Memories of tsunami still haunt Nagapattinam

Vasanthi of Akkaraipettai village in Nagapattinam district,who lost three daughters and a son,now has two children,thanks to recanalisation surgery but is still agonised by the loss of her children in the Tsunami.

“Thank God I did not lose my husband Viswanathan who had just returned home from the sea after fishing. He did his best to rescue the children,but could find only their bodies”,a sobbing Vasanthi said from Nagapattinam.

Same is the story of many families in the coastal hamlets of Nagapattinam district,which alone accounted for 6,000 of the 8,000 deaths.

The Tsunami overnight left many young women as widows and children orphans.

A woman at Devanampattinam village in Cuddalore district got married only in August 2004,but lost her fisherman husband Bhoopathy. When he died,she was two months pregnant and now has a three-year-old kid. But the elderly villagers prevailed upon her to marry again.

She joined a women’s Self Help Group to manufacture incense sticks and now supports the family with her small contribution.

Some of the villagers are totally disappointed as Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi,who visited them soon after the tsunami and promised to adopt and develop it into a model one,never turned up after that.

Other voluntary agencies also did not come there due to the commitment made by Vivek,Devaraj,a fishermen said.

Most of those who lost their houses have been provided with newly constructed ones,but are reluctant to occupy them as they are two km way from the seashore and do not have proper toilet facilities.

The district administration at Nagapttinam,where over 16,000 houses were built,have tried to prevail upon the fishermen to occupy them,with no success,as fishermen say “we want a home not a house. The houses are away from the sea shore and we are not used to such an environment.”

However,children in government sponsored orphanage at Sikkal near Nagapattinam are happy with their new environment.

“We are being sent to school and given good accommodation,which we could not earlier afford,” Poonkodi,an 11-year-old girl said.

Orphanage authorities say queries still come in from parents about their missing children,but that they are unable to trace them after five years. Even if somebody wants to adopt a child,we have to adhere to legal formalities,they said.