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Tourism first: the sense of injustice in Arattupuzha and Alappat

When the 2004 tsunami hit the Kerala coastline, most areas experienced the sudden drop, followed by a rapid rise, in sea levels, as the waves were sucked out towards the horizon before being launched back on to the shore with a monstrous force. The villages of Alappad, Kollam District, and Arattupuzha, Alappuzha District, were the hardest hit in the southern Indian state of Kerala, and bore the brunt of the waves.

Alappad and Arattupuzha are peninsulas extending some 20 kilometers into an estuary flanked by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Trivandrum-Shornur canal to the east. At the time of the tsunami, there was no bridge linking these vulnerable land masses to the mainland. The boats on the canal were rushed into service to evacuate the dazed, injured and frightened people to the mainland, where they could access hospital treatment. Out of 171 people who lost their lives in Kerala, 160 died in Alappad and Arattupuzha. The first casualties were the children and other people who flocked to the sea shore to pick up the fish and shells that had been exposed when the waters receded. The poor access to the mainland is given as one of the reasons for such a high loss of life.

Despite the large sums of money available for tsunami rehabilitation, including coastal protection measures, it took considerable pressure from local communities before the government began construction of a bridge to provide a safe evacuation route in case of another natural disaster. However, building work has since been halted, leaving the bridge half finished. In the wake of the tsunami, the Indian government also announced a special package of rehabilitation measures for Alappat and Arattupuzha worth approximately £12.7 million, but this is yet to be implemented and residents are still to be consulted on their needs. Local people, still haunted by the memories of the tsunami, feel vulnerable, stranded and angry. Sea erosion is also a serious problem, with the Arabian Sea eating away at the peninsula coastlines on a daily basis.

Compounding peoples’ sense of injustice is the fact that significant sums of money from the Central Government’s Tsunami Rehabilitation Programme (TRP) are being diverted to Kerala’s tourism board to undertake beach beautification and develop tourism infrastructure – all under the label of ‘coastal protection’ - in Kerala’s tourist resorts. This is despite the fact that these areas were not adversely affected by monster wave. In fact, the tourism board announced Kerala’s beaches were ‘open for business’ just days after the tsunami.

Meanwhile, as the tourism boom - newly bolstered by TRP funds - continues a few miles along the coast, local leaders in Alappat and Arattupuzha have reportedly suffered police and judicial harassment after protesting against the painfully slow pace of rehabilitation work in these genuine tsunami-devastated areas.

Take action now! Please support the coastal communities of Kerala by writing to the Chief Minister today

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