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Journalism of Courage
The government machinery is yet to gather its wits in many parts of Tamil Nadu, but south India’s best known church is already working on a multi-crore housing project for survivors—from all communities, possibly the first such initiative.
Officials of the Basilica of Our Lady of Health say they propose to talk to the affected to see if they would like to live in an organised multi-community mini-township, or prefer getting houses built where they stood earlier. ‘‘It could be some 1,000 houses, each costing about Rs 2 lakh. The number may go up or down depending on what we eventually manage from our donor agencies. We can spare land of our own,’’ says Rector Rev Fr P Xavier. ‘‘Our clergy and some 40 volunteers worked….Bodies kept floating up the beach behind, and no government officials turned up to help.”
‘‘Nothing matters more to us now other than a home, whoever gives it. I hope the church would do it fast,’’ says Pichayyan, a survivor, squatting near the shrine entrance.
The seabed behind the shrine is the middle of a saucer-shaped depression, and most of the dead from adjacent coastal villages were flung there. It was up to the shrine to bury 600-odd bodies over the next three days as villagers were either dead or had fled.
The waves struck when the Malayalam mass was on in the shrine, perched much higher than the beach behind it. Though the waters reached only up to the congregation hall leaving the hundreds praying inside safe, it devastated the entire area.
‘‘We took things upon ourselves, carting the bodies from the beach. We buried 400 in our own farmland, after photographing all whose bodies that were not too disfigured. Then things got tougher. There were many lying under the debris or hidden in sand. The only way we could get at them was by using Proclain machines. We hired nine of these from Thanjavur and took out many more of the dead,’’ says Fr Xavier.
‘‘A few panchayat workers came, but refused to touch decaying corpses, and went away. It was horrifying. Sometimes, when our volunteers tried to lift the bodies by the hands, they came off. So we buried the remaining 200 or so on the beach.’’ Then came the question of food and water. ‘‘We are now looking after about 2,000 people. This time, we are not requesting the government to help. It would be better if they just keep out.”
What has rankled more is that politicians, from Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran to an array of state ministers visited the shrine, promising all help. But nothing came of it.
Nagapattinam Collector M. Veerashanmughamoni says he cannot be blamed. ‘‘I have the district with the longest coastline in TN that had suffered the heaviest toll. I did visit Velankanni and tried to help. But relief resources were limited,” he says.
