Chennai, Jan 2 (UNI):With more than 200 bodies retrieved in the devastated Nagapattinam since last night, the death toll in the December 26 tsunami disaster in Tamil Nadu has mounted to about 7,700, even as the district administration stepped up the relief work and focused on health care.

Nagapattinam, wrecked by the tidal fury, continued to be a cause of worry for the authorities as more and more bodies were being retrieved from debris, while the rescue operation in Kanniyakumari and Cuddalore, the other worst hit districts, was drawing to a close.

Nagapattinam district alone accounted for 5,812 deaths, including 1,523 children, a report from Nagapattinam, quoting official sources said.

As a number of trawlers and mechanised boats, swept by the high speed giant waves, crashed into the residential areas of Nagapattinam town, fear loomed large about more bodies getting caught in the wreckage, official sources said.

"The town is already smelling of highly decomposed bodies," the sources said adding that only after all the boats were removed, the death toll could be finalised.

Officially the toll was put at 7,687, with the ravaged Nagapattinam district accounting for 5,812 deaths, followed by Kanniyakumari 817, Cuddalore 599, Chennai 206, Kancheepuram 124, Villupuram 47, Thiruvallur 28 and Thanjavur 22. The other affected districts were Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.

While the Army was assisting the district administration in Nagapattinam in the rescue operation, especially retrieving the bodies, the Coast Guard and Navy, Red Cross and the Unicef joined the state government, voluntary agencies and non-governmental organisations in providing succour to the victims.

Finding that hundreds of children had been orphaned, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa declared that the government would adopt all of them and announced a special package for their rehabilitation.

All those who were willing to adopt the children could approach the Social Welfare Department.