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Silver Beach losing its sheen

A.V. Ragunathan

Steps will be taken to clean up the beach, says official

CUDDALORE: The Silver Beach here is losing its charm and shrinking in dimension. By its soft and white sands and easy accessibility, the beach used to be a major attraction. But of late it has become a victim of neglect and vandalism.

During monsoon the Gedilam and the Pennaiyar are in spate and drain the surpluses into the sea. In the lean season, these rivers carry mostly sullage and industrial effluents. The telltale marks of the polluted seawater can now be witnessed on the Silver Beach. The sands have turned revoltingly black and with garbage strewn all over the beach is not any better than a dumping yard.

After the dredging of the backwater, the sand expanse has been minimised, just leaving narrow space for the tourists. The row of colourful benches on the sea front was now dislodged. The swings and slides in the children’s park were all in poor shape.

The stray dog menace is quite frightening. The leftovers such as carry bags, paper plates and other sundry items on the beach remained uncleared for days together.

A makeshift road leading to an adjoining coastal hamlet cuts into the beach and commutation through this stretch is barred with a rope. The high-mast lamps are malfunctioning and the man-made fountain has fallen into disuse.

As the sordid happenings such as drowning occur periodically the beach has become less attractive than ever.

The beautification of the beach done at huge expenditure was a short-lived affair as the tsunami washed away every thing.

Therefore, to erase the bitter memories, the then district administration acted in good time to reconstruct the whole thing with huge outlay. But now, sheer negligence and lack of civic sense have disfigured the beach.

When contacted Cuddalore Municipal commissioner Liaqath Ahmed Papa said the role of the local people was also important in the upkeep of the beach. He said steps would be taken to clean up the beach.

Full resolution version of this image can be found at Cuddalore Online group under Photos>Cuddalore Wallpapers

I have added Silver Beach label to all old articles related to Silver Beach. So by clicking on the Silver Beach label (like the one below) will fetch you all articles having info about the beach.

To my knowledge, first large scale project on beautification of Silver Beach was carried out by then District Collector Sandeep Saxena. In an attempt to prevent the beach from erosion, district administration planted coconut and palm trees throughout Silver Beach. I wonder how many of you can picturise ‘that’ beach.

Our beach is undergoing a constant change due to both natural and human induced factors, which is very well visible. The river Gedilam to the south of the beach engulfs a good portion of the beach whenever there is a flood. It forms mouth joining sea almost every year which brings about a drastic change in the shape of the beach. Tsunami has brought in major changes. Many agree the beach was far more beautiful before tsunami.

Next major beautification attempt was made by Gagandeep Singh Bedi. His initiative can roughly be divided as re-tsunami beautification and post-tsunami beautification. I could remember, before tsunami, the beach had chairs laid in beautiful arrangement, were two bamboo watch towers, couple of shops which were entirely made of bamboo and a beautiful boat house. Tsunami. Devastation.

Silver Beach then saw around of beautification. New chairs, new dustbin, new boards requesting visitors to use dust bins and keep the beach clean. Some used dust bin, but beach never was clean.

The dredging activity carried out (probably to accommodate more boats which were donated by aid agencies from around the world. After tsunami, I guess the number of boats now increased by as much as three times) on the southern end of the beach, along the bank of Gedilam. This has brought in a permanent change (if anything can be permanent) in the shape of the beach. The sand scape shrunk dramatically.

Then, the 2005 flood. It is usual that Gedilam breaks into sea whenever there is flood. But this time the river the largest mouth ever seen and the flood water washed away more than half of the beach (probably the dredging activity carried out changed the regular course of the river, and facilitated the water to flow more towards north).

Then came yet another round of beautification by Gagandeep Singh Bedi. New chairs, new dustbins, new boat house and new play materials for children. The chairs and the play materials which we have in the beach today were brought up in this around of beautification.

As days pass by, these facilities becomes unusable due to constant mishandling by public. Adults use swings and multiaction play systems which supposed only for children. A broad in front of this play area reads that the facility is only for children. Not many bothers. The result is what you see in the photos below.

Multiaction play system

Photographs: Shantha Kumar

Arrival of two ships at Cuddalore Port marks an important moment in the history of the town. Cuddalore Port at Cuddalore Old Town is a natural harbor, used for more than 400 years by European settlers. The port was developed by English early in the 20th century. Earlier it was used by EID(East India Distilleries) Parry. Later after independence it was developed into a general purpose port. In 1960’s and 70’s the port was one of the busiest port in India, but the activity slowed down there after, and came to a complete halt on early 90’s. Unavailability of cheap laborers and silt formation are considered to be the main reasons behind the fall of the port.

Cuddalore Port is now a minor port. Various proposals were made for the development of the port in the past decade. But none of them were implemented. Now the port is being deepened at the cost of Rs. 14.41 crores, with financial assistance from Asian Development Bank. Couple of weeks back two vessels carrying fertilizers arrived at the port. Once the desilting work is over, the facilities will be used in full capacity and would lead to the development of the region.

Ships as seen from Silver Beach

Related links:

Cargo vessel at Cuddalore port after 12 years - The Hindu

Renovation of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam ports will be completed by June - The Hindu

Port gets a new lease of life - The Hindu

Many of the readers of this blog might be aware that a couple of weeks back we posted an article about the quality of drinking water supplied on municipal water taps . District Collector Mr. Rajendra Ratnoo responded to this post and invited us to participate in the Water Supply Board Meeting held on Monday (December 17) at Collector’s Camp Office.

Water Supply Board Meeting at Collector’s Camp Office.

I have attended the meeting . In the meeting, District Collector discussed about this issue with the officials from Water Supply Board and instructed them to take water samples and send him the results.

Details discussed/conveyed at the meeting:

A project at the cost of Rs. 4.63 crores to improve the quality of water is in progress. Once this is implemented the drinking water quality will improve to a greater extent.

In another initiative, district administration has distributed 360 water testing kits to village panchayats. Administration will train five people for every testing kit. 15 parameters are checked using these kits. This will enable the people themselves to check the quality of water.

These initiatives are taken to ensure the water quality in addition to the already existing procedure in which TWAD (Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage) Board submits a detailed report on water quality. This report which is submitted every 15 days to the District Collector contains details of the 19 parameters of the drinking water.

We have posted an article Is Silver Beach a Plastic Free Zone ?, in the month of July which pointed out the usage of plastic materials by shop keepers in Silver Beach, despite the beach had been declared a ‘Plastic Free Zone’. In response to this article District Collector had assured of necessary action. Accordingly, on Sunday (December 16) plastic materials used there were removed and shop keepers at Silver Beach were instructed not to use any plastic material in their business.

We hereby take this opportunity to thank District Collector Mr. Rajendra Ratnoo, for showing great interest in serving public by taking immediate action on the issues reported in this blog.

Until a couple of years back the vast open ground in front of Periyar Arts College in Devanampattinam had a beautiful green spread. It was nice to see the children playing in groups, flying kites and to see cows grazing on still afternoons. This natural green spread used to be such a treat for the eyes, especially during the post monsoon season.

This changed soon after tsunami stuck the coast. Nearly one fourth of the area is filled with sand after tsunami. Off course we don’t have any control over this. But what really spoiled the rest of the place in the so called ‘development’ .

A new hostel was built in this ground with long perimeter wall. A new road was laid to the old hostel cutting this ground into two halves.

The new hostel - built to the east of the existing hostel

New road to the old hostel

This place was also used for preparing cement concrete blocks for Government of Rajasthan’s Tsunami Rehabilitation Program. Bricks prepared here were transport to various parts of the district to built houses for tsunami affected. Now the project is over. But the debris are yet to be cleared.

Construction debris left behind left behind by Avas Vikas Limited

Newest ‘development’ is, something like a restaurant is built covering a good portion of the ground.

Construction of new restaurant at Silver Beach

It is good to see more hostels coming up students, new recreational spots of people in town and any other kind of development. But in the mean time we should understand the importance of open spaces in urban areas, and the important role it plays in the development of a healthy community, and conserve it before we lose all.

Note: Some of the photographs were taken about an year back.

The charming water fountain creating a wow to the visitors of Silver Beach.

The signboard displayed in the Silver Beach claims that its a plastic free zone.

But many of the shops like the one seen above uses non decomposable materials in selling their products. In the above photo the sugar cane juice shop sells juice in plastic cups.

The “Plastic Free Zone” appears to be a fancy statement only and the prohibition is not enforced in reality.

A photo of our Silver Beach contributed by a patron of Cuddalore by name Kumar taken on his olympus camera. A nice wall paper for your pc.
Thank you Mr.Kumar