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Six days after the killer tsunami struck Andaman and Nicobar, about 1,000 bodies are still reportedly lying scattered on different islands, while 5,400 persons remained missing, even as efforts to restore communication links and repair damaged roads and jetties were stepped up.
"About 1,000 bodies are still lying in different islands. Efforts are being made to dispose them," Chief of Army Staff Gen N C Vij told reporters in Port Blair after visiting Car Nicobar.
To persistent queries on the number of bodies, the army chief, said, "I am told that 1,000 bodies are lying about, but nowhere are the people sure of figures. You have to cross check with the Lt Governor. I have not made a head count."
Lt General B S Thakur, commander-in-chief, Andaman and Nicobar Unified Command and spokesman of the nascent Integrated Relief Command (IRC), which came into being on Saturday, said that all bodies found near roads and tracks had been disposed off.
Only bodies, which were buried under debris, or were in inaccessible areas, could not be disposed off. "We are using sniffer dogs to trace these bodies," he said.
Chief Secretary V V Bhatt said that 5,400 people still remained untraced, while 812 bodies were recovered and cremated.
Asked whether there was a possibility of them being alive after six days, the IRC spokesman said that a large number of them might have been washed away.
Gen Vij said that the people in the affected islands had overcome the initial shock and the smiles were back. "I have seen a ray of hope among these people. Our efforts are to make them feel that they are being taken care of."
Describing the formation of the Integrated Relief Command as a good step, Gen Vij said that members of the IRC would meet and work out further strategy on relief and rescue.
The IRC was formed for effective monitoring of relief and rehabilitation with special attention to the southern group of islands. Lt Governor Ram Kapase has been made its chairman and the c-in-c vice-chairman and operational head.
To a question that relief materials, including food, were not reaching many of the affected, Lt Gen Thakur said, "I am not claiming that it has reached every person. There is a logistics problem. You must appreciate it. But we have not let anyone die of starvation and thirst."
The IRC spokesman explained that Andaman and Nicobar was not like the mainland. "Every island here has to be approached by sea or helicopter. Only Car Nicobar and Campbell Bay can be reached by air."
Matters were improving each day and physical contact has been established with every inhabited island. Stating that drinking water was a major problem, he said that sources of water have been restored to a large extent in worst hit Car Nicobar.
The priorities currently were to restore communication links and jetties in the islands.
To a question, he said, there was no report of outbreak of cholera or epidemic in the affected islands.
Lt Gen Thakur said that the tsunami has changed the profile of the islands. "Once there was a beautiful beach at Campbell Bay, but it no longer exists."
The prime minister has deputed Union Minister of State for Home Sripakash Jaiswal and Minister of State for Communication Shakeel Ahmed have been deputed to the island to assist in relief and rehabilitation work.