Building up livelihoods after disasters

Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu

The district of Nagapattinam, in Tamil Nadu, was one of the worst affected areas in India by the Tsunami.  Over 6,000 people died and almost 200,000 were evacuated in this district, from a total population of 1.5 million.  Material losses were also huge for the 38 villages affected: 12,821 cattle were lost, 5,114 Ha of land damaged and 8,774 fishing boats destroyed.

By mid 2006, it is estimated that 70 percent of the houses destroyed in India’s mainland are replaced.1   The boats lost have also been replaced and capacity of the fleet has actually increased, with risk of overfishing.  A substantial part of the agricultural land affected has been treated for salinity.

The disaster has hit poor people the hardest: 40 percent of the population in the affected areas may have been bellow the poverty line and about a third would be from the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes 2.

Livelihoods

Fishing is the main economic activity of the affected communities.  However, overexploitation of the fishing resources was already a reality before the Tsunami and the reconstruction efforts have actually increased the capacity of the fishing fleet, aggravating the problem.

Agriculture and livestock were less important as an economic activity, but the loss of standing crops and death of livestock may have had a disproportionate effect on the livelihoods of women and disadvantaged groups.  The salinity of the lands affected will have medium term impact on agriculture productivity.

Estimated livelihood patterns in affected households in Tamil Nadu

Source: “India Post Tsunami Recovery Program Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment”; Asian Development Bank/United Nations/World Bank, New Delhi, India. March 8, 2005

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Related links:

Nagapattinam District official web site
Nagapattinam NGO Coordination and Resource Centre
Tamil Nadu Tsunami Resource Centre
UN Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery