Once fertile village on brink of abandonment

S M Arun
First Published : 03 Oct 2009 04:42:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 03 Oct 2009 09:39:43 AM IST

THOOTHUKUDI: The parched twin villages of Melaramarayarpuram and Keelaramarayarpuram in Thoothukudi district were once high yielding fertile lands rich with paddy, maize and millet cultivation. Of the two, Keelaramarayarpuram is already deserted and Melaramarayarpuram is on the brink of abandonment due to absence of basic amenities.

J Prabakar of SINFPAD, that conducted a study on these villages, told Express that around 150 families belonging to THE Vaathirayar community (Scheduled caste) inhabited these villages for six generations right from the zamindari period.

“Melaramarayarpuram presently has a population of eight persons (2 men and 6 women) and they are all ready to abandon the village due to absence of basic amenities in the village”, said Prabakar. The village’s name ‘Keelaramarayarpuram’ was last spotted in the government records in 1995, he added.

Jeyapaul, one of the eight inhabitants of Melaramarayarpuram told this reporter that the migration started 30 years ago as the place was found to be inauspicious.

“Failure in seasonal rainfall and low ground water level forced the people to abandon agriculture and migrate to other places”, he added.

Melaramarayarpuram now has two families, that of Jeyapal and Amirthakani.

The nearest shop in sight is at Vembar, 3km away from the village. Jeyapaul has founded a committee called ‘Village Development Committee’ with the support of other migrants and is trying to rejuvenate the village.

“Though the government is working on developing the villages through the Five Year plans and also through the Anna Marumalarchi Thittam, it is unfortunate that the twin villages have not benefited by any schemes”, said Prabakar. He added that the situation arose in these villages because of the complete absence of basic amenities. He emphasized that the government should provide alternative housing for these last eight inhabitants at least, as bringing the village back to life is practically impossible

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SINFPAD-SIEMENPPU - Global Warming Project Implementation Plan –Partners Meet

A meeting of the SINFPAD partners was held on 27.1.2009 from 10.30 am to 5.00 pm at VMMK (Virutcham Mahalir Munnetra Kazhakam) in its office at Virdunagar. It is a practice followed by SINFPAD to organize the partners meet at different places. Mr. Rajendra Prasad moved a condolence resolution for the sudden demise of Mr. Xavier and Mr.Suresh Dharma and recollected their contribution for grassroots development. Mrs. K.Vijaya, Secretary, VMMK welcomed the partners. Mr. Rajendra Prasad and Mr. Prabakaran, Coordinator, SINFPAD explained the purpose of the meeting i.e. to discuss about the project implementation plan of Global Warming Study sanctioned by Siemenppu. ORSED (Organization for Social and Environmental Development) Staff, technical consultants of the study, were also participated.

Agenda for the meeting 1. Orienting the project 2.Discussion & finalization of project implementation 3.Resource allocation & Management 4.Formation of management committees 5.Finalization of district level coordination system 6.Evolving a reporting system 7. Other items Social Action Movement (SAM) Tamilnadu Conference 17-19.2.2009 at Dindugal-Membership & Participation

Before going into the logistics of project implementation, ORSED (Organization for Social and Environmental Development) Director. Mr. V. Pugazhendhi explained about Global Warming and its consequences. He touched several issues related to the climate change especially the south west and north east monsoons and its consequences for agriculture and fisheries in Tamilnadu.

In the afternoon PIP was discussed. A core committee consisting of 5 members to manage the finances and activities related to the study and 9 district level convenors were selected to carryout the study at each district. If a district represents more than one partner, one partner was identified to take up the overall responsibility.

A four days training was finalized during 20-24 Feb.2009 and the partners were requested to depute more than one staff to attend the training in order to build grass root capacity to handle global warming & environmental related issues in future. It was decided to organize core committee meetings once in every month or as when needed. Prof. S.Rengasamy, (Hon. Chairman, PAD) was asked to coordinate the study.

Core Committee for the study 1.Prof. S.Rengasamy (Hon. Chairman, PAD Coordinator for the Study) 2.Mr. Gnanasurabimanai, RCPED, Madurai 3.Ms. K.Vijaya, VMMK, Virudunagar 4.Mr. J.Elangao, ODAM,Tiruchuli 5.Mr. K.Joseph Xavier Raj, PAGE, Sivagangai District Conveners for the study 1.Madurai District - Mr. R.M. Sundarasekar, RDS 2.Dindigul District - Mr. A. Rajasamsaon, SPRIT 3.Theni District - Mr. Gurunathan, SARVOTHAYA 4.Sivagangai District - Mr. K. Joseph Xavier Raj, PAGE 5.Ramanathapuram District - Mr. D.R. Chandran, IRWO 6.Virudhunagar District - Mr. P. Rajagopal, NEEDS 7.Thoothukudi District - Mr. F.X.R. George, SEDCO 8.Thirunelveli District - Mr.S. Nadesan, CPE 9.Kanyakumari District - Mrs. S. Jansi, PURA

SINFPAD - (Southern Initiative NGO Forum for People’s Action & Development)

Whatever may be the meaning of net work, for Rajendra Prasad who initiated SINFPAD (Southern Initiative NGO Forum for People’s Action and Development), net working means, “a companion of persons from different NGOs on equal and friendly terms, frequent and familiar intercourse- it means winning together”. Prof. S. Rengasamy, a well wisher and long time associate of Mr. Rajendra Prasad recalls, “even when Rajan and PAD had little resources to spare for activities other than budgeted, Rajan was interested in networking and supporting other NGOs. It was this positive attitude that made him to think of taking a largest delegation to World Social Forum (WSF) 2004 Mumbai. There were 64 delegates. Only big NGOs can manage this type of responsibility. Rajan has mobilized resources based on a theme i.e. “commercialization of water resources”. Together with the partner NGOs, we made a serious study on Tamiraparani River and prepared a concept paper to be presented at WSF Mumbai. Thanks to Hivos and Siemenpuu, with their financial support, WSF-2004, Mumbai has become a possibility for several field workers who even had not crossed their district border. The SINFPAD delegation had made their presence to be felt in the Mumbai WSF. Thanks to all the partners, especially Jeevan Kumar & Venkatachalapathy,ATWT, Tuticorin, whose enthusiasm was limitless”.

The solidarity has grown and SINFPAD has sustained. For reasons beyond the control of Rajan and SINFPAD partners, the net work was unable to mobilize resources for its activities as a separate entity. But Rajan and the partners never lost hope. SINFPAD partners were regularly meeting and sharing their experiences constructively.

It was always Rajan's wish to expose the smaller grass root level NGOs to international development experience, again made him to plan for WSF 2007 Nairobi. Kenya. There were 13 delegates, majority of them were first time boarding on a flight flying to other country. I have to tell all these things because, I myself experienced the positive psychological impact of such visits. Though it is a small delegation they made their presence felt by others- organizing cultural programs and seminars. It is usual in WSF that many of the scheduled programs cancelled due to lack of participation. But SINFPAD seminar was attended by more than 50 international participants- a success by any standard. SINFPAD thankfully acknowledges the support given by Siemenpuu to make WSF 2007 possible to smaller grass root NGOs.

Again thanks to Siemenpuu, SINFPAD has some concrete Plan of Action - to study the impact of Global Warming in the southern districts of Tamilnadu, which comprises 25% of the Tamilnadu population (roughly about 17 millions). This two years study will definitely channelize the energies of the network and it is hoped that at the end of the study SINFPAD will come out with insights that will be appreciated not only by Siemenppu but also by others. SINFPAD is confident of the outcome of this study, because SINFPAD represent the wisdom of the ordinary people who always do extraordinary things.

For more about SINFPAD and its partners >>>>>>>

Thank You Siemenpuu

Siemenpuu Foundation has sanctioned a research study for SINFPAD, an NGO network,initiated by PAD (People's Action for Development, Vembar) to monitor and to suggest measures to mitigate the impacts of the Global Warming in Agriculture and Fisheries in the Southern Districts of Tamilnadu, India.The study will be undertaken during 01/2009 - 12/2010. The support is timely and will enable grass root NGOs to think and work to evolve sustainable strategies to mitigate the impact of global warming.The core strength of this network is its participatory approach and the study design incorporates people's participatory geo information system (PPGIS) to understand the problem as well as to suggest measures to address it. The study will be conducted in collaboration with several grass roots NGOs working in areas ranging from child centered community development to sustainable livelihood promotion. It is expected that the study will generate insights which will be worth considering in evolving practical policy solutions. This blog will be used to share the research experiences of the team involved in this study.

The study will be carried out in the following southern districts (with a population of 15 millions which is higher than several countries in the world) of Tamilnadu

1.Dindigul [A] [B] 2.Kanyakumari [A] [B] 3.Madurai [A] [B]

4.Ramanathapuram [A] [B] 5.Sivaganga [A] [B] 6.Theni [A] [B]

7.Thoothukudi [B] 8.Tirunelveli [A] [B] 9.Virudhunagar [A] [B]

*Click on the district name to know more about the district from Wikipedia. [A] will take you to the official website [B] will take you to the Tamil website

The study will focus on the following areas

1. Collection of Data on the Climatic Conditions of the Project Area.
2. Collection of Data on the Weather events for the required periods.
3. Collection of the Hydrological Data including the Data on the Water Resources.
4. Collection of the Social Data of the project Area.
5. Collection of data on the Impacts of the natural disasters in the project area.
6. Collection of the Agricultural Data of the project area with high significance to the Agricultural Economics.
7. Collection of Data on the Fishing aspects and their related economics.
8. Data Processing.
9. Report writing

Useful links

Global Warming in India

Effects of Global Warming
Global Warming and Agriculture
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Population of Tamilnadu & Project Area population