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Parth Sanyal

The tsunami unleashed devastation on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, crippling its people. They are slowly, fearfully, picking up what's left of their lives.

When the earth shook on the morning of December 26, one was fast asleep at home in Kolkata and woken up by a neighbour, who alerted residents of the building to step out of their apartments. One couldn't feel the tremors though.

But flying over the Andaman and Nicobar islands to touch down at Port Blair, one got a real sense of the disaster.

Tsunami, a term that was hitherto unknown, has wrecked havoc on these islands, along with many parts of South and South-East Asia. The picturesque beaches and hot tourist spots have been devastated and transformed into graveyards and mourning spots all of a sudden. Concrete, three-storied houses of the Indian Air Force officers at the Car Nicobar Island have been razed to the ground. The mighty waves knocked down whatever and whoever they encountered that fateful morning.

Journalists from all over the world had reached Port Blair to cover the devastation. However, it was the electronic media that received favour from the administration — both Indian and foreign journalists in the electronic media were accorded special status and air sorties arranged to carry them over to remote islands. Nature had its own way of reminding people of the intensity of the first earthquake — there have been several aftershocks. The Andamanese people ran out of their homes and offices with each aftershock, and we ran out of our hotel rooms. Sometimes we spent the night on the hotel lawns with only the sound of the roaring waves for company.

At the G.B. Pant Hospital in Port Blair, one came across a Nicobarese tribal, M.A. Kuddus, working in the Medical Superintendent's office; 32 of his family members are missing. But Kuddus now has the additional job of a surveyor at the tribal relief camps. "Giving and taking is in God's hand. I can only help those who are living. Hence I won't go to my island to search for my family. If anyone is alive they will contact me, I must carry on with my work," said Kuddus, taking me around the hospital in search of a Little Andaman tribesman, who was the only one from the rare tribes admitted in the hospital as a tsunami victim.

Port Blair, which was thriving with tourists, had to evacuate all of them; many relief camps have been set up across the island. It is a distressing experience, when people approach you as a journalist, seeking relief and food and also help in searching for their near and dear ones in the other relief camps. Though there has been an outpouring of relief, it will take a long time to reach remote destinations. Nevertheless, essential items such as rice, pulses, mineral water and biscuits were air-dropped frequently; the irony was that people didn't have match boxes, fuel and utensils to cook the food — everything had gone with the waves.

Pictures by the author

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