CHENNAI: A recent study on the impact of the tsunamis on non-marine fishing livelihoods has revealed that relief amount sanctioned for fishermen was far more than estimated damage.

According to the study, while the damage to fishing equipment was estimated to be Rs.9,540 million, the amount sanctioned was Rs.10, 707 million. However, in terms of fishing infrastructure, the estimated damage was Rs.326 million more than the relief amount sanctioned. Wetland International, an NGO abroad, had commissioned Hand-in-hand, a Tamilnadu-based NGO, to undertake the survey.

Districts such as Villupuram, Pondicherry, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari were included in the survey. The study broadly looked at aspects such as `Gender analysis of impacts of tsunami', `Socio-economic impacts', `Views, rights and capacities of local communities and community based organisations/institutions with regard to rehabilitation' and `Review of relief and rehabilitation strategies.' The study also observed the effect of the tsunamis on un-irrigated land as well as irrigated land across these districts. The study team comprised a government forest officer, a gender expert, a rural livelihood enterprises management graduate, three agricultural scientists and two administrators.

The deliberations of the study were recently presented at a workshop organised by IIT-Madras and the Society for Social Forestry Research and Development, Tamil Nadu. Among those present were T.T. Narendran, Dean, Industrial Consultance & Sponsored Research wing of IIT-Madras and Shankar Narasimhan, Coordinator, Rural Technologies Application Group.

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