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News Service, 3 Jan 05 Animal antennas better than human during tsunami Vedaranyam (Tamil Nadu) Animals are perhaps more tuned to approaching danger than human beings, going by their successful scramble for survival in the nick of time during last week's tsunami disaster. Forests, mangroves and thick vegetation along or close to the coast also stood their ground against the massive waves that lashed the southeastern Coromandel coast of India Dec 26. Birds, especially flamingos and winged visitors from as far as Siberia who come annually to the Point Calimere sanctuary to breed, flew away to more secure forests on higher ground much before the tsunami struck, forest officials said. Animals also apparently sensed the impending disaster. Said a priest from a village church in Pondicherry, P.A. Sampath Kumar: "My three dogs were barking and howling at around 7 a.m. (Dec 26). I tried to quieten them but they continued barking and were restless." Noticeably, the number of dead animals along the coast was few. Even on the Cuddalore coastline, where thousands of people died, herds of buffaloes, goats and dogs were found safe. Domestic animals are rarely tied in these areas and by the time tsunami struck they had already run to higher grounds. There have also been reports of fish jumping out of water at the onset of the tsunami waves. On Chennai's Neelangari beach, where beach houses, clubs and golf courses were destined to replace shoreline forests, the damage has been more. Nagapattinam wildlife warden A.D. Baruah pointed out that the coast between Nagoore and Nagapattinam has seen relatively less damage because of a government campaign to put up plantations. Only two deaths were reported from this forested area. "Damages have been restricted also in the Vedaranyam-Kodiampalayam section because of the casuarina forest stretches promoted here since 1999," he added. "Matured plantations reduced the force of the killer waves." Elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, dense mangroves protected human settlements west of the coastline. M.S. Swaminathan, chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), said in Chennai: "Though we cannot prevent tsunamis, we should certainly prepare ourselves to mitigate the impact on the population along the coastal ecosystems. "Our anticipatory research work to preserve mangrove ecosystems as the first line of defence against devastating tidal waves on the eastern coastline has proved very relevant today. The dense mangrove forests stood like a wall to save coastal communities living behind them," he added. The Chidambaran Nataraja temple's "thillai" trees on the Kuchipalayam and Therukku Pitchavarm coasts saved several fishing hamlets on Black Sunday. The district forest officer of Cuddalore and Villupuram, Arun, said, "Nature's fury can only be countered by nature." Since 1986, the government planted 1,300 hectares of mangroves of 13 rare species along the coast. T Balasubramanian, director of the Centre for Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, said: "These trees are known here as wave-tamers." links Related articles on Tsunami and the environment |
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