Sleepless nights for fishermen

Chennai:All along the south Chennai coast, sleep has become elusive after Friday’s seawater ingress, as rumours in the night and countless official visits during the day have given families anxious moments.Along the Srinivasapuram coast late Friday night, several fishermen scrambled to secure their boats and whisk away family members to safety. The ingress had sown enough fear to keep most of the fishermen away from the sea early Saturday morning.“We spent the entire night taking turns to keep vigil outside our huts. It is only now, after nearly three years, that we have managed to break away from debts and another loss would be too hard to handle,” said R. Sarveswaran of Dommingkuppam. However, what has alarmed the fishermen even more is the steady stream of officials who came calling on Saturday.

“Some of them, who claimed to be from the Revenue department, urged us to move to either Ernavoor in north Chennai or Semmencherry, where the tsunami survivors are housed.When we told them we had been resisting such a move for several months now, they told us it was in our best interests, as the sea would always be unpredictably rough and our lives would be in danger if we continued to live in our huts,” said Kanthammal of Nochikkuppam.Fishermen apprehend the ingress is being used as yet another cause to make them give up their huts, something the officials have been at ever since the tsunami. They also point that, on earlier occasions when such ingresses occurred either in Kanyakumari or Tuticorin, the fishermen had been compulsorily asked to relocate.“Relocation is never an alternative. The sea has been choppy over the past few days, mainly due to lunar activity. If we have to relocate every time there is heightened tidal activity, then our livelihoods would be wiped out,” says Sigamani.Revenue department officials said there was no move afoot to force fishermen out of their huts.“We pointed out the dangers of living so close to the shore and asked them to move to drier regions, as long as the seas remain rough,” an official said.