The Hindu : Kerala News : Kollam family missing in Car Nicobar island

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 07, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Kollam family missing in Car Nicobar island

By Ignatius Pereira

KOLLAM, JAN. 6. After losing all hopes of finding their dear ones who went missing from the Car Nicobar island since the December 26 tsunami onslaught, a family settled in Port Blair returned to their native place in Kollam this morning in a state of shock and agony.

Those missing are Ajay (35), who works as a teacher in Malaca Senior Secondary School; his wife, Sunita (30), a steno at the Car Nicobar Deputy Commissioner's office; and their children Vaibhav (6) and Anuksha (4).

Ajay's parents settled in Port Blair 30 years ago. At Car Nicobar, Ajay's house is on the seafront. The island is one of the worst hit by the tsunami. Though the members of his family at Port Blair had made desperate efforts, none of them could be located.

From Port Blair, Ajay's younger brother Baiju had gone to Car Nicobar on an Indian Air Force flight in an effort to locate his brother and family, but in vain. The members of Ajay's family have now given up all hope. His 65-year-old mother Kasturibai has been in a daze since December 26.

Along with her daughter Priya and family and Mr. Baiju, Kasturibai reached Kollam this morning from Chennai. She is staying at her brother's house now.

Mr. Baiju told The Hindu that the Car Nicobar area where his brother lived remained buried in six feet of sand brought in by the seismic waves. A distance of 2 km from the shoreline lay buried thus, he said.

Initially they were under the impression that Ajay and family along with their neighbours could have fled into the jungles of the island's central portion to escape the waves. But the search by Air Force personnel for survivors in the forest areas did not yield any result. The agony of the family members is that none of the bodies could be retrieved yet.

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