Sunday, January 2 2005 15:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Nagapattinam (TN): People in Nagapattinam are yet to live down their traumatic experience even a week after the Tsunami struck this coastal district of South Tamil Nadu and refuse to return to their villages.

Over 85,000 people had been accommodated in the 98 relief camps, set up by the administration along the 200 km long coastal belt in the district and most of them are housed in schools, closed for Christmas vacation.

With the schools scheduled to reopen soon, the administration has to find an alternative place to accommodate this huge number of people. One alternative is to house these people in cyclone relief centres but they refuse to leave as these centres are located along the coast, fearing another Tsunami strike.

"We had seen natural calamities in the past like cyclones and torrential rains. But for the first time, we are experiencing Tsunami. We have seen tidal waves in 1964, but then it did not affect us. It had wiped off Danushkodi from the map then," Rengarajan, a 70-year-old farmer said.

Even though the district was limping back to normal, it would take some time for the residents to undertake their day-to-day activities.

The district's economy has been ruined by the Tsunami. Farmers and fishermen, who account for 80 per cent of over 14 lakh population, have been affected.

Beach sand had entered into over two lakh acres of arable land and it would be an uphill task for the administration to bring them under cultivation for at least another two years.