Even after 20 years, tsunami nonetheless haunts individuals of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Even after 20 years of the lethal tsunami of 26 December 2004, the devastation which killed greater than 400 individuals and left almost 3,000 lacking nonetheless haunts the residents of Campbell Bay and Automobile Nicobar within the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Positioned almost 535 km from Port Blair, the Nicobar district suffered the utmost harm in the course of the 2004 tsunami. Even at present, the particles of broken homes, defence quarters, colleges, a church and authorities institutions ship shivers down the native individuals’s spines.

At Tamaloo village in Automobile Nicobar, indicators of the large-scale devastation are nonetheless seen, and yearly, the Nicobarese tribes collect at ‘Dying Home’ — a separate group home the place Nicobari tribes, as part of their rituals, keep in mind their mates, household and family members who handed away.

Tamaloo village headman Paul Benjamin recollects that horrible time: “After the Christmas celebration, we had been preparing for prayers on the native church. It was a festive temper. Round 6 a.m., on 26 December 2004, we seen the ocean began receding almost 3 km, adopted by high-impact tremors. Your entire island was shaking.

“We’ve by no means seen nature’s fury so robust earlier than. There was no warning system. Minutes later, I noticed a monstrous wall of waves speeding in the direction of us. We began operating in the direction of the hilly areas to save lots of ourselves.”