The Daily IIJ

Nochi kuppam, a locality behind the Bay of Bengal, in the heart of India’s southern city of Chennai, is home to a community of nearly 10,000 fishermen residing in condensed government quarters of 4,000 flats, over 40 years old. Jarnish, 5, plays freely with several other children along the narrow streets on a sunny afternoon, [...]

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By Sayed Habibullah Frotan

The catastrophic tsunami in India back in 2004 left scores of people living by the seaside and subsisting on daily fishing hunt homeless.

Now more than six years from the incident, seaside dwellers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu are still tackling with a wide range of problems including housing, sanitation, crime, unemployment, education and access to basic health.

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“We are ready to sacrifice our lives but we won’t give our lands to the government. It’s our inherent land since 1947 and we cannot allow the government to relocate us in the name of future Tsunami threats.”

This was the common approach of the people of Nochikuppam, an area hardly 200 meter away from the sea shore and some 6 kilometers away from the heart of the Indian Southern Chennai city where more than 10,000 fishermen live in presently.

More than 2000 fishermen were killed when devastating Tsunami hit the area along with the costal belts in India and few others country in 2004.

After the incident the government of India relocated more than 20,000 people to Kannagi Nagar, some 20 kilometers away from Nochikuppam, with several promises to provide better facilities including good home for them. But after going there they found a multiple-problem including water, sewerage, drugs, mugging and killings which is a different story.

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Santosh Chhetri APRIL 14, CHENNAI (INDIA) Six years after the December 2004 tsunami hit the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, fishermen fear of losing their traditional occupation and the only source of livelihood of majority of them. More than 30,000 fishermen families were relocated after the tsunami in Chennai, which is [...]

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Bus number T21 of the Madras Transport Corporation is a daily ride back to their past for the residents of Kannagi Nagar. “It has been six years since we moved here, but most of us have not managed to find steady jobs in the area. I take the T21 to go to Santhome, where I [...]

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