Monsoons add grief to fishermen

Cuddalore: Rows of new shining fibre boats sit on the beach. The hapless fishermen look agonisingly at the rough sea.

Less than a year after the devastating tsunami, the worst monsoon rains and floods in 100 years have hit southern Tamil Nadu state, slowing recovery efforts and stamping on morale.

"It's nature's second blow to us," says Natrajan, a fisherman in Cuddalore district.

The heavy downpours began in October, ending five years of drought in Tamil Nadu, but the water seems to be chasing millions of people along the coastline, compounding their misery when they're already struggling to overcome the trauma of last year's disaster.

The tsunami killed 648 people in Cuddalore.

The official death toll across India was 10,749. Another 5,640 people, mostly in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, are listed as missing and presumed dead.

The tsunami also sucked away the fishermen's boats and nets and destroyed their homes, leaving thousands with nowhere to live and no means of working.

After sitting idle for four months, the Cuddalore fishermen received 1,500 new reinforced plastic and wooden boats from aid agencies.

At first, their catches were good, even beyond the pre-tsunami yield, says Gagandeep Singh Bedi, the top district official. But for the past two and a half months, the catch has been extremely small because heavy rain and storms have kept the fishermen on land.

The fishermen are hoping that the January-March season, which often brings expensive seafoods, will mean good profits from exports to Europe.

But for now they are just waiting out the rain.