Buckingham canal buffered tsunami fury
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The canal regulated the killer waves on the coastal region from Pedda Ganjam to Chennai
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UNSUNG HERO: The canal helped save the lives of several fishermen living in coastal Andhra Pradesh and Chennai — Photo: K. MANIKANDAN
HERE IS an example of the outcast zero turning hero — one saving lives while the Page Three gentry was wringing hands in despair. The much-neglected and abused Buckingham canal rose to the occasion and stood up to the fury of the December 26 tsunami on the Coromandel coast.
In a notable paper in the 10 July issue of the journal Current Science, Dr. B. Ramalingeswara Rao of the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad reports on how this canal saved the lives of thousands of fishermen living on the Andhra coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Lives saved
He writes: "The recent tsunami did not engulf their houses or huts at elevated patches, because the tsunami waves drifted away towards the existing low-lying creeks at several places. Thus, the Buckingham canal acted as a buffer zone and regulated the tsunami waves on the coastal region over nearly 310 km from Pedda Ganjam to Chennai.
The canal ... all along the east coast was filled with tsunami water, which overflowed at a few places and receded back to sea within 10-15 min. This helped save the lives of several fishermen, especially in coastal Andhra Pradesh and parts of Chennai city and also helped in clearing of the aquaculture debris. The natural growth of vegetation on either side of the canal ... has had an effect in tsunami mitigation; for example in Vakadu Mandal at villages like Pudikappam, Srinivasapuram and Tudipalem, the damages were minimal".
Thank you, Buckingham Canal! This, of course, is not the first time you have come to the rescue of people!
Great traffic route
Readers might recall that it was built as a salt water navigation canal by the colonials in 1806, first from Chennai to Ennore, then extended north 40 km to Pulicat Lake. Taken over by the government of Madras Presidency in 1837, it was extended north by 315 km along the Coromandel Coast to Peddaganjam, on the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh, and also extended 103 km south of Chennai to Marakkanam, north of Pondicherry. Running about 1 km back along the coastline, it was an excellent traffic route, ferrying goods and people up and down the coast. Mr. V. Sundaram writes in the 23 April issue of News Today on how it helped feed thousands of people, in Madras and elsewhere, during a severe famine that ravaged south India between 1876 and 1878.
It was the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (a descendant of Britain's William the Conqueror), who as Governor of Madras in 1875, ordered to bring 500,000 bags of rice from Orissa to Madras using the canal.
In order to do so, it was he who got the canal extended by 267 miles from Peddaganjam down to Marakkanam, spending a sum of 30 lakh rupees (22 of which went for labour alone). Hence the name Buckingham canal.
Incidentally, this was not the only inland waterway that the British built in India. Canals in the Yamuna, Ganges and Indus valleys were built, making the Indus Valley the largest irrigated land area in the world.
The canals in the Punjab led this region to become the granary of India.
The Rohilkhand Four System canals in the Terai region, the 755 mile-long Agra Irrigation Works, the canals around the mouths of Kaveri, Krishna and Godavari, the Mahanandi canals at Cuttack and the Hoogly river canals down Calcutta are all the gifts of the Raj. (I use the word gifts with circumspection, being reminded of the reaction to Prime Minister Singh's speech at Oxford).
From 1880 until 1940, the Buckingham canal served as a beautiful waterway for cheap passenger and cargo traffic. After 1947, its use declined until it was stopped in 1965 following the cyclone damage of moorings within Madras.
Trade virtually ceased after the 1976 cyclone. Today, it has turned into a drainage canal, carrying deadly and toxic effluents, a pathetic and insulting legacy of the dream child of the Duke of Buckingham, as Gautam Ghosh describes in the 17 December 2001 issue of The Hindu. Just a few meaningful and committed steps by the government can set things right. Let us hope the heroic role played by this Cinderella of our canals might wake the authorities up. A few hundred crores of Rupees can revitalise the stinking sewerage way into a pleasant navigation route for people and produce in these energy-stricken days.
Dr. Ramalingeswara Rao writes further in his Current Science paper that casuarinas, mangroves and coconut plantations along the coast too helped save thousands of fisherman.
Indeed the role of mangroves in saving the coastline, promoting marine biodiversity and protecting against tsunamis, cyclones and related furies of nature has been highlighted by the sustained efforts of the Swaminathan Research Foundation.
Mangroves as shields
Dr. Swaminathan has pointed out how mangroves acted as shields, attenuating and even stopping the onslaught of the December tsunami.
The recent deluge of Mumbai brought home the direct consequences of having destroyed mangroves and coastal vegetation in the name of reclamation. Will we learn a lesson at least now, and renew mangroves? That would be the best 80th birthday gift we can give Dr. Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan.
D. Balasubramanian
dbala@lvpei.org
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