The Hindu Business Line : Moments in tsunami land

In tsunami-hit Nagapattinam district, the Railways rendered invaluable service in the relief and rehabilitation efforts. Many stations were turned into makeshift relief camps.

The Kamban Express, one of the few metre-gauge trains,is normally jam-packed during January with pilgrims headed for Nagore and Velankanni. January is peak pilgrimage season. However, this year, 15 days after one of the worst natural disasters, one found the train running empty... well almost. The ticket examiner told us that the train's occupancy had dropped drastically after the tsunami. Most of the passengers were headed for Tiruvarur, a station about 70 km ahead of Nagapattinam.

We reached Nagapattinam at dawn and, despite the enormity of the tragedy, it was hardly a ghost town. We could hear M.S. Subbulakshmi's Suprabatham playing in the distance amid the stench of rotting carcasses. In fact, this music was a sign of the recovery process that was underway. We walked along the 12-km railway line to Nagore, where the famous dargah is located, witnessing the extent of devastation all along. Debris was still being cleared, and human remains washed ashore.

Whole families had disappeared and the tragedy had orphaned scores of children in the region. Palani was one such boy. He had lost his mother and was sitting on an overturned boat with a vacant expression.

The Railways itself had a narrow escape on that fateful day. The Nagore - Thanjavur passenger train passes at around 7 a.m. through that route, carrying at least 500 people. This train runs only six days a week and never on Sundays, and therefore escaped. But the Nagapattinam Kadarkarai Station was not so fortunate. This station was reduced to rubble. So were the tracks. But the Railways managed to restore the wrecked railway line, though not the station. As we walked along the track, the section engineer (SE) arrived in a trolley.

When provoked into a conversation, this cheerful man said, "I am not authorised to talk to the Press." When told, in Tamil, that I was not in the region as a journalist, the SE became a little more communicative. "Tsunamis may come and Tsunamis may go, but the Indian Railways will go on forever," he said. The phrase, borrowed from Robert Frost, nevertheless shows the grit and determination of the Railway employees. Besides, the Railways is also involved in relief and rehabilitation work in the region. It is transporting relief material, food and fresh water at its own cost. Many Railway stations are now makeshift relief camps for homeless people. The other agency involved in rehabilitation work in the region is the Indian Army. The army is playing a major role in clearing debris, providing medical care, repairing vessels and mending broken spirits. The last one is the problem area, which the army is addressing through its medical teams.

But we also saw relief material siphoned off by some government officials surveying the affected regions and supervising relief work from air-conditioned Ambassador cars! Politicians were conspicuous by their absence. But many NGOs, like World Vision, Jamaate Islami Hind, Salvation Army, and Mata Amritanandamayi Ashram, were active in the region, offering succour to the affected people. The Shiromani Akali Dal, which has no political presence in this part of the country, was running a langaar (community kitchen). Some NGOs had complaints against the State Government. Moses Durairaj of the Salvation Army said, "The State Government is not prepared to provide us land for building shelters though we are prepared to bring in the resources." In a Dalit-dominated village, 5 km from Nagapattinam, volunteers from the Amritanandamayi ashram were building shelters and distributing relief material from a temple. Similarly at Velankanni, where pilgrim numbers have dropped dramatically, World Vision was constructing temporary shelters and distributing food and bed linen. Houses on the beach have been reduced to rubble by the tsunami waves and we saw a dozen bulldozers pressed into service. We could see bodies being exhumed and cremated to prevent epidemic.

The highway leading to Karaikal, in Pondicherry, was still intact. This was partly because the roads were at least 7 km from the sea. Buses were still plying. When we reached Karaikal, it was business as usual, despite the devastation.

Picture by the author

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