Angst along Chellanam coast

People say costal erosion has intensified since Cyclone Ockhi struck in 2017

A.V. Louis, 70, a resident of Bazar in Chellanam in coastal Ernakulam, stands in the middle of what looks like a graveyard of homes. The waves continue to lash the disfigured coastline along which a seawall is coming up.  

“The others are all gone,” laments Louis, a fisherman. “Some have moved to rented houses while the others have sought rehabilitation under the Punargeham project. At my age, I cannot afford either of these options, having already given up two-and-a-half cents of my meagre five cents for the road,” he says.  

A few metres from where he stands is an abandoned toilet built under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, 2018-19. The family for which it was built had moved as the sea had claimed their house. 

People say costal erosion intensified ever since Cyclone Ockhi struck in 2017. Then came other disasters and torrential monsoon showers in quick succession.

“When cyclone Tauktae struck last year, the waves stormed the walls of our house. We ran for cover before we were swept away with everything else. The house is all cracked up now,” says Mary K.A., a 60-year-old resident of the Bazar area, from her house that has been fortified with sandbags and resembled more like a bunker.

A quarter century ago, the sea was at a distance from the shore and it was a pleasure for her as a newlywed to spend the evenings at the seaside.  

“We used to play football there as recently as 14 years back,” says Naiju T.J., her son. But Antony T.X., 66, wasn’t as lucky as Mary. When cyclone Tauktae left Mary’s home bruised, it pulled down the one in which he lived, forcing him to rent a house at Thoppumpady at an unaffordable rate.