Impact of tsunami on aquaculture farms along the nagapattinam coast zone,Tamil Nadu,India

The tsunami waves triggered by underwater earthquake with a focal depth of 30 km near the Sumatra Island distressed the entire coast of Tamil Nadu. The worst affected coastal region is Nagapattinam, particularly from Nagoore to Vailankanni. The impact of tsunami had multidimensional effect, killing most of the fishermen communities, devastating the coastal huts and damaging the coastal aquaculture resources. The present study has been carried out to find the impact of tsunami on the aquaculture small farmland owners along the coast using pre (December 18, 2004) and post January 6, 2005) IRS P6 data. The study includes the extent of damage caused to the farms by saltwater intrusion; sand inundation, total destruction of farms. The results indicate that, there have been incredible damage caused to the farmers beyond recovery in short span of time.