Wednesday, January 5 2005 15:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Nagapattinam (TN) : The 447-year-old famous dargah in Nagore, which provided shelter to over 5,000 people immediately after the December 26 Tsunami devastation, continues to feed around 1,000 people irrespective of their religion.

While the unprepared district administration was facing an uphill task in providing shelters and relief materials to tsunami victims, the dargah, better known as Hazrat Meera, a Muslim pilgrim centre, came in for rescue immediately after the disaster and provided shelter to over 5,000 people from the nearby coastal villages.

"We have been feeding all the affected victims for the past seven days," Shahul Hameed of the Jamaat said in Nagapattinam.

"We assembled a team of 15 youngsters to feed these victims. Still there are about 1,000 people staying in the dargah and we have been feeding them," he said adding that many organisations were sending relief materials to the dargah.

"For the first two days, the retrieval of bodies were handled almost exclusively by members of the Jamaat and fishermen, who escaped the tsunami fury," he added.

Over 200 dead bodies including around 50 children, brought from the coastal villages were buried in the graveyard of this dargah.

A correspondent, who met some of the people staying in the dargah, felt that they were still haunted by the havoc created by tsunami. A couple of hamlets on the Nagore beachfront were completely wiped out.

Though most of them claimed that they collected money and materials announced by the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, they were expecting the district administration to provide houses and boats.

The victims of the disaster also included some tourists who came to Nagore to visit the dargah and the Nagore beach.

Similar to the Velankanni Church in the district of Nagapattinam, the dargah of Hazarat Meera Sultan Syed Shahabdul Hameed in Nagore, located just four kms to the north of Nagapattinam, is a popular Muslim pilgrim centre.

The dargah is visited by people of all faiths.

The Nagapattinam district was the worst hit by tsunami in Tamil Nadu with around 6,000 dead. The backbone of the district's economy is constituted by agriculture, fishing and tourism. All these have been badly affected by the tsunami.

Fishermen account for 25 per cent of the district's population and fish and fisheries exports valued at around Rs 2,500 crore during 2002-03.

According to a preliminary assessment, the total damage to fishing sector alone was around Rs 500 crore, including the property, boats and nets.

However, the officials were still assessing the damage and the final estimate is expected to be handed over to the team from the Central Government, which is currently on a visit to the affected areas.