A narrow strip of land separates K. Joy and Subhadra’s house from a roaring sea at Neerkunnam in Alappuzha. Ever since giant waves pulverised their neighbour’s home last year, the elderly couple have lived in uncertainty amid the persistent fear of the advancing sea.
The toilet in the backyard of their house and half-a-dozen coconut trees have already been taken by the rising sea. “We do not know what will happen during this monsoon season. Only time will tell whether our house will survive the high tidal surges. Three of our neighbours have already left the place and moved to safer places,” says Subhadra.
Subhadra, who has been living there for more than four decades, says their house was earlier 500 metres from the sea. But with the sea coming closer, now it is less than 20 metres away. The damage caused by coastal erosion is evident in the region. Several houses here were swallowed by the sea in recent years. A number of rundown and abandoned structures standing like memorials of lives once lived there look set to join the vast expanse of seawater anytime soon.
