Vanavanmahadevi

Vanavanmadevi is a fishing village in Vellepallam panchayat of Thalanayar block of Nagapattinam district. The fishing village has about 250 households.

Most of the coastal villages were literally in neck-deep waters due to seawater inundation. the fishers felt it was worse than a tsunami. Small scale fibre boats, engines and nets were thrown off to the sides and smashed up against houses. Many boats are now missing, broken beyond measure or damaged to varying degrees. Some boats were thrown off more than 3 kms away to coastal forest tracts. Casurina forests, which were themselves bent and damaged, were almost covered by a boundary of boats smashed and lined up against them. Over 70 small boats are either damaged or missing.

Here too, most of the village is in a community hall which functions as a makeshift relief camp. Till the 20th of Nov, they remained inaccessible to outside teams. The women have used up the stocks of rice, pulses and vegetables kept in the PDS shop as well as the Anganwadi and have organised community kitchen for the entire village. But they need fresh supplies. 

Drinking water sources are scarce and most are now dependent on the water bottles given by relief teams.

Boats thrown into casurina forests at the edge of the village as on 21/11/2018

Houses damaged, and rubble not cleared as on 21/11/2018

Community Kitchen at relief camp in Vanavanmahadevi. Even in times of disaster emergencies, cooking is still considered women's role. This is entirely voluntary work