Paradise Lost Forever

56 people, including 28 children, lost their lives when the waves engulfed the small island of MGR Thittu

- BAGALAVAN PERIER B

WITH rundown buildings straight out of an Edgar Allan Poe novella and dense thickets, this ghost island tucked away in the Pichavaram backwaters hides within a glorious past. As the legend goes, M G Ramachandran was shooting for the blockbuster 'Idhayakkani' at the backwaters in the early 1970s, when a nearby island bustling with life caught his eye.

He visited the place and unsurprisingly, from that day onwards the island came to be known as MGR Thittu. The area became more populated over the decades. A school, an anganwadi, and other facilities cropped up. The lush green island spanning 60 acres, with nearly 5,000 coconut trees and other vegetation, near Chidambaram resembled a paradise on earth. That is, until that cataclysmic Boxing Day of 2004.