This paper relates the experiences of some rural and urban areas of Tamil Nadu in the aftermath of the tsunami, focusing on issues in their rebuilding and rehabilitation. It draws upon research which the authors are undertaking in the rural districts of Nagapattinam and Cuddalore and also in the settlement of Tsunami Nagar, where some 2000 urban households from five slums have found shelter for more than a year now. The research draws on interviews conducted with inhabitants of both rural and urban settlements where rehabilitation is under way, focusing on housing, livelihoods and infrastructure, in particular. It explores the self-help rebuilding experiences of these communities and also the work of local NGOs, international agency partners and local and regional governments. Only a preliminary summary of the results of the study is reported here. Scene OnePallavan Nagar, a seashore slum of Chennai, on a January morning in 2005. Not many people about. A man was repairing fi shing nets near the former temple and, behind the temple, a woman was living with her seven year old son in a house built before the tsunami and still standing. The fi rst wave had been seen initially only by the boy. No one else in the settlement saw it coming, including ten men who were working on their nets by the sea on that morning of 26 December. Living close to the sea, the boy was used to seeing waves coming and judging their size. This wave looked huge. He started shouting warnings to the men tending the fi shing nets.All the people ran to the coastal road, some metres above the settlement. With the exception of two children, who were playing at the temple and who were forgotten in the rush, everyone made it to safety. According to the little boy's account, the two children playing at the temple and an old man who could not run because of a handicap were washed away. But the records of the nongovernment organizations engaged in relief and rehabilitation of the settlement later showed that twelve people had died and the slum was almost entirely destroyed. Every fisherman had lost his boat and nets. Every household had lost its means of livelihood. There hadn't been much infrastructure, except for a few dilapidated, dirty lavatories which the women and children had used. The temple where people used to gather, sit and chat for hours in the evenings was also gone. Now the Public Works Department has fenced the slum area, evicting all the people who sought to return and claim rights to it in the days after the tsunami. The only place the people of the slum now have is Tsunami Nagar, a low-lying, flood-prone area of temporary shelters, 3 kilometres away from

On December 26, 2004, a tsunami struck coastal areas in the Bay of Bengal. Among the communities affected were Pallavan Nagar and Anju Kudasai slums in Chennai India. These communities have been collaborating, with some success, on a project to manage the urban environment for human health that employs an adaptive ecosystem approach framework, and is heavily influenced by participatory action research methodology. The tsunami resulted in loss of life, shelter, property and livelihoods in these communities. This profile presents an overview of the project, the two settlements, and the impact of the tsunami on the communities. This article also discusses the impact of the disaster on the direction and nature of the ecohealth project.

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