Uprooted fisherman drowns in Thirukkoayil, wife commits suicide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2012, 23:57 GMT]
55-year-old Alagesvari Nadesan, mother of four committed suicide on Tuesday after hearing that her husband who gone for fishing in a tank in Kagnchi-kudichcha-aa'ru had drowned. The uprooted family, deprived of livelihood since displacement, was dependent on the fishing income generated by the 62-year-old father Sellaththurai Nadesan. Several deaths in recent times, categorized as accidents and suicides, are reported in places where families stricken by poverty are still denied of their lands and access to resume their livelihoods, sources in Ampaa'rai said.

The wife of missing husband had consumed poison and committed suicide when she learnt that her husband had drowned while fishing.

The bodies of husband and wife were handed over to the Akkaraippattu government hospital.

The villagers who had fled the area during the war are still not resettled in the village.

However, the uprooted people from the area are forced to fish in the tank for their survival due to economic difficulties.

The tank was earlier banned for civilian access by the occupying Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) camped in Kagnchi-kudichcha-aa'ru.