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India scours the seas for Andaman’s missing thousands

NEW DELHI: Ships scoured the seas for thousands of bodies still missing in the tsunami-hit Andamans on Tuesday as India refused offers of foreign aid for the ravaged islands amid a mounting clamor for relief among survivors.

The death toll in the Andaman and Nicabar isles was 832 while the number missing, most presumed dead, totalled 5,801 as another moderate earthquake shook the remote chain early Tuesday. “We’re grateful to governments which want to help but as of now we have the resources,” junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said in Port Blair, capital of the islands, located some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) southeast of the Indian mainland and home to military bases along with tribal populations.

The overall Indian toll from the December 26 disaster was at least 9,571 people dead and 5,914 missing, the government said. The stepped-up hunt for bodies off the archipelago which is home to 356,000 people came as India said relief was proceeding on a war-footing amid growing calls for help from many of the 38 inhabited islands.

“They’re only talking big while we’re starving. This shouldn’t be made into some politics,” said Manik Guin, a survivor from Hut Bay, one of the devastated islands, after being evacuated to Port Blair. His comments followed reports that a civilian administrator was seized by hungry survivors in the Nicobar Islands at the weekend. He was freed hours later after promising to provide more food.

“These are sporadic incidents and they’re being taken care of,” said Ram Kapse, federal administrator for the more than 500 islands. Foreign aid agencies in Port Blair have expressed anger at the rejection of their offers of help for the islands, many of which are out of bounds to both mainland Indians and foreigners due to security concerns and a desire to protect endangered primitive tribes from outsiders.

With India pushing for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, New Delhi has been keen to show itself as a regional power rather than a victim and has dispatched aid to Sri Lanka and other countries hit by the tsunamis. “If we need such help, we’ll approach them (foreign aid agencies),” the federal minister said, adding domestic non-government aid agencies were working side-by-side with the state machinery.

Meanwhile, around two dozen air force pilots and personnel such as radio operators flew back to the mainland after working tirelessly to rescue victims despite losing family members. “I salute them. These men lost everything. Their wives, their children ... and still these were the men who rescued 400 civilians within hours that day,” Air Force chief Shashi Tyagi said as he watched the men board the flight.

“It was war. Perhaps war against nature and what they did was a glistening example of sheer courage,” he said. Some 110 Air Force personnel and family members died when the wall of water crashed into the Car Nicobar airbase, one of India’s most strategic complexes.

Lieutenant General BS Thakur, who heads aid operations in the Andamans, said five naval ships and military aircraft were hopping between islands where thousands of soldiers, doctors and administrators were deployed in relief work. “We have deployed dog squads to help ground personnel find corpses in rubble and aircraft and ships ... are also keeping an eye for bodies in the waters.”

Troops scoured dense mangroves for missing people and planes were evacuating survivors from ravaged islands to relief camps, officials said.

Junior minister Jaiswal said a second relief phase would soon be launched to find new homes for island populations who lost their houses to the waves and an action plan was planned for January 15.

India’s director general of health services SK Agarwal said 40 specialists were working alongside local doctors on islands where the waves wiped out the health infrastructure. “There are no signs of any existing or impending disease outbreaks although sporadic cases of diarrhoea and malaria are being reported,” said Agarwal. afp

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