Fresh panic gripped the Andaman and Nicobar islands on Thursday as rumours of its subsidence drove hundreds to board ships to mainland India with all their life's savings.
The administration's attempts to explain that there was no scientific basis to the fear fell on deaf ears.
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Hundreds queued up to take any of the available vessels -- MV Akbar, MV Nicobar, MV Nancowry, MV Swarajdweep, MV Harshavardhan -- to take them to the safer terrains in Chennai, Kolkata or Vishakhapatnam.
''We have been waiting overnight to get tickets. We want to leave the islands as soon as possible,'' said R Muthuswamy, who wanted to go back with his family of seven to his native Chennai.
Muthuswamy has wound up his garment business but could not sell off his property before leaving.
''If everything is okay, we can always come back to sell the land. As of now our lives mean more,'' said the man, who lost a few relatives in Car Nicobar in the calamity which struck parts of coastal south Asia on December 26.
The ships are crammed with people willing to make the journey in spaces barely enough to stand.
''The bunker tickets have no numbers. It is a first-come-first-serve situation. If you don't get a bunker, they allow you to go standing... we don't mind that,'' said Atul Prakash.
Those who have braved the rumours to stay back have moved to higher places.
Amrit Singh, an officer with the cooperative department of the administration, says the panic even affected rational men.
Omkar Nath, a hotel manager in Port Blair, has been reading newspapers and scanning every news channel to detect any truth in the rumours.
''Do you think it has something to do with the cracks in the Burmese and Indian plates?'' he asks journalists in his hotel.
In the absence of a widespread campaign by the local administration, rumours are rife.
Even vulnerability maps made public by the government to show which low-lying areas could be inundated during high tides are being wrongly interpreted.
''See, these are the places that are going to sink first,'' says Murugan, a shopkeeper in Aberdeen Market area in central Port Blair, pointing out to the coastal areas marked in red.
When contacted, Lt Governor of the islands Ram Kapse said there was no scientific basis to such rumours. ''We don't know who is spreading such rumours. People must not yield to them.''
Lt Gen Aditya Singh, Commander-in-chief of the Integrated Relief Command, which is overseeing rehabilitation in the Andamans, said the rumours had no geo-scientific basis.
''Not even astrological predictions on high and low tide have anything to say on this. The panic is ill-founded.''
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