Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on India
Encyclopedia
- For related articles, see :Category:2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
In India, 10,136 people, according to official estimates, were killed and hundreds of thousands were rendered homeless when a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
near the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
hit the southern peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
r coast on 26 December 2004. The earthquake registered 9.0 in moment magnitude
Moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...
and was the biggest in five decades. This was followed by strong aftershocks, including a 9.0 magnitude quake http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussmax.htm in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Andaman and Nicobar
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprise 572 islands (all land masses in both low and high tides) out of which 38 are inhabited, both by people from the mainland and indigenous tribes. The islands lie just north of the earthquake epicentre, and the tsunami reached a height of 15 m in the southern Nicobar Islands. The official death toll is 1,310, and about 5,600 are still missing. The unofficial death toll (including those missing and presumed dead) is estimated to be about 7,000.The Great Nicobar
Great Nicobar
Great Nicobar is the largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. Indira Point, its southernmost tip, is also the southernmost point of India. The island of Sumatra is located to the south of Great Nicobar...
and Car Nicobar
Car Nicobar
Car Nicobar is the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands. It is also one of two local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands....
islands were the worst hit among all the islands because of their proximity to the quake and relative flatness. Aftershock
Aftershock
An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock...
s continue to rock the area. http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=55804
One fifth of the population of the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...
is said to be dead, injured or missing (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/974230.cms). Chowra Island has lost two thirds of its population of 1,500. Entire islands have been washed away, and the island of Trinket
Trinket Island
Trinket Island is part of the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. It is located east of Kamorta island and, like the Nicobar Islands generally, is under the sovereignty of the nation of India...
has been split in two (http://in.news.yahoo.com/041229/137/2ipv4.html). Communications have not been restored with the Nancowry
Nancowry
Nancowry refers both to a single island and to the group of adjoining islands that make up the central part of the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea....
group of islands, some of which have been completely submerged, with the total number of the population still out of contact exceeding 7,000 (http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/30tsunami2.htm).
Among the casualties in Car Nicobar, 111 Indian Air Force
Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict...
personnel and their family members were washed away when the wave hit their air base, which was reported to have been severely damaged (http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=50910). The St. Thomas Cathedral (also known as the John Richardson church after John Richardson, a missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
and member of parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
) was washed away. The church, established in 1930 was one of the oldest and prominent churches in the region. A cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
stadium named after John Richardson and a statue dedicated to him were also washed away.
The majority of the population of Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
is made up of people from the mainland, mostly from West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
and Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. The natives of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are endangered tribal groups, such as the Jarawa
Jarawa (Andaman Islands)
The Jarawa are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood...
, the Sentinelese
Sentinelese
The Sentinelese are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago...
, the Shompen
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.- Etymology and autonym :...
, the Onge
Onge
The Onge , also Önge or Ongee, are one of the Andamanese adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They are sometimes classified as "Negritos". They were formerly distributed across Little Andaman Island and the nearby islets, with some territory and camps...
and the Great Andamanese
Great Andamanese
Great Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman archipelago, the main and closely situated group of islands in the Andaman Islands. Numbering between 200 and 700, each of the Great Andamanese peoples maintained a...
. They are regarded as anthropologically
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
significant as they are some of the world's most primitive tribes and considered the world's only link to ancient civilization. Most of these tribes have maintained their aboriginal lifestyle for centuries, and government policy has been to not interfere with them unless essential.
It is reported that most of the native islanders survived the tsunami because they live on higher ground or far from the coast (http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/31/stories/2004123106661100.htm). The Onge
Onge
The Onge , also Önge or Ongee, are one of the Andamanese adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They are sometimes classified as "Negritos". They were formerly distributed across Little Andaman Island and the nearby islets, with some territory and camps...
(with a 2001 census population of 96), Jarawa
Jarawa (Andaman Islands)
The Jarawa are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood...
(240), Sentinelese
Sentinelese
The Sentinelese are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago...
(39) and Great Andamanese
Great Andamanese
Great Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman archipelago, the main and closely situated group of islands in the Andaman Islands. Numbering between 200 and 700, each of the Great Andamanese peoples maintained a...
(43) have been reached by survey teams and are confirmed to be safe although the number of dead is unknown. The Sentinelese
Sentinelese
The Sentinelese are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago...
live on a reserved island and are hostile to outsiders which is making it difficult for Indian officials to visit the island. They have shot arrows at helicopters sent to check on them. (http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=4d40b4df-f5ed-46be-a0f4-5ff01938e6aa,http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4250294,http://www.expressindia.com/print.php?newsid=40160). In the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...
, the Nicobarese, a Southeast Asian-looking tribe (2001 population of 28,653), have lost about 656 lives with 3,000 still missing. Surveys are being conducted on the Shompen
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.- Etymology and autonym :...
(2001 census count of 398) located on Great Nicobar island.
India's only active volcano, Barren 1, located at Barren Island
Barren Island (Andaman Islands)
Barren Island is located in the Andaman Sea, one of the most easterly of the Andaman Islands. It is the only confirmed active volcano in South Asia...
135 kilometres (83.9 mi) northeast of the capital Port Blair
Port Blair
Port Blair is the largest town and a municipal council in Andaman district in the Andaman Islands and the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India...
, erupted because of increased seismic activity on 30 December 2004. People have been evacuated since then and there have been no reports of any casualties. India was highly affected as 700 children lost their parents.
Further meteorological/seismic developments
The Indian Meteorological department has warned people in coastal areas to be careful. The seas are predicted to rough due to the after shocks with tidal waves in a few coastal areas. The detailed Met report.The Indian government issued a fresh tsunami alert across India's coastal areas. This alert triggered panic in some coastal areas, subsequent to which the government had to issue clarifications to calm the people.
The Andaman region is still experiencing aftershocks of varying intensities.
| Aftershocks at Andaman | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | # of aftershocks | Intensity (Richter scale) |
||||
| 26 Dec 2004 | 26 | 5.2 to 7.0 | ||||
| 27 Dec 2004 | 16 | 5.0 to 5.8 | ||||
| 28 Dec 2004 | 9 | 5.0 to 5.4 | ||||
| 29 Dec 2004 | 12 | 5.0 to 6.1 | ||||
| 30 Dec 2004 | 6 | 5.2 to 5.5 | ||||
| 31 Dec 2004 | 12 | 5.2 to 5.8 | ||||
| 1 Jan 2005 (till 16:00) |
3 | 5.0 to 6.3 | ||||
The government has been asked to remain vigilant in light of these after shocks without affecting the relief and rescue operations and normal life.
Government ex gratia
| Ex Gratia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.No. | Government | Ex gratia | |||
| 1 | Government of India | The Prime Minister has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 1,00,000 (one lakh rupees) to the next of kin of each deceased. The ex-gratia payment will be made from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. |
|||
| 2 | State Government of Tamil Nadu | The Chief Minister has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 1,00,000 (one lakh) to the families of each of the victims. Source: (The Hindu) |
|||
| 3 | State Government of Kerala | Ex gratia of Rs. 50,000 to the next kin of those killed. Assistance of Rs. 10,000 for the families of the deceased, to meet the funeral expenses. |
|||
| 4 | Union Territory of Pondicherry | The Chief Minister N Rangasamy has announced an ex gratia of Rs 1,00,000 (one lakh) to the next of kin of the dead. The administration would also pay an ex gratia of Rs 5000 towards funeral expenditure. For those injured in the disaster, the administration would provide Rs 5000. A sum of Rs 10,000 to enable the homeless to reconstruct houses. Source: (NewKerala) |
|||
Helping out
The following bodies and agencies are seeking public help and contributions:- Indian Prime Minister's National Relief Fund
- The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan SinghManmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
has issued an appeal for contributions. You can find more information about the relief fund http://pmindia.nic.in/relieffund.htm. You can find the form for contribution at http://pmindia.nic.in/formpmnrf.htm
- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent SocietiesInternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent SocietiesThe International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is a humanitarian institution that is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the ICRC and 186 distinct National Societies...
donation page
- International Committee of the Red CrossInternational Committee of the Red CrossThe International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
donation page
- A listing of News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts by a volunteer team of bloggers. Fresh information can be posted here.
requests on-line donations to provide for immediate relief to disaster victims
An amount of Rs. 895.42 crore has been earmaked for Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Schemes.
India's assistance to other quake-affected countries
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs, along with the Indian defence forces and Home Ministry, is coordinating relief operations to Sri LankaSri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
Operation Castor (assistance to Maldives)
Three vessels have been launched for Male.- INS MysoreINS MysoreFollowing ships of the Indian Navy have been named for the state city of Mysore:, a Crown Colony class light cruiser, the former HMS Nigeria, commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1957, and decommissioned in 1985, a Delhi class destroyer, commissioned into the India Navy in 1999...
(two helicopters, reaching Male on 20 Dec 2004) - INS Udaygiri (one helicopter, reaching Male on 29 Dec 2004)
- INS Aditya (one helicopter carrying water and a water purification plant, medical teams, reaching Male on 30 Dec 2004)
Operation Rainbow (assistance to Sri Lanka)
- INS Sharda
- INS Sutlej
- INS HI JACK
Operation Ghambir (assistance to Indonesia)
- INS Nirupak - The hospital ship left for Sumatra, Indonesia on 30 Dec 2004. It was carrying emergency rations, medicines, tents and first aid kits. It had 10 officers and 240 sailors on board.
Check
See also
- 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake2004 Indian Ocean earthquakeThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
Tsunami related pages & official sites of affected regions
- Andaman & Nicobar: Tsunami coverage | Govt. Website | Press releases
- Tamil Nadu: Tsunami coverage | Govt. Website | Press Releases
- Pondicherry: Tsunami coverage | Govt. Website | Press releases
- Kerala: Tsunami coverage | Govt. Website | Press releases
- http://www.caritastsunamirelief.com
Indian media coverage
International media coverage
- Latest coverage from Google News India
- BBC's coverage of the disaster (includes video footage)
- Reuter's Alertnet's coverage
Blogs and websites
- Tsunamihelp - News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts by a volunteer team of bloggers.
- Donateindia.com - Well organized lists of all essential information related to Indian relief efforts.
- TrueNorthFoundation - Reports of relief work and help required from Nagapattinam.
- Tsunamivictims.org - Contact numbers and Contributions towards the relief efforts.
- Tsunami Locator - list of resources to support the those searching for missing persons.
- Tsunami Help India spun off from Sumankumar's yak pad out of Chennai, India
- Post seismic Post Seismic deformation of Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Other aid efforts
- United with South East Asia - List of aid organizations, hotlines and information by countries.
India tsunami impact satellite imagery
- National Remote Sensing Centre Case Studies
- GlobalSecurity.org
- CRISP, Singapore
- NSPO, Taiwan
Photographs of the disaster
- Rediff Set1 Set2
- Sify.com
- The Times of India
- The Hindu
- The Indian Express (6 albums)
- BBC
- Port Blair photos - Govt of India
- Tribune India
Reports on earthquakes in India
- India Seismicity Map
- Significant earthquakes in India
- National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Tsunami Page
- Most Recent Seismic activity
Disaster management in India
- National Disaster Management Authority
- Disaster Management in India
- National Disaster Management (Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India)
- National Institute of Disaster Management
- UNDP's page on Crisis Prevention and Recovery for India
- UNDP's Disaster Risk Index for India
Meteorological agencies
Other forums & discussions
- AsianTsunami.org A forum dedicated to the support of the on-going disaster relief work.