A personal note
The author wishes to thank the many individuals who were
responsible for inducing his intrest in the issue.
Barathidasan, an incorrigible lover of birds, is a friend.
Seeing his agony about the possible plight of thousands of birds that roost in
the Dhanushkodi area of the Rameshwaram Island in the event of SSCP completion,
the author wished to give him a series of counseling sessions that would help
him overcome his mental distress. Preparations for the counseling session
sucked the author into the world of researchers on the Palk bay and have landed
him, at the present time, in this monograph. The counseling sessions are yet to
begin.
Sivakumar, a freelance journalist friend, had raised so
many questions related to the SSCP during the innumarable chats over the last
few months, and these questions had helped the author in his search for the
literatures on the topic.
Duraipandi, a computer programmer friend, challenged the
author (whose hobby happens to be image processing), whether he can develop a
DEM (Digital Elevation Model) for Palk Bay using the hydrographic charts of the
area (used by the many research studies quaoted above). John Childs’s BLACK ART
made that dream a reality. Kudos to John! Thanks to NOAA for the overlay draped
over the DEM. Thanks to Visualization Software LLC for providing 3DEM, a really
great DEM rendering software.
Dr.V.Pugazhenthi, a gold medalist during his undergraduate
years but who had opted to work as a barefoot doctor among the dalit /
fisherfok community at Sadurangapattinam near Kalpakkam, had been communicating
to the author, almost nonstop, the anguish that the SSCP has induced among the
fisherfolk of the east coast. The personal anguish of such a socially dedicated
friend had the effect of changing the otherwise placid personal psychological
environment of the author, into a turbulent one. This turbulence, inturn, set
the pace of this work.
Dr.Prabhu, with his rich experience in data mining in
libraries, simply thrilled the author with his unimaginable skills.
Dr. Balu who has a rich knowledge of the Kodikkarai area,
was kind enough to describe to the author in detail, one rainy evening, the
environment of the area around Kodikkarai.
Dr.Paa, an unparalleled listener, listened to the
presentations of the author over many of his otherwise precious academic hours.
Dr.Markandan, the former Vice Chancellor of Gandhigram
University, was responsible for changing the author into a devotee of Acharya
Vinoba Bhave, Bagavan Kabir and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He helped the author,
once again, with the ‘abstracts of the proceedings of the National Seminar on
Ecological Balance and Sethusamudram Canal’ held at the Alagappa University
between 1st and 3rd October, 2004.
The request made by the honorable Collector of Ramanathapuram
District to send him the electronic version of the preliminary draft of this
monograph (presented to the TNPCB at the Ramanathapuram Public Hearing meeting
on SSCP held on 16 September 2004) was a great source of encouragement.
The photo of the anchor in the Cover is from N.Athiyaman
& P.Jayakumar’s publication in ‘Current Science’ (Vol.86, No.9, 10 May
2004, 1261-1267) titled ‘Ancient anchors off Tamil Nadu coast and ship tonnage
analyses. This is an anchor salvaged off the Thondi coast in 1986, and has
engravings of the words ‘Guerigny’ ‘1864’ on it.
Abi and Ashwini accepted the change in the preplanned
Deppavali vacation schedule with much love and corcern for the author.
Santhala, Sobhana and Kalavathy, the caretakers of the
author, accepted the change in the household routines over the past three
months, with their usual smile.
Without the deep affection bestowed on us by our friends
Dr.R.P.Samy, Dr.P.Shanthi and Ram Prasanth during times of crisis, this work
would not have been possible.
The author can be contacted at: 9-A, HPF Colony, TVS Nagar, and Coimbatore – 25 E-mail: [email protected] THIS ENTIRE WORK AND ITS PRELIMINARY DRAFT CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM: www.geocities.com/sethushipcanal