Tamil Nadu - Cuddalore   

Cuddalore floods — a historical perspective

A.V. Ragunathan

Evidence shows the town is no stranger to `cyclones'

CUDDALORE: That Cuddalore is no stranger to storms and floods is borne out by historical evidence dating back to the 16th Century. Periodically, the erstwhile South Arcot district was battered by "hurricanes and tornadoes" causing heavy damage to the property of the English colonists as well as the local community.

The earliest instance, of which particulars survive (as per the South Arcot District authored by Francis and published in 1906), is that of November 10, 1681 when a hurricane lashed Porto Novo for three days, breaking quite a number of vessels (fishing craft) and forcing the people to flee the place for safety.

Again, an English expedition camping near Porto Novo was struck by a hurricane on April 13, 1749, in which the tents were blown to rags, many of the horses and draught bullocks were killed and all the food stock was damaged. The forces had to move into the interior land for recouping the losses.

Sinking of ships

The fleet of ships that accompanied the expedition too came to harm: two of the East India Company's ships were stranded between Cuddalore and Fort St. David (located on the seashore of Cuddalore but demolished later).

"The Apollo," a ship having medical facilities, was lost with all its crew, and "The Pembroke," a 60-gun ship was wrecked and only six of its crew were saved. The British Navy's 74-gun ship named "The Namur" went down with 750 men.

Another hurricane of great intensity broke on the coast on October 31, 1752, bringing continuous rainfall for several days, forcing the English troops to seek shelter in Fort St. David.

When the British were besieging Pondicherry (a French territory), a gale of great intensity struck on December 30, 1760. As a result three ships, "The Duke of Aquitaine, The Sunderland and The Duke" went down the sea, and with them perished 1,100 Europeans, and only seven persons could survive.

Such disasters occurred in the following years too: on October 15, 1782 a cyclone hit the coastal district and sank 100 craft laden with 30,000 bags of rice.

In 1795 a hurricane swept over the district causing immense damage to crops; in 1853 seven vessels and many native craft were wrecked between Cuddalore and Porto Novo; and in the 1871 cyclone a large steamer, "The Yeddo" got stranded in the Coleroon shoal, but it was rescued without much damage.

These storms in their wake invariably brought floods in the Coleroon, the Gedilam, the Ponnaiyar (now popularly known as the Pennaiyar), and the Vellar, thereby causing breaches in irrigation sources, breaking bridges and disrupting normal life.

The Gedilam that was in spate on October 19,1864 swept away eight of 20 spans of the bridge linking Manjakuppam and Thirupadiripuliyur, thereby flooding the Manjakuppam maidan and claiming the lives of two women. The floods breached the Perumal tank and the Wallajah tank, and 60 smaller tanks.

On November 21,1880 the floods in the Coleroon caused the Vadavar breach, thus making the area from Lalpet to Mannargudi one sheet of running water. Thanks to the breach, the Veeranam tank that was otherwise in grave danger was spared.

Ever since, flood havocs have become a regular occurrence in the district.

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