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Building livelihoods

Annie George, CEO of Nagapattinam-based Bedroc, talks about the work she does to give a firm foundation to the lives of the people in the district.

.....Read on!

There is no stopping her as she goes into details about the lives of the people in Nagapattinam and the various initiatives of Bedroc. Her expertise and enthusiasm for her job and her empathy for the people are evident as she talks about the first milk cooperative they set up in the district (“there, I show my Anand education”), the efforts to see if agricultural produce from Nagapattinam could be sold in Kerala markets, the desire to learn more about the indigenous crops in the district that old-timers remember were flood- and drought-resistant and so on. “Instead of generalised solutions, we have to think locally to help the people cope with the unique geographical and weather conditions of Nagapattinam,” she adds.

LATEST NEWSLETTER

TRINet Newsletter: May 2012

 
There were two large earthquakes on April 11th quite close to the site of the 2004 earthquake that devastated coastal areas in many countries. The first earthquake was felt in many parts of India - Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore to name but three places. The quakes were expected to spawn tsunamis - but that did not happen, fortunately. This article takes a look at the events that unfolded that day and what are the lessons learnt - the key points are listed here.
·        The last mile connectivity worked extremely well, but thanks mainly to the deep penetration of the mobile service providers.
·        The communities were ready to move or had already started moving away from their coastal habitations even before the local administration gave an evacuation order – some carried gold and valuables but not their ration cards or school certificates!
·        Most of the families who owned “safe houses” constructed after the tsunami, were quite confident about staying on in these “safe houses” and said that, if the wave height was larger, they would go to the terrace. But in the absence of knowledge about wave heights, is this a good response?
·        The 8-hour power cuts in Nagapattinam, cut away most of the communities from getting updated information from the media.
·        The Local Administration swung into quick action after getting the official message from the State Authorities.
 

CYCLONE THANE

 On December 30, 2011, the very severe cyclonic storm Thane made landfall in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu on the east coast of India.  It was the strongest tropical cyclone of 2011 in the North Indian Ocean. It initially developed as a tropical disturbance within the monsoon trough to the west of Indonesia, declared a Depression on December 25, before being declared Cyclonic Storm Thane during the next day. It became a Very Severe Cyclonic storm on December 28 and finally made landfall on December 30, subsequently rapidly weakening into a depression.  The cyclone caused severe damage along the coast disrupting power supplies as well as communication systems and causing loss of standing crop in hundreds of hectares apart from heavy losses in horticultural crops (coconut and cashew) as well as extensive damage in the fisheries sector in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Union Territory.

BEDROC has carried out damage assesments in the district which are available here.

Swayam Shikshan Prayog has carried out a Needs Assessment

An independent NGO survey

More information on Cyclone Thane's impacts are available HERE.

Go here to see Photographs of damages from BEDROC's gallery

For articles appearing in the media, please check the news section. Links to select articles are also provided below.

Cyclone Thane on Wikipedia

Cyclone Thane Dec29.jpg
 
Cyclone fury (Frontline)

Welcome to TRINet

TRINet has transitioned into "The Resource and Information Network: for the coast" from 1st April 2008. Three years after the Indian Ocean tsunami, TRINet's focus has changed from rehabilitation to long term development of the coastal zone. Specifically, TRINet's focus will be on providing information on coastal issues from the perspective of the coastal communities whose livelihoods depend extensively on access to coastal resources.

History: TRINet (originally Tsunami Rehabilitation Information Network), set up in March 2005 in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, served both as a platform for deliberations on the rehab of the coastal communities affected by the tsunami, and as a provider of information on tsunami rehabilitation in the country.

TRINet and BEDROC

Building and Enabling Disaster Resilience of Coastal Communities (BEDROC) is the successor to the Nagapattinam NGO Co-ordination and Resource Centre (NCRC). Click on BEDROC to learn more about its activities and plans.

TRINet is now hosted within Bedroc and is part of Bedroc's Knowledge Centre.

TRINet's mailing address is c/o BEDROC, No. 5 Mettu Bungalow, New Beach Road, Kadambadi, Nagapattinam 611001

To contact us, please write to us at info.trinet@gmail.com