According to official estimates in India, 10,749 people were killed, 5,640 people were missing and thousands of people became homeless when a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake near the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n island of Sumatra struck the southern coast on 26 December 2004. The earthquake registered 9.1–9.3 M_w and was the largest in five decades. It was followed by strong aftershocks on the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

. The death toll of the earthquake was 1,500 people.

Affected states and regions

This disaster affected a total of fourteen regions. The

comprise 572 islands (land masses at low and high tide), of which 38 are inhabited by people from the mainland and indigenous tribes. The islands were just north of the earthquake

epicentre The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

, and the tsunami reached a height of in the southern Nicobar Islands. The official death toll was 1,310, with about 5,600 missing. The unofficial death toll (including those missing and presumed dead) was estimated at 7,000. This ocean earthquake goes down in history as the deadliest of all time. It took the lives of over 230,000 victims throughout the fourteen regions and wounded more than double this number. The

Great Nicobar Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. History The Nicobar Island has been well known to Indian mariners since the time of the seafaring Cholas https://www.britannica.com/place/Nicoba ...

and

Car Nicobar Car Nicobar ( in Car language) is the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands. It is also one of three local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Annual ra ...

islands were the worst hit among all the islands because of their proximity to the quake and relatively flat terrain. Aftershocks rocked the area, and one-fifth of the population of the Nicobar Islands was reported dead, injured or missing. Chowra Island lost two-thirds of its population of 1,500. Entire islands were submerged, and Trinket Island was divided in two. Communications were cut to the Nancowry group of islands, some of which were submerged. On Car Nicobar, 111 Indian Air Force personnel and their family members were washed away when the tsunami severely damaged their air base. St. Thomas Cathedral (also known as the ''John Richardson church'' after John Richardson, a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

and

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

) was washed away. The church, established in 1930 was one of the oldest and prominent churches in the region. A

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

stadium named after John Richardson and a statue dedicated to him were also washed away. Most of the population of the Andaman Islands are people from the mainland, primarily

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. The natives of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are endangered tribal groups, such as the Jarawa,

Sentinelese The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group ...

Shompen The Shompen or Shom Pen are the indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Shompen are a designated Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Tribe. ...

Onge The Onge (also Önge, Ongee, and Öñge) are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, currently administered by India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but al ...

and the

Great Andamanese The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely relate ...

. They are anthropologically-significant as some of the world's most primitive tribes. Most have maintained their lifestyle for centuries, and government policy is one of non-interference. Most of the native islanders reportedly survived the tsunami because they lived on higher ground or far from the coast. The

(with a 2001 census population of 96), Jarawa (240),

(39) and

(43) were reached by survey teams. The Sentinelese, on an island reserve, are hostile to outsiders and shot arrows at helicopters sent to check on them. On the Nicobar Islands the Nicobarese, a tribe with a Southeast Asian heritage (2001 population 28,653), lost about 656 lives with 3,000 missing. Surveys were conducted on the

(2001 census count of 398) located on Great Nicobar island. India's only active volcano, Barren 1 (on Barren Island northeast of

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South An ...

), erupted on 30 December due to increased seismic activity. The population was evacuated, and there were no casualties. Indira Point (6°45’10″N and 93°49’36″E), the southernmost point of the Great Nicobar Island and India itself, subsided in the tsunami and its lighthouse was damaged.

Meteorological and seismic reports

The Indian Meteorological Department warned people in coastal areas to exercise caution due to rough seas and tsunami. The Indian government issued a tsunami alert across India's coastal areas, triggering a panic which required clarifications.

''Ex gratia'' payments

References

External links

Rediff.com

BBC coverage (includes video footage)

* Redif

''Times of India'' photos

BBC photos

{{Natural disasters in India 2004 in India

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

History of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands History of Andhra Pradesh (1947–2014) Disasters in Andhra Pradesh History of Kerala (1947–present) 21st century in Puducherry 2000s in Tamil Nadu Disasters in Tamil Nadu 2004 disasters in India

Affected states and regions

Meteorological and seismic reports

''Ex gratia'' payments

See also

References

External links