vial, through its [cooler’s] overflow tube.”

Officials of NPCIL and the AERB also played down the gravity of the ingestion of tritiated heavy water by the 65 employees. An “update” on the incident from Jain on November 29 said: “Any contamination caused by heavy water inside the human body is quickly flushed out through natural biological processes like urination and perspiration. These processes can be hastened through simple medication. The contamination detected in this incident has been brought down quickly and one worker is currently close to the limit specified by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.… No worker is hospitalised.”

Om Pal Singh argued that the “administration of diuretics accelerates the process of removal of tritium from the human body by urination” and said the personnel who ingested the tritiated heavy water were referred to hospitals for the administration of diuretics.

But according to an article in Science and Democratic Action, published by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, United States, in its August 2009 issue: “As radioactive water, tritium can cross the placenta, posing some risk of birth defects and early pregnancy failures. Ingestion of tritiated water also increases cancer risk.” These observations form part of the lead article, “Radioactive Rivers and Rain: Routine Releases of Tritiated Water from Nuclear Power Plants”, by Annie Makhijani and Arjun Makhijani. They observed: “The problem of routine tritium emissions is, in our opinion, underappreciated, especially because non-cancer foetal risks are not yet part of the regulatory framework for radionuclide contamination and because tritium releases constitute the largest routine releases from nuclear power plants.”

Although the Kaiga incident came to light on November 24, it was not before November 30 that the Kaiga station officials “formally” requested the Mallapur police for an investigation. Notwithstanding the NPCIL top brass’ confidence in the computerised access control systems, biometrics and the list of 250 employees who work in Unit-1, neither the State police nor the Central intelligence agencies had zeroed in on the “mischief-maker” as of December 7.

Karwar cuisine- a tradition - Sourced from www.karwar.eu

Source - karwar.eu

Karwar cuisine

Cuisine of Karwar, a small town on the western coast of India, just south of Goa, is unique in its taste, flavour and variety. People of  Karwar have spread over different parts of India and the world in search of employment and livelihood. But the karwar Diaspora, no matter where it exists cares for the food of the native land. Their mouth waters the moment somebody mentions the Karwari dishes.

There are books on Goa cuisine which is therefore well advertised but Karwar cuisine is less known. Though it may have similarities to Goa cuisine, it is distinct. Goa was under Portuguese rule for five hundred years and this inevitably affected the content and the style of cooking with the inevitable impact of the Portuguese food style. But Karwar cuisine has retained its pristine purity and traditional favour. the Malwani food in south Konkan is similar in some respects. But Karwar food has its own tongue- tingling and mouth-watering quality. It is quite distinct from the food of the neighboring Karnataka and Maharashtra states. Karwar food deserves to be widely known and its dishes made accessible to not only the Karwar Diaspora but also all the lovers of good food the world over.

Local crops and products, fruits and vegetables inevitably enter into the cuisine of the people. Rice, cocoanuts and the fish are naturally the main ingredients of Karwar food but it is enriched by wide varieties of fruits, nuts, vegetables, leaves and spices.

Rice: rice is locally grown since the crop requires heavy rains, which Karwar is blessed with. The locally grown parboiled rice ( ukado tandul) is used for rice gruel ( pej) for mid-morning meal. Rice ripens around Dasara-Diwali time (month of October) and appears in the market. It is stored in the house in hugemoodos (baskets made of dry paddy stalks) for use through the rainy season till the next crop is available.

Cocoanuts:  Every Karwari house would normally have a grove of cocoanut trees in the backyard. Cocoanuts are used in abundance in Karwari cuisine to produce a variety of curries, chutney and sweet dishes like patoli, modak and madgane. A traditional house has a ragada, a stone artifact that is used to mash cocoanuts flesh. Cocoanut milk is an input to sweet dishes like payas and madgane. It is mixed with jaggary made from local sugarcane which serves asros cakes made of rice are dipped and eaten. Cocoanut when dried up becomes copra which when crushed becomes oil which is a medium for cooking. Fish fried in cocoanut oil gets an aroma and taste of its own.

Fish:  A wide variety of fish is the treasure provided by the sea the estuaries. Karwar fishermen spread the early in the day and the fisherwomen bring the fresh fish to sell in the morning bazaar. The head of the household personally goes to buy the fresh fish according to the liking of his family members. Often he successfully bargains with the fisherwoman about the price. A successful purchase of quality fish at a bargain price becomes a matter of boast in an animated morning conversation with friends and neighbours. Bangada ( macharel) Tarala (sardine) are the fish most abundantly available as reasonable prices. Paplet( pomphret), Visvan or Surmai( king fish) Ravas, Shevate are bigger fish each with its own taste. Nagali found in estuaries are a delicate fish and is aptly called Lady’s Finger. Sungata (prons), Tisryo (shall fish) Kalwa (rock fish or mussels) and Kurlyo (crab) each has its own flavour and taste. Winter (November to January)     

 Is the best season for fish-lovers? The fish is abundant and appetite is demanding. During the rainy season, fishermen cannot enter the turbulent sea to catch fish. So fresh fish – bangada, sungata and mori (shark)- is dried in the summer season on the road under the hot burning sun and stored for use in the rainy season. They are carried in bundles by visiting Karwaris who live in places where fresh fish is not available. Kismore made of dried bangada, sungata and mori is more delicious.

Fruits: mango is rightly called the king of fruits. Everybody knows about Ratnagiri Alfanso (hapus), which is exported to up country market of Mumbai and from there to Dubai and other foreign lands. American president Bush relished the alfanso mango during his visit in India and hoped that the mango will be exported to US also. But Karwar varieties of mangoes are quite different and are unique in taste and flavour. Karwaris will not exchange them for any other variety. First are ishadth, kalo (black) and dhavo (white).They are full of sweet pulp. There is musrad big in size and with special flavour. Third is fernadfirm in flesh and easy to cut into pieces. Karwar meal cannot conclude in the summer season without a plateful of pieces of these mangoes. Summer is the season when mangoes arrive in abundance in the market. Amras-puri is a favorite dish in a summer season meal. Beside there are also small juicy mangoes, which are used to prepare sasav, a special dish of Karwar. Mango curries flavoured with ghalani are also a favorite. Wild mango trees, grown in forest provide an abundance of raw mangoes, which are collected in early season to produce whole mango pickle besides a variety of other pickles. Mango juice is dried in the sun and made into flakes –sath for relishing the taste of mango long after the mango season is over.

Jackfruit: Like mangoes, jackfruits also ripen in summer. Huge jackfruits hang in bunch from the jackfruit trees. Every household compound has a tree or two. The green exterior with small spikes hides a treasure of golden ( garas) that is sweet flesh covering large seeds neatly packed inside. The huge fruit is ripped open with a knife and with oil smeared hands, lest the glue( cheek) sticks, thegaras are taken out to be consumed at leisure. There are two types of jackfruits – kappa and baraka. Garas of kappa are crisp and delight to relish. Those of baraka are juicy and are used to prepare relishing patolis – a pancake steamed in a covering of haldi (turmeric) leaves. Patolis are eaten steam-hot with dollop of ghee melting over it. The jackfruit seed ( bikan) is used as an additional input to curries.

Bananas: Bananas are a common fruit in India but the standard banana sold in the market is with green skin. But those in Karwar, smaller in size are golden in colour, sweeter and fragrant. Bananas are eaten fresh after the meal but are also turned into sasav, a sweet, sour, pungent dish.

Cashews: Summer is also the season for cashew nuts. Very few know that cashew nut appears on the top of the cashew apple resplendent in its red hue. Cashew apple is nice in taste but can hardly compete with mangoes and bananas. It is the cashew nut that is more coveted. A thick exterior covers the nut which is roasted on fire (nowadays it is done in cashew factory) the cover removed and the nut taken out for eating. The nut has a crisp brown cover, which is easily removed with fingers. There is hardly any nut as delicious as cashew nuts. It is eaten as it is or salted or spiced. It is also mixed with variety of preparations like sweets such as madgane and kheer or savouries like phov and muga- ambat( green gram curry). Cashew nut is the ingredients of katli sold by the famous Chitale shop in Pune.

Ananas (pinapple): This is also summer season fruit. Its rough exterior cover is removed to reveal a sweet sour interior, which is sliced and eaten. The slices are canned and its juice tinned. Karwaris use the ananas for sasav and bhaji.

Chibud (melons): These again are available round Dasara-Diwali time. They are eaten mixed with phov, coconut and jaggery.

Vegetables: coastal areas are not known for modern vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower or green peas, which require cooler climate not available in Karwar’s coastal climate, which is warm and humid. But there are distinct local vegetables.

Neerfanas ( breadfruit) : though called a fruit it is indeed a vegetable. Green in colour like jackfruit but much smaller and round in shape. They appear on the branches of a huge tree with its artistic leaves. Their skin is peeled off to reveal a whitish flesh inside which is sliced and shallow-fried. These are called phodies a typical Karwar dish which is very delicious. A tasty bhajis- suki ( dry) and patal( saucy) is also made combined with vatana (dried white whole peas)

Mage: This is a typical fruit vegetable of Karwar – like the people of Karwar, soft and somewhat sweetish whose liquid bhaji mixed with vatana (dry peas) or ghalani and coconut paste is a great delight.

Vali-bhaji ( local spinach): This is a leafy vegetable whose bhaji mixed with dry shrimps is an ideal accompaniment to mid-morning pej( rice gruel). It is rich in iron.

Tambadi ( red) bhaji: this is another leafy vegetable of Karwar, which is often flavoured with lasun( garlic)

Toushe (cucumber): This is often used as an input to a delightful home made cake eaten with dollops of ghee.

Ambade: This sour fruit vegetable is put in a special curry called udadmethi, which tingles the tongue.

Leguminous crops:

Mug(green gram): are sprouted and are used as an input to a most popular vegetarian curry flavoured with phodani palo (curry leaves) and enriched with cashew nuts. It is eaten with rice and is a must at wedding feast and other ceremonial occasions. Usal is another dish flavoured with fresh coconut gratings. Mug is nutritious.

Spices:

Chilli: Bydagi variety, grown in neighbouring Dharwar district is invariably used for all types of curries –vegetarian or fish. Byadagi gives the red tinge and taste to the curries but is not pungent.

Tepal (Trifal): It is an essential input in many fish, specially Bangada( maceral), tarala( sardin)  and vegetarian curries. It leaves unforgettable taste in the mouth. While raw they are green in colour but on drying assume a black tinge. Dried tepalas are stored and used for months together.

Sola- bhiranda and vatamba. They are grown wild and are plucked and dried. They are used to add sour taste to the curry. Red Bhirandas are used for sola kadhi, which has the cooling effect and is in demand in summer.

Haladi( turmeric) leaves: the aromatic leaves are used to cover the sweet pancake-patoli.

Cooking utensils and procedures:

Karwari cuisine has its own cook-wear i.e. modak-patr for steaming patoli and heet and special frying pan for cooking yerrapes. Kashya vessels for prparation of fish curries.

It has also unique cooking procedures i.e. dhuvan for smoking viangan( brinjal) bharit and kismore. A burning coal with coconut oil poured on it is covered with bharit or kismore, which them assume a delightful flavour.

Karwar cuisine- a tradition

Karwar cuisine is a tradition that is evolved from generation to generation and is a part of Karwari way of life. A Karwari housewife does not mechanically follow written prescriptions and formulae in a recipe book but relies on her own uncanny judgment of taste and flavour. She passes on her skill to daughters and daughters-in –law. Things have undergone a change in recent years. Girls are getting educated even up to the highest levels of education – graduate and even post-graduate. They get less time in the kitchen. They take jobs, which keep them engaged for hours on in the office. They do not find it possible to spare time for preparing dishes involving elaborate processing. They would like them to be available at some restaurant or hotel but latter are seldom familiar with the delicacies and nuances of Karwar cuisine. Hence the need for a recipe book on Karwar cuisine. We hope our book will be widely used.