Silence filled the air as a few men mended fishing nets against the backdrop of damaged boats. Sunlight streamed through the roofless makeshift shelters under which anxious women sat. “I renovated my shop that sells ice to fishermen a month ago by shelling out Rs 1.5 lakh I had borrowed. But the severe cyclonic storm did not spare even the ceiling fan,” a visibly shattered Udhaya said. Local fishermen described Cyclone Vardah, Which made landfall near Kasimedu on Monday , as a ‘mini tsunami’ that rent their thatched huts and fishing boats. The otherwise busy harbour had hardly any fishing activity on Wednesday as most fishermen kept off the sea. “We could not venture into the sea for a few days before the cyclone and most of us still have not resumed routine work,” R Kirubakaran, a fisherman from Amarajapuram at Kasimedu said. According to him, anywhere between 60 and 70 boats were partially damaged, while at least 10 were wrecked. “On an average, we earn around `2,000 a day . But there’s no source of income now,” Kirubakaran said. Thousands of fishermen and those engaged in allied activities depend on the harbour for their livelihood. Business at the Kasimedu fishing market has been badly hit. The catch has dropped considerably -and so have prices. Seer fish sold at `450kg and the price of other fish dropped. “We had few traders visiting the market. The rates have been slashed,” a fisherman said. Fishermen depending on fibre boats are the worst affected. “We are forced to borrow from moneylenders at high interest rates,” J Shankar secretary of Chennai Fibre Boat Workers Welfare Federation said. “The government must offer us assistance to repair our oats,” Shankar said.
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