A little more than two weeks after the intense cyclone Ockhi hit the coastal regions of southern India, fisher folk are still trying hard to recover from the shock, devastation and loss. The cyclone Ockhi which originated as a low pressure in the Gulf of Thailand, traversed its way through the Bay of Bengal, intensifying between Sri Lanka and Kanyakumari, before changing its path and hitting coastal regions of southern India and causing far more damage than the Tsunami in 2004.

Yesterday,  Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited families of the fishermen who lost their lives. Though his visit was a tad bit late, the fishermen do hope he would accelerate the search and rescue operations. The life and livelihood of hundreds of fisher folk have been affected beyond imagination. Government aid needs to be provided and urgently, for the fisher folk to be able to revive their livelihood and seek some solace and normalcy after the devastation.

The streets of Poonthura and many such fishing villages still wear a mournful look, with posters of fishermen both missing and dead in the corners of every street. The grief of losing loved ones clubbed with financial pressures, are wrecking the lives of people here. Each person in these villages has their own story of loss, while the undercurrent in all their voices is one of deep sorrow and above all intense fear. The sea, which is their source of income and the basis of their life, the sea, that was second home to them all, now seems terrify them. The women spend their nights in dread when their men are at sea. It would be a very long time before they overcome this trauma and fear.