The story so far: Over the past few years, Chellanam, an idyllic coastal village in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, would unfailingly hit the headlines during the monsoons for massive sea incursion and widespread destruction of homes. However, this monsoon, despite heavy spells of rain lashing Ernakulam district from May, Chellanam has remained largely unaffected thanks to the construction of a new tetrapod-based seawall.
What used to happen before?
Earlier, the conventional seawall of Chellanam failed to check sea ingress which resulted in massive ruin and destruction. This triggered one of the longest-running protest campaigns, which is now well past 1,000 days, demanding a permanent solution. Coastal erosion, which intensified after Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 further worsened with Cyclone Tauktae last year, leaving many residents in relief camps for extended periods. Since then, many of them chose to either seek rented accommodation for shorter durations or relocate forever by selling off their small holdings under the State Fisheries Department’s Punargeham project in the face of periodic onslaught by the sea which rendered their homes uninhabitable.
