There are complaints galore in the fishing hamlets in and close to Chennai that the relief and rehabilitation efforts by government agencies have been tardy and inadequate.
T.S. SUBRAMANIAN in ChennaiTHE tsunami-affected fisherfolk of Chennai and the coastal areas on its outskirts are unhappy with the Tamil Nadu government for "abandoning" them after providing initial help. What has disheartened them the most is the tardiness in identifying suitable land for resettlement. The fishermen complained that where land had been identified close to the shore, there was a delay on the part of the District Collectors in issuing ownership titles, and in many cases the government wanted to resettle them a few kilometres away from the shore, depriving them of the convenience the beach offered to park the boats and dry or repair the nets.
They allege that the officials of the Fisheries Department short-changed them in the distribution of aid to repair their boats and catamarans. Residents of the kuppams (hamlets) situated along the coast say that they received only Rs.10,000 for the repair of each damaged boat, engine and net, while the actual entitlement was Rs.15,000 and that only Rs.10,000 was given for the catamarans lost, while the entitlement was Rs.22,000 for each. Everywhere this correspondent visited, fisherfolk complained of receiving no help from the local panchayats in providing relief or identifying land.
R. Ravi (46), a fisherman of Bhavanikuppam, located on the Marina beach in Chennai, said: "The government has not done anything specifically for fishermen. It only issues press statements. It has not given us any loans." Twenty-one catamarans, six of them fitted with engines, were lost when the tsunami struck Bhavanikuppam. Of the 73 members in the local fishermen's cooperative society, only 32 received relief - Rs.5,000 each. However, in a display of community bonding, the aid recipients shared the money with the other members.
In the adjacent Dooming Kuppam Fishermen's Cooperative Society, only 10 of its 72 members received cash relief - Rs.10,000 each. Here again, the amount was shared. T. Joseph of Dooming Kuppam said, pointing to his fibre-glass boat, that he had managed to bandage with metal but was scared to put out to sea. His young companion S. Pachaiyappan agrees: "Water enters it."
The relief work undertaken by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have won the hearts of the fisherfolk. This was evident in Sadraskuppam (south), 67 km from Chennai.
M. Vedachalam, a resident, echoed the opinion of others when he said, "We would not have been able to earn our livelihood but for the NGOs. They have provided us with the basic necessities." The Chengalapattu Rural Development Society (CRDS), an NGO, adopted Sadraskuppam (both north and south) and donated 32 boats to the fishermen. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), with the help of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, has housed a "Knowledge Centre" in order to promote self-employment among women. Sadraskuppam (south) has a mobile desalination plant, installed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which can provide 5,000 litres of drinking water a day.
The Gandhian Unit for Integrated Development Education (GUIDE) is another NGO doing good work at Sadraskuppam (south). The residents of this fishermen's hamlet stay put even after their houses were destroyed. According to R. Vasantha, director of GUIDE, the organisation is building 67 houses with financial assistance provided by Action AID in place of those that were destroyed. Fifty-seven of these houses are nearing completion. Besides it is repairing the damaged ones.
According to J. Johnson, programme director for the Coastal Reconstruction Project of GUIDE, these houses were designed by the residents themselves. Three committees have been formed to implement the project. GUIDE was also encouraging other coastal communities to build 100 more houses in situ. Vasantha said: "In situ housing is seen as the right of the coastal communities to remain on the coast. GUIDE agrees safety is important; but displacement of the fisherfolk will destroy their livelihood and their right over resources. We believe that a beach is not just a homeland but a prerequisite for the survival of the coastal community."
(The government insists that fishermen should find land for housing 500 metres away from the shore.)
The fishermen of Pattipulam hamlet have also decided to remain on the shore. N. Gangadharan says: "We fought for the original piece of land." An organisation called BAPS Swaminarayan Sansthan is building the houses at Pattipulam. Gangadharan praised Udayam Palliyagaram, another NGO, for its rehabilitation work among Pattipulam fishermen.
A few kilometres away, the fisherfolk of Ilanthope village, near the Tiger Cave monuments of Mamallapuram, are living like nomads. C. Kuppan, an elderly fisherman of the village, is angry when he speaks about his people's plight. They formed a part of the fisher population of the Nemmeli hamlet. A clash 15 years ago led to 65 families fleeing to Pudu Nemmeli in Ilanthope. The tsunami destroyed three rows of 45 houses there. So the residents shifted to the other side of East Coast Road, where they lived in "cardboard houses" near a cyclone shelter for about 11 months. A few weeks ago, they were asked to shift to the beach side again. They were promised that the site - government poromboke land - where they lived for 11 months would be allotted to them. Their hopes soared when a surveyor came and portions of land were demarcated. "But we are yet to get the papers [relating to land allotment]," a despondent Kuppan said. He added: "NGOs have given us boats and engines. We are comfortable now. ACT International [Action by Churches Together] gave us five boats. It is enough if they give us this [surveyed] land."
The plight of the fisherfolk of Koraikuppam, an islet off the Pulicat lake, about 65 km from Chennai, is pathetic. Koraikuppam is surrounded by the waters of the Bay of Bengal, its backwaters and the Buckingham Canal. A boat with a powerful outboard motor takes about 30 minutes to reach Koraikuppam from the shore of the Pulicat lake.
According to D. Nithyanandam, secretary of the Trivellore district Fish Workers' Union, affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Koraikuppam, a stark, windblown place, was the worst affected in the Pulicat archipelago, which also has islets such as Sathankuppam, Bairavankuppam, Lighthouse Kuppam, Pettaipalli Kuppam and Koonan Kuppam. There was sea ingress up to 1 km into Koraikuppam. Nithyanandam pointed to a temple on the shore at Koraikuppam and said that there were huts all round the temple before the tsunami struck.
"Government help has not reached these parts," he said.
The Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Tiny Enterprises, an NGO affiliated to the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), was the first to step into the islets of Koraikuppam, Sathankuppam, Katupalli and so on, with food, clothes and medicines for the affected people. G. Santhi and J. Kumar of the NGO said, "We were the first to enter about 20 villages and provide relief. Then the other NGOs came in."
Six residents of Koraikuppam - four children and two adults - lost their lives. Thirty boats were smashed to pieces. Fifteen huts were washed away. The government built huts for fishermen who lost their homes, but the ramshackle huts are no consolation. What is agitating Koraikuppam fishermen is that while the residents of neighbouring villages received Rs.15,000 each as compensation to repair their damaged boats and engines, they received only Rs.10,000. Village chief C. Nandagopal, A. Selvan, G. Lakhsmanan, Ilyaz and E. Yesudas are all aggrieved over this. (Ilyaz' mother was among the six who lost their lives.) They wonder why an NGO, Madras Social Service Society (MSSS), which adopted Koraikuppam, has not provided tangible help.
Koraikuppam residents had been allotted an alternative site, which, however, was in a low-lying area. N. Gangadharan said, "During the rainy season, there will be waist-deep water at the site. Patta has been given for this site but houses have not been built."
THE case of the neighbouring islet of Sathankuppam, 10 minutes' motor-boat ride away, is only slightly better. Here again, the residents' main grievance is that they received Rs.5,000 less than they were entitled to repair their boats, engines and nets. They blame the Fisheries Department officials for this. Sathankuppam lost three persons. About a hundred boats and 120 engines were damaged. While the boat-owners received Rs.5,000 less than their actual entitlement for repair works, catamaran owners got no relief at all, angry residents said. The relief for a catamaran lost was Rs.20,000, they said. They, however, praised the MSSS for donating 23 boats to the villages. The MSSS was also prepared to build houses for them near Pasiyavaram but the government had not given permission, they said.
Nochikuppam in Chennai, like Koraikuppam, does not seem to have caught the attention of NGOs. It was the worst-affected fishermen's settlement in the city: 80 boats were damaged and 30 catamarans were lost in the disaster.
On the whole, fishermen of various hamlets readily acknowledge the good work done by a plethora of NGOs who have not only donated boats, catamarans and engines but are building houses.
The sprawling Pudupattinam township, where DAE employees and their families live, presents a different picture. The DAE units are situated at Kalpakkam, several kilometres away. Thirty-nine persons, including six DAE employees and their family members, died in the tsunami. Sea-water entered several buildings in the township. Water even entered the pumphouse of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) and flooded the foundation-pit of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).
Y.C. Manjunatha, Director, Engineering Services Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research ( IGCAR), and P. Swaminathan, Director, Electronics and Instrumentation Group, said a novel computer-based earthquake notification system (ENS) had been installed in the control rooms of MAPS and the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) to provide advance information about a possible tsunami. This computer browsed at regular intervals the various geological and meteorological web sites and looked for information on the occurrence of earthquakes. These web sites had round-the-clock manpower to flash information about earthquakes within a few minutes of their occurrence and this information included the earthquakes' location, depth of the epicentre, magnitude and so on, Manjunatha said. All this information would be flashed on the computer screen in the control rooms of MAPS and FBTR. If the earthquake had occurred in sea and its magnitude was above 7 on the Richter scale, the operators would immediately inform the Kalpakkam Management Committee, he said.
Twelve solar-powered wireless sirens had been installed at intervals of 500 metres on the coast in the township, Manjunatha and Swaminathan said. Authorised persons would trigger the network of sirens if there was a real threat of a tsunami. On hearing the sirens, residents would move to higher grounds.
The DAE has not forgotten the 39 persons who lost their lives in the township.
A stone-masonry wall on the shore along the township that was knocked down by the tsunami had been rebuilt, said K. Manoharan, Project Engineer (Civil), IGCAR. Besides, a wall made of reinforced cement concrete and buttressed by sand dunes and tiers of trees would be built, he said.
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