NAGAPATTINAM: About a decade ago when this coastal district was recovering from the havoc wreaked by an unprecedented disaster in the form of tsunami, A P J Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, was one of the many high profile leaders who visited the victims here. He also was the only personality hailing from a similar coastal hamlet to have closely interacted with the coastal farmers.
The tsunami-hit farmers and volunteers who interacted with the former President during his visit in 2005 said that his encouraging words guided them to channel out saline water that had intruded farm lands through organic desalination method. Farmers also recalled that the former president had administered them an oath to that they would utilize the revenue from organic farming only for good cause.
According to the farmers here, six months after the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami, the then president A P J Abdul Kalam on June 2005 visited the district to oversee the rehabilitation measures.
During his visit, Kalam also surveyed 25,000 acres of cultivable lands in 82 panchayats.