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Kerala's tsunami-hit village shrinking
by J Samuel     

Tsunami affected Arattupuzha village in Alappuzha district of Kerala. The sea has almost made an inroad into the village after tsunami.   The breadth of the village which is a narrow strip  of land lying between the Kayamkulam lake and Arabian sea is only 50 metres at some places.

   Arattupuzha (Kerala): The Arattupuzha village in Kerala's Alleppey district, which was one of the worst hit by the December 26, 2004 "tsunami" waves disaster, has lost almost half of its land due to sea erosion in the last 100 years. The geographical shape of the 14-kilometre long village is itself a proof of the havoc wreaked by the sea waves here. The breadth of the village which is a narrow strip of land lying between the Kayamkulam lake and the Arabian sea is only 50 metres at some places. Several residents of the village had old their land and migrated to the neighbouring villages of Muthukulam and Kandaloor in the last few decades. It is mainly fishermen who reside on the land who never want to leave this place and have had to bear the brunt of the fury of the sea.

     The village had recently become the center of media attraction following a proposal by a private group to mine mineral sand from the area and the opposition raised against it by ecological groups. Now, after the tsunami the government had decided not to do any kind of sand mining in this place. The villagers pointed out that the demand of the people of the village for constructing a sea wall along the entire stretch of the coast had not been conceded by the authorities earlier. Sea walls exist only at a few stretches in the village. Because of this, the sea erosion becomes intense at the adjoining places. As per the villagers, damage from sea erosion is an annual phenomenon here. In the earlier times few houses or some damage was there but now because of not having a proper sea wall instead of 2 or 3 lives the waves took 28 lives from this place alone. "Because of the black sand available here the sea wall has not been constructed ,now where we will go, there is no way except to die here, we are not willing to leave this village, no one is interested in leaving this place it's the opinion of all the villagers," claims Hariharan, a villager. "Wherever a sea wall there existed less lives have been lost. Earlier when the sea erosion used to occur only some kind of damage was seen here, but if the sea wall would have been constructed 2 or 3 lives could have lost instead of 28 lives," adds Yashodharan, a fisherman.

     Legends associated with many of the temples in Muthukulam panchayat say that they were once situated in Arattupuzha panchayat and had been shifted to the present site following the destruction of the temple in sea erosion. Legend also points out that Sreemoolavasam, a Buddhist centre of learning in Thrikkunnappuzha panchayat-a coastal panchayat adjoining Arattupuzha-had been wiped out completely in sea erosion hundreds of years back. The Govt. after tsunami attack on this village finally decided to construct proper sea wall at the earliest possible, but it's too late now, nothing can save this village.
- Jan 25, 2005

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