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Tsunami toll 8,300 in India, 39,000 elsewhere

      Chennai\Jakarta: The toll from Sunday's earthquake-induced Tsunamis kept mounting with nearly 8,300 people killed in India, while over 38,000 perished in six countries across South and South East Asia. Tamil Nadu and the Andamans, the worst hit in India accounted for 4,500 and 3,000 deaths respectively in the devastation caused by the monstrous tidal waves triggered by the earthquake off the Sumatra coast in the northern tip of Indonesia on Sunday. In Kerala 150 people lost their lives while 96 died in Andhra Pradesh as the tidal waves ravaged the coastal parts of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Maldives washing away entire villages and causing huge destruction. The killer waves were triggered off by a massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

     Sri Lanka was among the worst hit countries affected in the disaster. Over 18,000 people are now confirmed dead in the island nation and that number could rise further. Authorities have now discovered a train carrying about 1,500 passengers, which was washed away by the tsunami. About 100 foreign tourists were also travelling in that train. The Sri Lankan Navy has been mobilised to pull out the bodies from the wreckage. Massive rescue operations have been launched across the tsunami- hit regions with medicines and relief material being distributed to the victims. Meanwhile, the Indian government has reportedly sanctioned Rs. 100 crores as relief for Sri Lanka, according to TV report. Earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi accompanied by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited affected areas in Chennai and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. BJP President L K Advani visited the tsunami-hit areas in Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and affected parts of Kerala. In Delhi, former Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced formation of a Calamity Relief Fund to provide relief the affected areas. Navy and Coast Guard helicopters scoured the coastline in southeastern parts of the country searching for missing persons.

Tsunami toll in Andaman and Nicobar Islands 5000 (Go To Top)

     Car Necobar Islands: Rescuers today began reaching the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, two days after passage of a devastating Tsunami. On one of the Islands they found alive barely one-third of the residents. On another, only piles of rubble and debris remained of the housing blocks of an air force base, a hundred officers and their families swept out to sea by waves which were higher than the two-storey buildings in which they had sought shelter. There has still been no contact at all with several of the Islands, including one of the biggest, Grand Nicobar, which was closest to the epicentre of Sunday's earthquake which caused a tsunami that killed at least 36,000 across Asia. Police say at least 5000 people are confirmed or presumed dead in the group of more than 550 islands bordering Myanmar and Indonesia. The death toll across the country is estimated at 9500. With thousands still missing and rescuers yet to reach or even contact some areas, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the toll was certain to rise. On the Andaman and Nicobar Island of Chowra, rescuers found only 500 survivors from 1500 residents, said the territory's deputy police chief, C. Vasudeva Rao. No contact has yet been made with two neighbouring islands, home to a combined population of 7000. Television footage showed only concrete floors remaining of some of the officers' houses on the air force base on Car Nicobar. Apartment blocks collapsed and trees were uprooted. The overall death toll on the island is 500 and rising. At the airport in the territory's capital, Port Blair, survivors from Car Nicobar, including children, begged air force personnel to fly them to safety on the mainland. Survivors were sleeping on the streets on mattresses and chairs, too scared by two days of aftershocks to sleep inside.

27 IAF personnel confirmed dead in Car Nicobar (Go To Top)

     Car Nicobar: Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today confirmed that 27 air force personnel have been killed and 75 to 100 are reported missing in Car Nicobar after tsunami waves struck the island. The Minister confirmed the deaths during his visit to one of the most devastated islands hit by the tsunami waves. Defence Minister along with, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Air Chief S Krishnaswamy, visited the island. Car Nicobar housed one of the main military bases in the region. It was possible for the naval warships and air force planes to establish contact with the place only 24 hours after the sea storm lashed it. Air Force officials told the VVIPs that they planned to evacuate about a thousand people each day from worst affected Nicobar group of islands to Tamil Nadu and Port Blair till the storm threat subsided. The IAF evacuated about a thousand people, mostly labourers, to safer places on Monday itself.

Tsunami toll close to 12,000 in Lanka (Go To Top)

     Colombo: The toll in the devastating Tsunami that swept across Sri Lanka rose to 11,500 today while about eight lakh people were said to have been displaced. The latest toll in the government-controlled areas had crossed 10,000, Army spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake said, adding that reports from LTTE-held areas said that about 1,500 bodies were already recovered. Brigadier Ratnayake said the worst affected areas were the Eastern Amparai and Kalmunai areas, where the death toll was 6,364, while in Jaffna district, the figure stood at 1,668. Forty-eight soldiers, including the Brigade commander of Kalkudah, Colonel Gunaratne, were killed, he said, adding that 267 soldiers have been severely wounded. The worst affected parts in Southern Colombo were Galle, Matara and Hambantota district where over 1,400 people were reported killed while hundreds still missing. The death toll in Colombo and its suburb was nearly 100. Meanwhile, President Chandrika Kumaratunga is scheduled to reach Colombo today from London where she was on aprivate visit.

Tsunami alert issued in Kerala (Go To Top)

     Thiruvananthapuram: The alert issued to fishermen and tourists in the coastal areas of Kerala continues as the sea is rough following a series of aftershocks recorded in the area. Director, Meteorology Department, MD Ramachandran was quoted by news agencies as saying that a series of aftershocks continue, though with decreasing frequency, following the massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Sunday morning. While there were no high tides along the Kerala coast at present, the sea continued to be rough due to the aftershocks, Ramachandran said. Meanwhile, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses have been deployed to evacuate people living along the coast to relief shelters.

Murali's 20-minute escape from Tsunami (Go To Top)

     Galle (Sri Lanka): Sri Lankan off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is "lucky to be alive" after narrowly missing one of the Tsunamis that have claimed over 24,000 lives and devastated large areas of South East Asia. Muralitharan, recovering from shoulder surgery in Sri Lanka while his teammates tour New Zealand, was in this southern coastal city over the weekend, handing out cricket bats to underprivileged children with his manager Kushil Gunasekera. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 20 minutes after Muralitharan drove out of the city, Galle was all but wiped out by the Tsunamis. Triggered by the fifth-largest earthquake in 100 years, tidal waves tore across the Bay of Bengal and slammed into Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Malaysia and the Andaman Islands. The death toll in Sri Lanka is already above 12,000 and is expected to rise over the next few days. Thousands more are injured and have been left homeless. "I missed the wave by 20 minutes," Muralitharan told the paper on Monday night. "I had only just left Galle so I am very lucky to be alive. The wave was over 20 feet high and it went two kilometres inland. A lot of our cricketers are from there and we don't know how their families are. My manager barely survived. His house is gone. Galle is totally under water and a lot of people are missing or dead. There are people everywhere screaming."

     While Muralitharan frantically phoned friends and family from his Colombo home, his Sri Lanka teammates were forced to do so from New Zealand, where Wednesday's one-day international has been postponed and the remainder of the tour is expected to be rescheduled. Team manager Brendan Kuruppu, speaking yesterday in Napier, said: "One player's relative has lost his life and so many others have no contact with their relatives. It is a very sad situation." Muralitharan said it would be difficult for him to join his teammates ahead of the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, which had been scheduled for January 15, given the extent of devastation in his homeland. "Something like this has never happened to my country. In my opinion, it is not the right time for cricket. I was seeing on the TV today some of the people who are alive in Galle, and there is a lot of organising to do, a lot of feeding people. A lot of our cricketers are from that area," Murali said. "Galle is under water and so is Jaffna. I am not sure what happened to the people I was with in Galle. I had just been there giving poor children some bats. I had finished doing that and was driving out of Galle when this happened. There was no warning. It is a very, very bad situation," he added.