Losing the edge to sea: village in Andhra Pradesh falls prey to coast erosion Premium
The Hindu
Over the last 30 years, coconut and casuarina plantations in over 1,000 acres have been lost to sea erosion in Chinna Gollapalem, a coastal village of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh. While the people here believe that regular desilting at the two channels of the Upputeru river that border the village can mitigate the problem, experts point at more complex issues that mar the coast here
Every time there is a cyclone warning, fear and anxiety begin to take root in her, rising and ebbing, just as the waves crash that the shore, not more than a kilometer away from her own house.
Chellaboyina Venkata Lakshmi, a homemaker, is not new here. It has been 30 years since she came to Chinna Gollapalem, a remote village in the Kruthivennu mandal of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh.
A lingering fear of the uncertainty takes over her heart as she wonders if the sea is advancing into the land. While she says the sea has not harmed the people here at any time, she cannot yet dismiss the possibility of it doing so in the future.
“The sea is Gangamma (Goddess Ganga) for us. We are not scared of the sea. But water is extremely powerful. If Her (Gangamma) will be, our whole village will be under the water in no time,” says Venkata Lakshmi. Her husband is a daily wage labourer, and her two sons are employed; one is in Hyderabad and the other lives with them.
Other women and a few men in the village second her contradictory statements about the sea being harmless and the possibility of it destroying their houses. There is a reason for that.
The village sarpanch Penumala Sunil says coconut, cashew and casuarina trees have been eroded gradually by the sea for a long time now, most of them only in the past 16 years.
Experts say two factors contribute to erosion here: wave activity and land subsidence.
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