Sorry state of Silver Beach.

The Silver Beach is one of the solace for the residents of Cuddalore to get a breathe of fresh air. It had a scenic beauty to enthral the visitors. Many people enjoy their morning walk on the sands of this beach.
But, those are going to be a history. Now, the reality is different.
The beach is full of rubbish. It is difficult to find an area of sand free from rubbish. Its highly nauseating. Though the beach is prohibited of plastic, one can see much of plastic generated out of the hawkers doing business here.
This beach is generating good income in terms of vehicle parking fees (Rs.5 per two wheeler). On a weekend, more than 400 two wheelers find their way to this parking area. Moreover, not less than 20 cars get to be parked here. A part of the income generated from this, if spent on cleaning this beach, will surely pave way to prevent rape of this sand duned beach.

Silver Beach boat house to be renovated

Boat house to be renovated - The Hindu

Staff Reporter

CUDDALORE: The district administration has decided to renovate the boat house on the Silver Beach.

Shortly after inspecting the beach, Cuddalore Collector P. Seetharaman told The Hindu that the administration planned to re-start jolly ride from the beach after renovating the boat house. The ride was stopped after sand accumulated on the boat house, he said.

Sheds at the boat house would be provided sheets that could withstand corrosion, he added.

Silent rallies, prayers mark fourth anniversary

Silent rallies, prayers mark fourth anniversary - The Hindu

Special Correspondent

Families living along the coast performed pujas and paid floral tributes to those who perished in 2004

CUDDALORE: Silent processions and prayers on Friday marked the fourth anniversary of the tsunami, which left a trail of devastation in about 60 coastal villages in Cuddalore and Villupuram districts in 2004.

Families living along the coast performed pujas and paid floral tributes to portraits of those who perished.

At Thevanampattinam, a wreath was placed at the memorial erected in memory of those who were killed.

Several fishermen stayed away from the sea on Friday. While some of them were wearing black bands, some households hoisted black flags.

Children rendered orphans and accommodated at the Seva Illam in Semmandalam here, lit candles and offered prayers.

Collector Rajendra Ratnoo, Cuddalore MLA G. Aiyappan, Municipal Chairman T. Thangarasu and other officials were present. Mr. Aiyappam hosted a lunch for the children.

Three non-governmental organisations - National Consumer Protection Movement, Singaravelar Munnetra Sangam and Cuddalore District Meenavar Peravai - took out silent rallies from the Periyar statue, the Manjakuppam grounds and Thevanampattinam. All of them congregated at the Silver Beach.
Villupuram

In Villupuram, those living along the coast at Koonimedukuppam, Mudaliarkuppam, Panichankuppam, and Pudukuppam offered prayers on the seashore.

Fireworks at Neithal 2008

Ministers at Neithal 2008

Irrespective of the ruling party, summer festival at Silver Beach has always been a state sponsored political meet, where ministers of the ruling party explain the 'achievements' of their ruling government to the people.

Year after year unkept promises unroll. One such is making Silver Beach and thus Cuddalore a 'MAJOR' tourist destination. This is what being said for around past 10 tens years. Putting Cuddalore on state and central government' s tourism maps remains as distant dream.

This time MLA Mr. Iyyappan has promised 10 lakhs for building a permanent stage with sophisticated light and sound setups in the beach. MP Mr. Venkatapathy has promised around the same amount for other developmental activities in the beach.

It is also said a huge sum is spent to rebuild the damaged jetty at Silver Beach boat house.


Related article:
Cultural extravaganza on Silver Beach - The Hindu

Crowd at Neithal 2008

As usual a huge crowd turned out for the festival. Below are photographs of section of crowd.






Owing to huge crowd, some people moved towards the north end of the beach. District administration has a proposal to extend the beach northwards.

This time many lifeguards were present on the beach.

A lifeguard keeps eye on the crowd taking bath

Camel ride at Neithal 2008

Camel ride which was introduced recently in Silver Beach was a major attraction of Neithal 2008. A large number of children took the ride which I hope will a memorable occasion for rest of their life.

Children going for a ride

Video:

Thanks for all those who made this happen.

Sand sculptures at Neithal 2008

Sand sculptures were made in Summer Festival for the third consecutive year. Sculptures this time focused on the "the human and marine life".

According to The Hindu, these sculptures were created by M. Raghunathan and K. Senthilnathan from Two-man Sculptures - an organisation run by these two men.

It would be if a competition is held among the artists in the coming years and if a best sculpture is selected among them. The sculptures can be used to spread environmental awareness. Apart from utilising the local talents, experts in the field can be invited. There are many experts in this field in Orissa. Inviting them will help local artists to get in touch with experts and to acquire new skills.

It would be beneficial for the interested youths, if summer workshop on Sand Sculpture making is conducted every year before the start of the summer festival.

"Dolphins, crabs and shells that surround the human"

Local minister M.R.K Panneerselvam and District Collector Rajendra Ratnoo viewing the sculptures

Related articles:

2007
Fourth day of Silver Beach summer festival - Cuddalore Online

Sand sculpture, a major attraction at beach festival - The Hindu

2006

Sand Sculptures - Cuddalore Online

Neithal 2008

Neithal 2008 - the Summer Festival at Silver Beach has many new add ons this time, making it special. A new Tamil name (Neithal) and a logo is given to the festival this time (although the Tamil name was introduced last year, it was popularized this year). District Collector Mr. Rajendra Ratnoo has taken great efforts to make it a special event.

Folks artists from across the country performed on evenings. Despite the strong winds on the fourth day, a huge crowd witnessed the fast sync beats of Kerala drummers and mesmerising slow sync dance by dancers from Madya Pradesh. This dance performance coupled with flute music was extraordinary. Sitting on the beach sand, their flute music along with cool breeze made me feel like in heaven. Folk performances from different states takes the festival to a whole new height. It is no longer a festival only for locals of Cuddalore. These performance will help the festival get a wider recognition in national media in the years to come. This will also attract foreign tourists since they get a chance to enjoy different dance and music forms of the country from a single place.

Also this time, boat race was conducted. I guess boat race is conducted for the first time. We must thank our collector for these new initiatives.

A child looking at the baby doll in merry-go-round

Until few years ago beach volley ball used to be conducted every year. This was discontinued later. But this time along with beach volleyball few other sports events were also conducted.

Apart from the new events, regular events like healthy baby competition, dog show, sand sculpture making and body building competitions were held.

Elaborate parking arrangements were made. Parking charges were bit high. But if the generated revenue will be used for organising activities of the fest, people can bear this extra charge. Special service buses were introduced to ease the public. Many buses were diverted to beach. Even after completion of the bridge construction at Vanniarpalam, this route (leading straight into Devanapattinam) was left unused for some reason .

A result of good transport arrangements in recent years, there were large number of people from neighboring districts. There were some foreign visitors too. It is interesting to note MP from Cuddalore & Union Minister of State for Law Venkatapathi "likened “Neidhal-2008” to the Indira Vizha of the yore, mentioned in the Tamil classic the “Silappathigaram,” "

Related articles:

All previous articles about Summer Festival from Cuddalore Online

“Taxi, autorickshaw drivers should be tourist ambassadors” - The Hindu

`Neithal' set to enthral young and old alike - The Hindu

Cultural extravaganza on Silver Beach - The Hindu

Timeless motif on the sands of Silver Beach - The Hindu

Summer festival at Silver Beach

The annual summer festival at Silver Beach starts on 28 May 2008. This frolic continues for five days and ends on 1 June 2008.
A feast to the people of Cuddalore...

Floating objects create a flutter in Silver Beach

Floating objects create a flutter - The Hindu

Special Correspondent

CUDDALORE: Three tubular plastic objects found floating in the sea at Silver Beach here caused flutter among the visitors on Monday. The bomb disposal squad reached the spot and seized the objects. After scrutiny the personnel declared the objects non-explosives. On opening the objects, they found thin copper sheets (with certain geometrical patterns and letters inscribed on them) tucked in.

Sea erodes pristine Tamil Nadu beach

Sea erodes pristine Tamil Nadu beach - Thaindian

Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu), May 11 (IANS) Even as deliberations to finalise the draft of a coastal zone management (CZM) are underway, one of its vital issues - seafront erosion - has hit this quiet town, officials said Sunday. Badly mauled by the 2004 Asian tsunami, Cuddalore’s 57 km-long beach, second only to the Marina beach in state capital Chennai, 180 km to the north, is in danger of losing long stretches to the brackish waters, officials told IANS.

Collector Rajendra Ratnoo, presently on holiday in Rajasthan said by phone that he was aware of the problem and “it worried him”.

“Though the relevant files are not in my possession at this point in time, I am worried by this issue. The administration is looking at various options to stop the ’sea’s landward invasion’,” said Ratnoo.

Locals said that sea water had gobbled up Cuddalore’s scenic “Silver Beach” in some places up to 40 metres.

“The water level has increased so much that almost the entire cement-concrete benches lining the beach and the electric lamp-posts are standing in almost two feet of water. In some places water has come inland up to 40 metres. If this goes on, one day our children may be left with no beach to play on,” said K. Rajeshwari, 29, watching her toddlers playing in the sand close to the water.

“The real culprits to be blamed are certain departments of the state and central governments which allowed land reclamation in certain parts here. When man invades the sea, nature always retaliates unpredictably,” said V. Pasupathi, a retired government official pointing to the greenish expanse of the Bay of Bengal.

Acting collector and district revenue officer S. Natarajan said that while the cause for erosion were under investigation, “there is no immediate cause for alarm”.

“This phenomenon probably began during the Nargis weather system that threatened us briefly. As a matter of precaution, we have posted more policemen to prevent bathing during tides. Further, discussions are being held to assess the problem and the methodology to tackle it will be finalised when the collector returns as there is no immediate cause for alarm,” said Natarajan.

Over nine hamlets in the northern suburbs of capital Chennai have already been lost to the sea following reclamation to augment port facilities during the last decade, according to state government’s statistics.

“One solution could be increasing coastal vegetation to protect the seafront. Our study shows very clearly that areas with trees suffered less destruction than areas without trees,” Finn Danielsen, a Denmark based director of the Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology had said in a report co-authored by 13 international scientists drawn from various countries including India and Sri Lanka following the tsunami.

Sea water surges in

Sea water surges in many of the coastal villages in Cuddalore. This has been happening for over a month. As a result, many of the palm and coconut trees in coastal hamlets like Devanampattinam are uprooted and washed away by waves.

Uprooted coconut trees

During the recent new moon day, waves were strong enough to cover half of the sand scape in beach.

As sand in Silver Beach is being eroded away, the cement floor which was laid before tsunami is now visible. Huge crowd gather in beach to see this concrete floor appearing again.

The erosion is more pronounced at the north end of the beach than at the south end. Water has reached till the rows of lamp posts. In a few days time these lamp posts will be washed away by waves. However, local fishermen say this is usual during this time of the year and express hope that the water will recede in a couple of weeks.

Video:

Silver Beach losing its sheen - The Hindu

Silver Beach losing its sheen

A.V. Ragunathan

Steps will be taken to clean up the beach, says official

CUDDALORE: The Silver Beach here is losing its charm and shrinking in dimension. By its soft and white sands and easy accessibility, the beach used to be a major attraction. But of late it has become a victim of neglect and vandalism.

During monsoon the Gedilam and the Pennaiyar are in spate and drain the surpluses into the sea. In the lean season, these rivers carry mostly sullage and industrial effluents. The telltale marks of the polluted seawater can now be witnessed on the Silver Beach. The sands have turned revoltingly black and with garbage strewn all over the beach is not any better than a dumping yard.

After the dredging of the backwater, the sand expanse has been minimised, just leaving narrow space for the tourists. The row of colourful benches on the sea front was now dislodged. The swings and slides in the children’s park were all in poor shape.

The stray dog menace is quite frightening. The leftovers such as carry bags, paper plates and other sundry items on the beach remained uncleared for days together.

A makeshift road leading to an adjoining coastal hamlet cuts into the beach and commutation through this stretch is barred with a rope. The high-mast lamps are malfunctioning and the man-made fountain has fallen into disuse.

As the sordid happenings such as drowning occur periodically the beach has become less attractive than ever.

The beautification of the beach done at huge expenditure was a short-lived affair as the tsunami washed away every thing.

Therefore, to erase the bitter memories, the then district administration acted in good time to reconstruct the whole thing with huge outlay. But now, sheer negligence and lack of civic sense have disfigured the beach.

When contacted Cuddalore Municipal commissioner Liaqath Ahmed Papa said the role of the local people was also important in the upkeep of the beach. He said steps would be taken to clean up the beach.

Boat House at Silver Beach

Full resolution version of this image can be found at Cuddalore Online group under Photos>Cuddalore Wallpapers

'Silver Beach' label added to old articles

I have added Silver Beach label to all old articles related to Silver Beach. So by clicking on the Silver Beach label (like the one below) will fetch you all articles having info about the beach.

Silver Beach again in state of despair

To my knowledge, first large scale project on beautification of Silver Beach was carried out by then District Collector Sandeep Saxena. In an attempt to prevent the beach from erosion, district administration planted coconut and palm trees throughout Silver Beach. I wonder how many of you can picturise 'that' beach.

Our beach is undergoing a constant change due to both natural and human induced factors, which is very well visible. The river Gedilam to the south of the beach engulfs a good portion of the beach whenever there is a flood. It forms mouth joining sea almost every year which brings about a drastic change in the shape of the beach. Tsunami has brought in major changes. Many agree the beach was far more beautiful before tsunami.

Next major beautification attempt was made by Gagandeep Singh Bedi. His initiative can roughly be divided as re-tsunami beautification and post-tsunami beautification. I could remember, before tsunami, the beach had chairs laid in beautiful arrangement, were two bamboo watch towers, couple of shops which were entirely made of bamboo and a beautiful boat house. Tsunami. Devastation.

Silver Beach then saw around of beautification. New chairs, new dustbin, new boards requesting visitors to use dust bins and keep the beach clean. Some used dust bin, but beach never was clean.

The dredging activity carried out (probably to accommodate more boats which were donated by aid agencies from around the world. After tsunami, I guess the number of boats now increased by as much as three times) on the southern end of the beach, along the bank of Gedilam. This has brought in a permanent change (if anything can be permanent) in the shape of the beach. The sand scape shrunk dramatically.

Then, the 2005 flood. It is usual that Gedilam breaks into sea whenever there is flood. But this time the river the largest mouth ever seen and the flood water washed away more than half of the beach (probably the dredging activity carried out changed the regular course of the river, and facilitated the water to flow more towards north).

Then came yet another round of beautification by Gagandeep Singh Bedi. New chairs, new dustbins, new boat house and new play materials for children. The chairs and the play materials which we have in the beach today were brought up in this around of beautification.

As days pass by, these facilities becomes unusable due to constant mishandling by public. Adults use swings and multiaction play systems which supposed only for children. A broad in front of this play area reads that the facility is only for children. Not many bothers. The result is what you see in the photos below.

Multiaction play system

Photographs: Shantha Kumar

Historic return

Arrival of two ships at Cuddalore Port marks an important moment in the history of the town. Cuddalore Port at Cuddalore Old Town is a natural harbor, used for more than 400 years by European settlers. The port was developed by English early in the 20th century. Earlier it was used by EID(East India Distilleries) Parry. Later after independence it was developed into a general purpose port. In 1960's and 70's the port was one of the busiest port in India, but the activity slowed down there after, and came to a complete halt on early 90's. Unavailability of cheap laborers and silt formation are considered to be the main reasons behind the fall of the port.

Cuddalore Port is now a minor port. Various proposals were made for the development of the port in the past decade. But none of them were implemented. Now the port is being deepened at the cost of Rs. 14.41 crores, with financial assistance from Asian Development Bank. Couple of weeks back two vessels carrying fertilizers arrived at the port. Once the desilting work is over, the facilities will be used in full capacity and would lead to the development of the region.

Ships as seen from Silver Beach

Related links:

Cargo vessel at Cuddalore port after 12 years - The Hindu

Renovation of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam ports will be completed by June - The Hindu

Port gets a new lease of life - The Hindu

Proactive District Administration

Many of the readers of this blog might be aware that a couple of weeks back we posted an article about the quality of drinking water supplied on municipal water taps . District Collector Mr. Rajendra Ratnoo responded to this post and invited us to participate in the Water Supply Board Meeting held on Monday (December 17) at Collector's Camp Office.

Water Supply Board Meeting at Collector's Camp Office.

I have attended the meeting . In the meeting, District Collector discussed about this issue with the officials from Water Supply Board and instructed them to take water samples and send him the results.

Details discussed/conveyed at the meeting:

A project at the cost of Rs. 4.63 crores to improve the quality of water is in progress. Once this is implemented the drinking water quality will improve to a greater extent.

In another initiative, district administration has distributed 360 water testing kits to village panchayats. Administration will train five people for every testing kit. 15 parameters are checked using these kits. This will enable the people themselves to check the quality of water.

These initiatives are taken to ensure the water quality in addition to the already existing procedure in which TWAD (Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage) Board submits a detailed report on water quality. This report which is submitted every 15 days to the District Collector contains details of the 19 parameters of the drinking water.

We have posted an article Is Silver Beach a Plastic Free Zone ?, in the month of July which pointed out the usage of plastic materials by shop keepers in Silver Beach, despite the beach had been declared a 'Plastic Free Zone'. In response to this article District Collector had assured of necessary action. Accordingly, on Sunday (December 16) plastic materials used there were removed and shop keepers at Silver Beach were instructed not to use any plastic material in their business.

We hereby take this opportunity to thank District Collector Mr. Rajendra Ratnoo, for showing great interest in serving public by taking immediate action on the issues reported in this blog.

Will we get back the green spread ?

Until a couple of years back the vast open ground in front of Periyar Arts College in Devanampattinam had a beautiful green spread. It was nice to see the children playing in groups, flying kites and to see cows grazing on still afternoons. This natural green spread used to be such a treat for the eyes, especially during the post monsoon season.

This changed soon after tsunami stuck the coast. Nearly one fourth of the area is filled with sand after tsunami. Off course we don't have any control over this. But what really spoiled the rest of the place in the so called 'development' .

A new hostel was built in this ground with long perimeter wall. A new road was laid to the old hostel cutting this ground into two halves.

The new hostel - built to the east of the existing hostel

New road to the old hostel

This place was also used for preparing cement concrete blocks for Government of Rajasthan's Tsunami Rehabilitation Program. Bricks prepared here were transport to various parts of the district to built houses for tsunami affected. Now the project is over. But the debris are yet to be cleared.

Construction debris left behind left behind by Avas Vikas Limited

Newest 'development' is, something like a restaurant is built covering a good portion of the ground.

Construction of new restaurant at Silver Beach

It is good to see more hostels coming up students, new recreational spots of people in town and any other kind of development. But in the mean time we should understand the importance of open spaces in urban areas, and the important role it plays in the development of a healthy community, and conserve it before we lose all.

Note: Some of the photographs were taken about an year back.