During last year's rains 32 houses were destroyed. Earlier this month 44 other houses were issued the dreaded notice by local authorities, to vacate. Barely five metres above sea level, Satpati's shoreline has severely eroded over the last few years.

Seawater has ingressed a whopping 200 metres into land and continues to claim large tracts with each monsoon. The fisherfolk know how to live by a turbulent sea but when the water they worship begins to claim their land, they are clueless and completely at the mercy of elements. Those like Vasanti Kishore Mhatre, 28, on the sea's `hitlist' and her neighbours haplessly try to secure their houses with sandbags which they hope will break the fury of the waters. As a practical measure, it ispretty ineffective for the waves often rise as high as 12 feet.

The alternative, and the scientific approach, would have been to put in place a proper pucca bund all along the Satpati coastline. The administration even had the funds for it, about Rs four crore which was disbursed last year by the state government to the zilla parishad under the special coastal erosion programme. It would have made a world of difference to residents of Satpati -- if only it were used. But at the end of the financial year the administration returned the entire amount.

Pray why?

Well completing the entire bureaucratic procedure meant that the requisite files had to move from one agency to another for a multitude of clearances. A year was lost in the process and the grant lapsed. Barely days later the monsoon returned in full strength. ``The beach is getting lower every monsoon as the sea keeps on claiming land,'' says sarpanch Nandu Patil, ``I have been shouting myself hoarse since the first row of houses got washedaway last year but nothing happens.''

Faced with an emergency situation again, Thane district collector Mukesh Khullar can only express displeasure over the tardy, almost non-existent, progress of permanent bunding. ``We will start temporary measures like creating sandbag walls immediately and speed up plans for permanent construction so work can start in earnest after the monsoon.'' Till then the villagers live in the dread of fate that befell the Kenes who had gathered in their house on the the afternoon of May 14 to discuss wedding plans for their daughter. The event is scheduled for November this year. Rain lashed outside but the modest dwelling seemed secure until a strange mixture of sand and water crept in through the cevices in the tiled roof. Many of the tiles became dislodged from the supporting beam. Then, suddenly seawater was inside the house and breaking the walls. ``The waves just brought down our walls like a pack of cards. Though I know to swim I couldn't. My feet were like lead from theshock of seeing my painstakingly built home washed away,'' recalls Kene. Neighbours helped them to safety. So powerful were the 10-12 feet waves that decades-old coconut palms split like mere twigs.

The Kenes and all families in their predicament received a piffling Rs 600 per person as compensation from the local administration. It is quite another matter Kene had sold all his wife's jewellery to finance the house. <>In the absence of appropriate official action -- remedial or preventive -- villagers have taken recourse to their belief in local legends. As Jaywanti Tare whose house is among the 44 marked now. She staunchly believes that villagers have offended Jwaladevi, the community deity located in the sea. ``She may be attacking us for offending her,'' says Tare. It's a dangerous and fatalistic belief gaining ground.

The real culprits are the agencies that between them delayed the permanent bunding -- Maharashtra Maritime Board that receives proposals from the zilla parishad through the collector,the coastal engineering authorities in Navi Mumbai who draw up the plans, the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI) that must approve the plans that will travel back to the coastal engineering authority, Maritime Board, collectorate to the zilla parishad.

Caught on the wrong foot, Maharashtra Maritime Board's chief port officer Capt SD Kond is defensive: ``the district planning and development committee had not allocated funds for the work despite the Rs four crore from the state government...for this year, we have already approved Rs 27 lakh temporary work to contain damage.'' Even that temporary work is yet to begin. No authority knows when. Meanwhile, the villagers battle a furious sea -- with sandbags and their prayers.