Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances; inside tattered clothes and slippers strewn on the floor—a remnant of their former owners—with walls still adorned with beautiful hand painted vines.
Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances; inside tattered clothes and slippers strewn on the floor—a remnant of their former owners—with walls still adorned with beautiful hand painted vines.
Jaya Rajamma, 65, lives with her two daughters, one divorced and another unmarried, her husband, a former fisherman and a grandchild.
Jaya Rajamma, 65, lives with her two daughters, one divorced and another unmarried, her husband, a former fisherman and a grandchild.
Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances; inside tattered clothes and slippers strewn on the floor—a remnant of their former owners—with walls still adorned with beautiful hand painted vines.
Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances; inside tattered clothes and slippers strewn on the floor—a remnant of their former owners—with walls still adorned with beautiful hand painted vines.
Bhima Rao, 45, is walking past the rows of houses that hold their foundations to the last remaining bits of earth along India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal.
Bhima Rao, 45, is walking past the rows of houses that hold their foundations to the last remaining bits of earth along India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal.
Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances; inside tattered clothes and slippers strewn on the floor—a remnant of their former owners—with walls still adorned with beautiful hand painted vines.
Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances; inside tattered clothes and slippers strewn on the floor—a remnant of their former owners—with walls still adorned with beautiful hand painted vines.
Jam Lachya sits outside his house with his wife and granddaughter. The fishermen is one of the last remaining 11 people in the village Podempeta which has become the victim of sea ingression and erosion.
Jam Lachya sits outside his house with his wife and granddaughter. The fishermen is one of the last remaining 11 people in the village Podempeta which has become the victim of sea ingression and erosion.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
Former inhabitants of the of Podemepta village sit at an abandoned house. The houses once belonged to a prosperous fishermen community but are now a testimony of widespread devastation caused by climate change.
Former inhabitants of the of Podemepta village sit at an abandoned house. The houses once belonged to a prosperous fishermen community but are now a testimony of widespread devastation caused by climate change.
Jaya Rajamma sitting outside her house with a relative and her granddaughter. She says that she loved the sea as a child but is now scared of it and avoids looking at it at night.
Jaya Rajamma sitting outside her house with a relative and her granddaughter. She says that she loved the sea as a child but is now scared of it and avoids looking at it at night.
Former inhabitants of the of Podemepta village sit at an abandoned house. The houses once belonged to a prosperous fishermen community but are now a testimony of widespread devastation caused by climate change.
Former inhabitants of the of Podemepta village sit at an abandoned house. The houses once belonged to a prosperous fishermen community but are now a testimony of widespread devastation caused by climate change.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
A boy swimming in the Bay of Bengal sea in Odisha in eastern India.
A boy swimming in the Bay of Bengal sea in Odisha in eastern India.
Chandragiri Shyam, 30, with his son. The fisherman was forced relocate to the new fisherman’s colony in 2019, with his three children, after sea waves came into the village.
Chandragiri Shyam, 30, with his son. The fisherman was forced relocate to the new fisherman’s colony in 2019, with his three children, after sea waves came into the village.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
Chandragiri Shyam, 30, a fisherman who moved to the new fisherman’s colony in 2019, with his three children, lamented that his life changed after he was forced to relocate. The ancestral house was big but the new house is small and misses raising his sons at the old house.
Chandragiri Shyam, 30, a fisherman who moved to the new fisherman’s colony in 2019, with his three children, lamented that his life changed after he was forced to relocate. The ancestral house was big but the new house is small and misses raising his sons at the old house.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.
Houses after houses, with their cracked walls and broken sills have long been abandoned by their inhabitants in the ghost village situated less than 200 metres from the shore.

Weekend

India's ghost village, where sinking houses tell a story of climate change

Podampeta was once a bustling home of fishermen

Taniya Dutta
Taniya Dutta

December 08, 2023

  • English
  • Arabic

As tides crash into miles of brown sand, rows of brightly painted houses cling to their crumbling foundations.

Sitting along the world’s largest bay, on India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal, the eerie ghost village of Podampeta was once a bustling, prosperous fishing community.

But now, the houses in the eastern state of Odisha are a testimony to widespread devastation caused by climate change.

They have long been abandoned, their walls cracked and collapsing, in the village that stands less than 200 metres from the shore.

Name plates still hang outside the neatly painted entrances. Inside the homes, tattered clothes and slippers are scattered across the floors, remnants of their former owners.

The village, once home to 1,500 inhabitants, has rapidly been damaged since 2007 by land erosion and the intruding sea.

Of 500 families, only 11 members of two families remain.

Jaya Rajamma, 65, is one of the 11 remaining residents of Podampeta in Odisha, eastern India, after the sea destroyed the village. Taniya Dutta / The National
Jaya Rajamma, 65, is one of the 11 remaining residents of Podampeta in Odisha, eastern India, after the sea destroyed the village. Taniya Dutta / The National

Jaya Rajamma is one of them.

The 65-year-old mother of four lives with her two daughters, both in their thirties, and her husband, a former fisherman.

“As a child, the sea was my favourite place. But now I am scared of it,” Ms Rajamma told The National, sitting outside her small two-bedroom house with her granddaughter.

“In the day, I keep looking at it and its waves to stay vigilant, but at night I prefer not to look at it. I am scared that it will come and swallow me and my family,”

The fishermen used to enjoy a prosperous life – there was fish in abundance and a good catch meant good sales in the market, Ms Rajamma said.

But the sea levels started rising and the water flooded the village. High tides destroyed houses.

The state government relocated the residents to another village about five kilometres away and provided them each with a one-bedroom house under the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project.

Ms Rajamma's two sons, both married, received the new accommodation but she says she cannot move in with them.

“The house is small and my daughters will not have enough space there. We have nowhere to go,” she said.

Odisha is one of the Indian states worst affected by climate change.

Its coastline stretches 480 kilometres along the Bay of Bengal – the hotbed of tropical cyclones that batter its districts, along with other extreme climate events such as storms and flooding.

Eight out of the world's 10 deadliest tropical cyclones have originated over the bay, according to a list by Weather Underground.

Bhima Rao, 45, walks past the village's suriviving houses in the Bay of Bengal, on India's eastern coast. Taniya Dutta / The National
Bhima Rao, 45, walks past the village's suriviving houses in the Bay of Bengal, on India's eastern coast. Taniya Dutta / The National

The state's population of 47 million has endured 10 cyclones in the past two decades, including super cyclones that have killed tens of thousands and displaced millions living along the coastline.

Natural disasters have increased three-fold in the state between 1970 and 2019, according to the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a Delhi-based policy research institution.

Odisha was devastated by the Great Orissa Cyclone in 1999 which killed 10,000 people.

Experts say the frequency and intensity of cyclones have escalated through the 2000s.

A study paper published in the journal Spatial Information Research in June 2018 found that about 196km of Odisha’s shoreline has undergone erosion between 1990 and 2015.

One of the main reasons is rising sea levels.

A paper published in Applied Ecology and Environmental Research in 2022 found that sea levels along Odisha have risen by 9.5cm between 1966 and 2015.

The beautiful hand painted walls of one of the houses still stand as the shoreline is gradually eroded. Taniya Dutta / The National
The beautiful hand painted walls of one of the houses still stand as the shoreline is gradually eroded. Taniya Dutta / The National

Sarat Chandra Sahu, director of the Centre for Environment and Climate at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan university in state capital Bhubneswar, said low depression in the sea due to climate change combined with factors such as soil condition and topography make the area prone to erosion.

“Odisha is experiencing cyclones throughout the year, even in December. It is because of climate change,” Mr Sahu told The National.

“The temperature of the sea is increasing, which is causing the formation of low-pressure areas in the sea.” he said. “The wind speed has increased to 35-45kph and wind blows along the coast, which may cause erosion.”

Low pressure happens when the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of its surroundings. It develops when warm and moist air rises from the earth’s surface. The system leads to more unstable and unpredictable weather patterns such as heavy storms.

Pratap Mohanty, an oceanographer from the Department of Marine Sciences, Berhampur University who has been studying erosion along Odisha’s coast for more than two decades, says that maximum erosion along the eastern coast is natural but is increasing due to climate change.

“We have been surveying the Odisha coast for more than 20 years and what we see is the shoreline change or the erosion are due to three factors – the cyclonic storm, approach of the waves that break on the shore and the coastal structure such as ports,” Mr Mohanty said.

For the displaced, the emotional loss of leaving their ancestral homes comes as they bear the brunt of climate change on their livelihoods.

Children swim in the sea by Podampeta village, framed by the crumbling stone of a disintegrating home. Taniya Dutta / The National
Children swim in the sea by Podampeta village, framed by the crumbling stone of a disintegrating home. Taniya Dutta / The National

Chandragiri Shyam, 30, a fisherman who moved to the new colony in 2019 with his three children, said his life changed after he was forced to relocate.

“I was born in this house. It was a beautiful village, there was sea, there were fish,” Mr Shyam said.

“This house was big. Now where I live, the house is small. There is no sea either. We have to go deep inside the sea to scour fish. I do not like it but at least, there is no water that will swallow us,” he said.

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Closing the loophole on sugary drinks

As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.

The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.

Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.

Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
 

Not taxed:

Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.

What is dialysis?

Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.

It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.

There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.

In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.

In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.

It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.

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Director: Clint Eastwood

Stars: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Brandon Stanley

Two-and-a-half out of five stars 

Naga
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Profile of MoneyFellows

Founder: Ahmed Wadi

Launched: 2016

Employees: 76

Financing stage: Series A ($4 million)

Investors: Partech, Sawari Ventures, 500 Startups, Dubai Angel Investors, Phoenician Fund

BMW M5 specs

Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor

Power: 727hp

Torque: 1,000Nm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh650,000

RESULTS

Argentina 4 Haiti 0

Peru 2 Scotland 0

Panama 0 Northern Ireland 0

Essentials

The flights

Etihad (etihad.ae) and flydubai (flydubai.com) fly direct to Baku three times a week from Dh1,250 return, including taxes. 
 

The stay

A seven-night “Fundamental Detox” programme at the Chenot Palace (chenotpalace.com/en) costs from €3,000 (Dh13,197) per person, including taxes, accommodation, 3 medical consultations, 2 nutritional consultations, a detox diet, a body composition analysis, a bio-energetic check-up, four Chenot bio-energetic treatments, six Chenot energetic massages, six hydro-aromatherapy treatments, six phyto-mud treatments, six hydro-jet treatments and access to the gym, indoor pool, sauna and steam room. Additional tests and treatments cost extra.

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UAE v Gibraltar

What: International friendly

When: 7pm kick off

Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City

Admission: Free

Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page

UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)

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Al Nasr 2

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Shabab Al Ahli 1

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Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

The specs

Engine: 5.0-litre V8

Power: 480hp at 7,250rpm

Torque: 566Nm at 4,600rpm

Transmission: 10-speed auto

Fuel consumption: L/100km

Price: Dh306,495

On sale: now

ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS

- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns 

- Margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars

- Energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces

- Infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes

- Many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts

Another way to earn air miles

In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.

An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.

“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.

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The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

Plastic tipping points
The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors

Power: Combined output 920hp

Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic

Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km

On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025

Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000

Challenge Cup result:

1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults

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Updated: December 12, 2023, 6:25 AM`
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