Tsunami Survivors

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Tsunami-hit fishermen start repairing boats
 

     Nagapatinam (Tamil Nadu): A month after the December 26 tsunami, fishermen along India's south eastern coast are now trying to rebuild their lives by repairing their boats. Broken and battered by the sheer economics of survival, most have conquered their fears but are still struggling to put back the trauma of having lost loved ones, three quarters of who were children. Having lost everything except hope, they are now solely dependent on aid to rebuild their lives. The Fishing Association of Nagapattinam has organised cranes and bulldozers to get the damaged boats out of the sea. "More than 60 boats in Nagapattinam have been destroyed and damaged. They have to be repaired. There are a few bulldozers working here but this is not enough. Hundreds of boats were crushed in tsunami," said Kannadasan, a fisherman. Nagapattinam was the worst hit on the Tamil Nadu coastline.

Fishermen pushing a boat into the sea in Junglighat Jetty in Port Blair. Tsunami-hit fishermen ventured into the sea again after performing 'Bali Puja' in order to appease the seas.

     The state, home to 62 million people, lost over 7,000 people in the killer waves. Hundreds of relief workers have been deployed by the government for the rehabilitation of the fishermen. Julian Teeler, President of South Indian Federation of Fishermen, said things would be back to normal after two to three months. "My feeling is that this three month gestation period, I call this gestation period, where trauma is being released and they come back with the feeling that livelihood factor should be given priority. From here I feel that in 2-3 months they will start going back to fishing," he said. The tsunami triggered by a powerful undersea earthquake off Indonesia, killed nearly 300,000 across Asia and Africa.

     More than 16,000 people were killed in India and tens of thousands left homeless. Besides the eastern coast of India, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, 1,200 km away in the Indian Ocean, was badly devastated by the tsunami. Over 130 aftershocks, some measuring over 5.0 on the Richter scale, and reports from the scientific community that some of the islands have sunk into the sea by about one meter, have also sparked an exodus from the island chain.
- Jan 27, 2005

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