The Hindu : Front Page : `I have lost count of the bodies I found'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 03, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

`I have lost count of the bodies I found'

By Suresh Nambath

— Photo: K. Pichumani

A building ravaged by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami at the Air Force station in Car Nicobar.

CAR NICOBAR, JAN. 2. A chair on a tree; a television by the roadside; a blanket in the slush. A week after the deaths and destruction, Car Nicobar still tells tales of life before the tsunami.

Most buildings along the coast have been reduced to rubble. The others have bedrooms without doors, toilets without walls. Personal belongings are strewn on the ground.

At the Air Force Station, the officers' quarters and the mess near the shore have suffered extensive damage. The survivors stay in rows of tents along the airstrip.

But there is life after the tsunami. The services have initiated relief measures on a war footing, and begun restoring water supply and communications.

Further south in Kakana, police inspector Anil Kumar Singh is on his rounds with two Nicobarese for company. His job is to identify the dead and dispose of the bodies. The local people assist in the identification. "I have lost count of the number of bodies I found. Now we dispose of them as soon as we find them."

In Malacca further north, Herbert, the first captain as the village headman is known, says the bodies of 12 people from his village have been found. About 1,400 villagers survived, though almost nothing is left of the village.

Many of the Nicobarese have moved deeper into the forest, on to a higher ground. They see no reason to return to the scene of devastation or to go to the relief settlements.

People from Sawai, Arong and Tea Top have moved into a common area inside the forest.

The villagers now survive on forest produce and relief material dropped by the armed forces. Many of the aged and women and children have been evacuated to Port Blair. As memories of the disaster begin to fade, some of the villagers are enquiring if their families can be brought back.

However, things are far from normal. There are bodies under the debris. Gas cylinders that have outlived their kitchen explode when the debris is set on fire.

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