People's Democracy

TSUNAMI AND ITS AFTERMATH IN TN COAST

Dealing With An Epic Disaster

 G Ramakrishnan

TSUNAMI, the killer waves triggered by a huge under sea earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, caused unprecedented damage and havoc to the east coast of Tamil Nadu, from Chennai to Kanyakumari. A small stretch from Point-Calimere to Thiruchendur escaped the damage, but Sri Lanka had to bear the brunt heavily for this.  At the time of writing this article as per official figures around 7,968 people died in thirteen coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, of which 6,051 belonged to Nagapattinam alone.

The ferocity of the waves that hit the Tamil Nadu coast was unimaginable in scale, and caused huge damage to the coastal areas. According to one estimate of the government, 362 villages and 5,00,000 people were affected by the tsunami. They were staying in 402 camps till a few days back.

About one lakh houses in the east coast were damaged, most of them belonged to fisherfolk. Trawlers, boats, catamarans, nets and other properties were destroyed, affecting the only source of their livelihood. Water entered Nagapattinam town, almost up to 1.5 km, disrupting communication and electric supply.

A part of Cuddalore municipal town Devanampattinam and other areas in Cuddalore old town were also hit by the tsunami, causing number of deaths and damage to the fishermen. The fishing community of Chennai was also affected in some areas.

It may be noted that 90 per cent of people affected by the tsunami were from the fishermen community, and the majority of the people killed were women and children.  Next to Nagapattinam district, large number of deaths were reported from the districts of Kanyakumari, Cuddalore and from the union territory of Pondicherry. Apart from the locals many of the dead at Kanyakumari coast were tourists.

Even among the survivors, fish vendors both from the coast and the interiors are still affected due to loss of their livelihood. The other significant section affected due to the disaster is the farming community living adjacent to the coastal areas. Their lands have become saline due to inundation of sea water for more than a week. This has rendered their lives miserable, with no hope for immediate use of the land for cultivation. This has put the huge mass of agricultural labourers of this area into jeopardy. The farming community of this area which has been experiencing alternative phases of distress – due to drought and floods – is today totally shattered by this disaster. Some 15,000 hectares of paddy and groundnut crop stand withered. The farmers are further distressed at the ignorance shown by the state and other agencies towards their plight.

Another important section of the people who have been affected by the disaster are the salt pane workers, an important economic activity of the coastal zone, centered on Vedaranyam. An estimated 2,000 acres of salt pans are badly affected and an estimated 25,000 tones of salt, both edible and industrial grade, has been washed away. This industry which provides employment to more than 10,000 people is completely devastated today.

Leaders of the CPI(M) in the affected districts immediately rushed to the areas and facilitated the survivors to move into relief camps. On the day the tsunami struck, West Bengal state committee of CPI(M) donated Rs 5 lakh to the Tamil Nadu state committee of the Party for undertaking relief work in the affected areas. On December 28-29, a team of Party leaders and MLAs led by state secretary N Varadarajan visited  the affected areas starting from Chennai to Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district, including some areas in Pondicherry. They consoled the people who have lost their all their livelihood assets like boats, catamarans, nets etc.

On December 29, after visiting some of the affected areas in Nagapattinam district, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat demanded the state government to urgently convene an all party meeting to involve everyone in the relief work. While addressing a meeting of Party activists and leaders, Karat said that “at the time of crisis we should be with the people”. He said the Party should organise camps and the cadre should immediately involve themselves in the relief work.

HUMAN TRAGEDY  

Soon after the disaster, the immediate task was to identify and extract dead bodies from the debris, coastal sand, bushes, fishing net, and in many small rivers. Many dead bodies were carried in back waters one or two kilometers away from the sea.  A special rescue operations force under the guidance of the Thanjavur district collector, Dr J Radhakrishnan took charge of this operation from December 29 onwards.  In certain places, bodies are still being recovered in highly decomposed state, like the case of seven bodies that were recovered on January 10. The DYFI-SFI activists dedicatedly helped the task force in their operation to extricate the dead bodies.

TONNES OF SOLIDARITY

The unprecedented devastation of human lives and properties by tsunami killer waves moved the people of not only Tamil Nadu, but of the entire country and even the world. All of them have either been rushing to the tsunami affected areas or are contributing on a huge scale to the relief operations in one way or the other. In a way it can be said that what is coming in as relief is not just tonnes of materials but tonnes and tonnes of heart- rending solidarity that these people are showing to the affected people.  Many NGOs, not only from the rest of the state but also from other parts of country, have come forward to help the victims. Many organisations and individuals have already offered to adopt the orphaned children, and so many specific efforts of relief are directed at specific sections of the affected people, like single women and mothers, the old, young women and men in institutions who are left without any family support.

There was a huge and immediate response from the medical professionals from all over the country who volunteered to move in and help out the survivors and the injured. The priority was to prevent spread of any infectious or communicable diseases in the relief camps. Several teams of doctors from Kerala, West Bengal and Karnataka worked in tandem with the relief teams of our mass organisations and the Party. Their immediate response to the crisis was highly commended by all those involved.

There was also a huge response from various individuals and the NGOs. Many of the agencies focused on specific villages and continued to work in those areas, providing relief materials and encouraging the people to move back into their settlements from the relief camps, which was a first step towards rebuilding their lives. 

RELIEF WORK BY THE PARTY AND MASS ORGANISATIONS

Hundreds of party volunteers are working in relief camps in all the affected areas. In fact, many camps are being fully managed by the Party cadres. Mass organisations like DYFI, SFI, AIDWA, middle class employees and CITU cadres were and are still active in relief work.  Party district committees from other parts of the state have been sending all kinds of relief materials like packed foods, new clothes, blankets, soaps, rice, utensils, medicine etc to some of the affected areas in Nagapattinam.

The DYFI and SFI cadres are conducting a survey using participatory techniques that would involve the affected community to assess the immediate and long term needs of rehabilitation and reconstruction of each and every village. These teams are specifically working in 50 villages all along the east coast, with hundreds of volunteers from both the local areas as well as from other districts coming in large numbers to engage in relief work.

The primary focus of the work of the mass organisations was to facilitate the resettlement of the affected communities in their own villages. Our volunteers met each of the families affected and encouraged those to move back to the villages towards rebuilding their houses. We were engaged in clearing the debris and cleaning the villages so that the community felt it easier to move in. Though most agencies focused on the provision of immediate relief materials, we found it important, from the beginning, to spend time with the affected families, talk to them, and with limited skills, counsel them out of the fear that engulfed them. The loss of faith in the sea, their only source of livelihood had to be situated in the trauma that they underwent. Particular agencies were contacted to provide training to our volunteers who would then engage themselves in addressing specific requirements of children, women and the old.

Over the past one week, the villagers have gradually eased themselves into their settlements. The focus since has been to normalise their lives. Building of temporary shelters, running community kitchens, initiating non-formal education centres, continuous counselling has been our focus. Formation of local structures of community organisation mediated by our mass organisations has been part of work over the last couple of weeks.

CONTRASTING RESPONSES

It is heartening to see the spontaneous response from the people in extending a helping hand to the victims.  Many NGOs, welfare organisations and traders’ associations quickly responded by rushing assistance much ahead of the arrival of police and revenue personnel to the affected areas.  Though majority of the affected people belonged to a particular community people belonging to all walks of life responded in an overwhelming manner. In Cuddalore district, at Parangipet town, a Muslim Jamaat organised a camp on its own accommodating affected people from four villages irrespective of the caste and religious background. Such experiences were abounding in all the affected areas.

But the attitude of the state government is quite different. The state machinery intervened very late.  Many of the personnel engaged in the relief operations, from lower level to higher level have not been properly motivated.  Relief work has been going on at a slow pace. There was a lack of concern towards addressing the specific needs of individual members of family. The relief was centered on what the state thought was important rather than around the felt needs of the people. It is being discussed unofficially in some quarters of the state government to relocate the fishermen from the coast. The patronage to this idea from the middle class sections of the society has only further shown the detached and distant manner in which public opinions are formed in this country. Fishermen have been living on coast and earning their livelihood there for centuries together and their entire life depends upon fishing in the sea.  If they are relocated to some other areas they would become like fish out of water.  The policy seems to be oriented towards creation of space for the development of luxury tourism meant for the pleasure of a tiny section of the society at the expense of the livelihood of thousands of families whose lives are integrated to the coast and the sea. It is important that all the democratic and progressive sections of the society come together to prevent such a move by the state.

It is the primary duty of the state to provide relief and long term rehabilitation. There has been increasing signs on the ground where one can notice a tendency of the state to wash its hands off its responsibility, dumping its duties to non-governmental organisations. In this moment of crisis, we hope that the state realises its responsibility and rises up to the levels of commitment that are required from it, if the affected communities were to be resettled and rehabilitated. This requires a process that has to be centred around creation and facilitation of means to labour and livelihood.

(The writer is CPI(M) state secretariat member)