Tsunami, Tribes & Media

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26th December 2004. It was the turn of the sea to jump; a great spectacle of deluge after a night long dance to the tune of Christmas. So much life in the previous day sucked into the waves never to return. Impossible it was to escape a mass of water as high as a palm tree rushing at a speed of 700 Kmph. This is Tsunami a japanese name for harbour waves. These waves were triggered by an earth quake of an intensity about 9 on the Richter scale which occurred at 6.29 AM of 26th December 2004 off the coast of Aceh province on the nothern Indonesian island of Sumatra. These waves moved North into the Andaman islands. This earth quake is said to be the fifth largest earth quake since 1900.

This earthquake globalised the disaster. Tsunami struck Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, SriLanka, India, Maldives, of South Asia, reached Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Seychelles of eastern Africa and made the west coast of South and North America feel its effect. Scientists say the earthquake has shaken the planet Earth, made it wobble on its axis. They suspect the islands of the south west coast of Sumatra might have moved to the south west. They are afraid that the map of Asia might have changed. Tsunami is nothing new in Nature. It has been occurring and will be occurring. The scientists fear 'an erupting volcano in Spain's Canary islands could unleash a mega Tsunami larger than any in recorded history'. If it occurs, 'a wall of water upto 55 yards high would crash into the Atlantic sea board of the USA flattening everything in its path'- predict British and US academics.

Tracing the Terror Of Tsunami

Dec. 26. The unprecedented tsunami strike in South Asia worked like a monster suction pump taking in everyone and everything in its path that spanned at least 4,000 km.

Expert Speak:

CHENNAI Dec. 26. - The tsunami that hit the coastal districts of South India is a rare phenomenon created in

Dec. 28. North and South America felt tsunami's effect today as it moved eastwards over North and South Pacific Ocean.
It moved exactly in the opposite direction from Sumatra, through the Indian Ocean, to crash into the eastern coasts of Africa, with water rising over 10 feet.
Tsunami also struck the coasts of Cocos Island, Kenya, Mauritius, Reunion and Seychelles. It crossed into the Pacific Ocean and was recorded along the west coast of South and North America," US Geological Survey's web update said. This overtakes the 1960 Chile tsunami, in terms of making its presence felt right around the world.
As the tsunami reached new areas, the worst affected is Somalia, 6,000 km west of Sumatra. The Somali President said today that entire villages and coastal towns were swept away.
The Jamaica Observer said, waves traveled 3 km inland, along riverbeds, in some parts of Somalia.
The tsunami effect forced Kenya to close down all beaches. The situation was similar in Tanzania, 7,200 km from the epicenter, where several low-lying areas are flooded. One person had died and nine were reported missing from Seychelles, north-east of Madagascar, 6,500 km from Sumatra, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Dec. 27. The collision between the India and Myanmar plates snapped over 1,000 km in the Earth's crust beneath the sea floor, moving the Myanmar plate 40 feet over the Indian plate causing a series of earthquakes that continued today. Forty feet is the height of a standard four-storied building.
The quake changed geography. "The magnitude 9.0 earthquake moved the entire island of Sumatra about 100 feet to the southwest, pushing up a tsunami that devastated shorelines around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea," The Los Angeles Tunes reported, quoting seismologists.
Today, a 6.3 Richter quake rocked Sumatra at 3.09 p.m. Earlier, at 6.20 a.m. (1ST) a 6.1Richter quake shook the Andamans. Since the first quake, a staggering 32 aftershocks have hit the region, 18 of them in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands alone. The worst, 7.3 Richter hit Nicobar at 9.51 a.m. yesterday and the least, 5.4 Richter, hit the Andamans later that day at 5.30 p.m., according to the US Geological Survey which is monitoring Asia's seismic activity in real time. Tsunami also slammed eastern Africa. In Somalia, 14 were reported killed.
"Off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the India plate is moving in a north-eastward direction at about 5 cm per year relative to the Burma plate", their website said.
The Christian Science Monitor best described the tsunamis triggered by the quakes: "The sudden shift in plate-boundary heights was like slapping the underside of a full pail of water".
University of Southern Californias Professor Costas Synolakis and tsunami researcher said this was the first tsunami in the Indian Ocean since 1883. "Because of its magnitude the whole Earth would be ringing like a bell for a long time. That will be like a gigantic medical CT scan, allowing researchers to study the structure of Earth's interior in detail," he said.

Kolkata, Dec. 28: How are the Jarwas, Ongis and Sentenelese tribes doing? Could the six aboriginal tribes have survived the killer tsunami waves that slammed the Andaman and Nicobar islands?

'THEY ARE SAFE':

Paris: The most dramatic seismic shock in more than 40 years made the earth wobble on its axis and permanently changed the geology of the surrounding area, scientists say it was like "flicking a top", said Paul Tapponnier. head of the tectonics laboratory at the Institute de Physique du Globe (IPG), France's leading centre for the earth sciences.
Tapponnier said the quake deep beneath the Pacific Ocean lasted a "colossal" 200 seconds, building up huge amounts of energy in the sea that drove towering waves onto beaches throughout south Asia.
"That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut said.
Hudnut said seismic modelling suggested the quake may have moved small islands by as much as 20 metres, and the northwestern tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the southwest by around 36 metres. "That is a lot of slip," he said.
The energy released as the two sides of the geological fault line deep under the sea slipped against each other would have made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said.
Tapponnier said the quake caused slippage of the earth's surface along a front extending for 100 km. He said there may also have been vertical movements that possibly pushed the island of Siberut, 100 km west of Sumatra, one or two metres higher, although it would be impossible to check this scientifically because of guerrilla activity in the area.
Tapponnier said it was also possible that some regions of Sumatra south of the equator have been completely swallowed up. He said it was not rare for earthquakes to alter geological features. "Earthquakes are the architects of landscapes," he said. "All the mountains have been modeled by earthquakes."
Tapponnier said the massive 1960 earthquake off the coast of Chile shifted the local landscape by 20 meters. A quake in Alaska in 1964 pushed islands higher and sank oyster beds 12 metres under the surface.
However, Stuart Sipkin, of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden Colorado, said it was more likely that the islands had risen higher out of the sea than they had moved laterally. AFP

New Delhi: An enormous Anthropological Disaster is in the making. The killer Tsunami is feared to have wiped out entire tribes- already threatened by their precariously small number- perhaps rendering them extinct and snapping a slender tie with a lost generation.
Officials involved in rescue operations are pessimistic but still keeping their fingers crossed for the Sentinelese and Nicobarese, The two tribes seen as bearing the major brunt of the killer waves.
The bigger fear is for the Sentinelesese, anthropologically the most important tribe, living on the flat North Sentinel Island. Putting their population at about hundred, officials say no body count is possible, as the tribe had remained isolated. The Island is still there, is all one official will say. But going by the scale of devastation the fate of the tribals is anybodys guess.
The Nicobarese number about twenty-five thousand, are also feared to have suffered major losses if not mere extinction.

A World Lost Forever?

Great Andamanese: Population: 40. Once the largest tribal group. Bust most fell prey to communicable diseases in 1860s after contact with the British. GOI has been looking after them since 1968. They are settled in straight island, about sixty kms from port blair.
Onges: POP: 100. They inhabit little Andaman. At present, concentrated in two settlements, at Dugong creek in the North Eastern corner of the island and south bay. Semi nomadic and fully dependent on food gathering. Efforts to befriend them have been successful.
Jarowa: POP: 266. Inhabit the western coast of the middle and south Andaman. Have been traditionally hostile to encroachers. They have lately shown a willingness to interact with Non-Tribals but Anthropologists are debating how much contact should be encouraged.
Sentinelese: POP: 100. Inhabit North Sentinel island. Perhaps the most isolated community in the world but culturally and biologically. Hostile towards outsiders and all efforts at initiating contact have proved unsuccessful.
Shompens: POP: 250. Only primitive tribe of Mongoloid stock. Scattered over the Great Nicobar Island. Semi Nomadic, hunting and fishing tribes.

Port Blair, Dec. 30: For once, the coast guard chopper did not mind retreating under fire. Around 2 pm today, arrows began flying at the helicopter on a mission to draw up a situation report on the endangered tribals of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The arrow attack was the surest sign yet that the tribe has survived the tsunami.
Spotting a batch of 20 to 30 people on the North Sentinelese Island, the pilot shed altitude to take a closer look. If he had any doubt, it was removed when the tribesmen, known for their hostility towards intruders, fired the arrows.
If a ground count eventually puts the number at 30, it will account for almost all the Sentinelese known to be inhabiting the island.
Officials were upbeat about other tribes, too. "Our helicopters and naval ships have confirmed that the exotic tribes  Sentinelese, the Onges, the Shompens, the Great Andamanese and the Jarawas - are all safe. They have survived nature's fury," said Arun Kumar Singh, the vice-admiral and director-general of the coast guard.
The navy and the coastguard have been mounting multiple missions to track the tribes down in the face of growing concern about the fate of some of the world's most endangered groups.
However, a Onge woman is missing from a batch of 16 on South Bay.
The tribal welfare department has mounted a search for the young Onge woman who was last spotted near the beach on South Bay on December 25.
"We have counted only 15 Onges on the settlement. The woman is definitely missing," said a senior tribal welfare officer.
But inspector-general S.B. Deol said most of the tribes are safe and if anything had gone wrong, the authorities would have known.
"They are very friendly these days. Apart from the Sentinelese, the others ask for medical aid and are even hospitalised, if required. No untoward reports concerning them has reached us," added Deol.
The rest of the 80 Onges of the 96-member group stay in Dugong Creek, Little Andaman.

New Delhi Dec 31: - Estimated Tsunami toll: 100,000. All humans no animals! Well, hardly any. The only animal casualties were those of a few stray dogs who perhaps were reluctant to shun their neighbourhood "masters" though they too must have sensed the danger before hand.
The supposed experts on animal behaviors, wild life officials in Sri Lanka, expressed surprise that they found no evidence of animal deaths from the weekends massive Tsunami- indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground. The fact augurs well with the Para-science conjecture of bestial sixth sense. An AP photographer had flown over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an Air Force helicopter and was amazed to see wild life, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.
Flood waters from the Tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees, decimating jetties, tossing massive steamers over bridges, turning cars upside down, Mr. Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, owner of the Jetwing Eco Holidays, a hotel in the park, said, The animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground adding, this is very interesting. I am finding human bodies, but I am yet to see a dead animal. His hotel in the park was totally destroyed in Sundays Tsunami surge. May be what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense, Mr. Wijeyeratne said.
Yala, Sri Lankas largest wildlife reserve, is home to 200 Asian elephants, crocodiles, wild boars, water buffalos and gray languor monkeys. The park also has Asias highest concentration of Leopards. No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit, I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense an official said.

Dec 31- Politicians are the favorite scapegoats of media but it should not be overruled that yesterdays Home Ministry Vs Science & Tech. Ministry standoff could not have happened without the faux pass of the scientists.

Another theory

NEW DELHI, Dec. 31.- Yesterdays faux pas wasn't enough. We still nave more theories coming forth, on the source of that false alarm.

New Delhi Jan. 2- Scientists might have problem in understanding Tsunami disaster but some tribes of Andaman and Nicobar have the foresight of the natural calamity and managed to leave their villages hours before the tsunami disaster struck coastline.
JNU researchers, who are in the island studying the tribals lifestyle, claimed that tribals who were not part of government sponsored welfare programs suffered less than those tribals who had been rehabilitated by the state.
Professor Anvita Abbi, Centre of Linguistic and English JNU, who is conducting a research project in these islands said that one of her research student Pramod Kumar (Still in Andaman and Nicobar islands) told her that Jarawa tribe were able to understand and interpret the changing patterns of wave hours before the disaster struck, last Sunday. Jarwa tribes then climbed off to higher places and survived the devastation, she claims.
One of the unnamed tribal aged between 65 to 68 years had told Pramod yesterday, the his grandfather has cautioned him on the Tsunami during his childhood.
"When this tribal saw the changing patterns of waves, he raised an alarm and saved his community from the calamity." she says.
The historical facts confirm that there have been similar Tsunami calamity in 1941 in the same area which had also caused widespread damage and researchers say that these tribals have developed natural instincts to visualise such disasters.
However, in past over five -decades many of the islands tribes have been rehabilitated like Shompen and Nicobarese. Researchers claim' that government rehabilitation program might have been responsible in disturbing the lives and instincts of these tribes.
We found out that these tribes are extremely intelligent agile and responsive. They are also very receptive and respond fast to changes and have developed percept relations with their ecology, surroundings, sea waves, winds and even sea life.
They are not dumb assumed by the civilised world and: have been able to set an perfect equilibrium in their own world. said Professor Abbi.
These tribes despite being the last specimen of Neolithic age in South- East Asia have been able to maintain their rich Intellectual base of medicinal and efficacious use of the bio diversity and animals available.
As the project Vanishing Voices of the Great Andaman being carried on by JNU, is blocked due to Tsunami researchers opine that the present natural calamity may well be the reason to get some education on their knowledge.
Failures of some tribe to respond to tsunami again shows that we should not disturb their lives. They live a eco-friendly and we should not destroy it for our benefit" said prof. Alvi.

JIRKATANG (Andaman & Nicobar), Jan 7. Armed with bows and arrows, seven men from the ancient Jarwa tribe came out of the forest for the first time since the Andaman and Nicobar islands were battered by the tsunami. In a rare meeting with outsiders, the men said today that all-250 member of the tribe escaped inland and were surviving on coconuts. He, however, did not elaborate on how they managed to escape.
"We are all safe after the earthquake. We are in the forest in Balughat," Ashu, one of the men, said. Even though the Jarwas sometimes meet local officials to receive government-funded supplies, the tribe is wary of visitors.
"My world is in the forest, Ashu said through an interpreter in a restricted forest area at the northern end of South Andaman Island. "Your world is outside. We don't like people from outside."
Anthropologists estimate that the island's more primitive tnbes Jarwas, Great Andamanese, Onges, Sentinelese and Shompen have dwindled to between 400 and 1,000.
Government officials and anthropologists have speculated that the ancient knowledge of the movement of wind sea nod birds may have saved the indigenous tribes from Tsunami. But Ashu and his companions refused to talk about how they avoided the waves.
The seven Jarwa men  wearing only underwear and amulet emerged from the forest to meet government officials, accompanied by two reporters and a photographer.
Ashu, who said he was in his early 20s, gave his name and those of three others of his tribe- Danna, Lah, and Tawai. The men stopped the photographers from taking pictures. "We fall sick if we are photographed," Ashu said

Jan. 8. The last few dozen remaining members of an ancient indigenous tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands said they raced up a mountain to escape a devastating tsunami  and avoid extinction. No one was hurt. Everyone is all right," Jiroki, the king of the Great Andamanese tribe, said on Friday from a hospital in Port Blair.
"The water was rushing up very fast. It seemed to be following us" said his wife, Surmayee. "We stayed in the forest for 5 days. There was some rice. We ate that. Then there was nothing, so we went hungry." The Great Andamanese were once the largest tribe in the region with an estimated population of 10,000 in 1789. The government says only 43 Great Andamanese remain, while Jiroki says there are 50, of whom 10 are his children.
Anthropologists believe the five ancient tribes- including the Jorwas, Shompens, Onges and Sentinelese date back seventy thousand years.
Rescuers last week brought the remaining Great andamanese tribe people to port Blair in the wake of the massive 26th Dec Earth quake and resulting Tsunami. Jiroki whose tribe lives in a forest on Strait Island in the south of the Archipelago, seized the opportunity to seek treatment for epilepsy at state run hospital. Speaking in broken Hindi, Jiroki and Surmayee said that when the earthquake jolted their homes on Strait Island, they ordered the tribe to flee "I am the king. They follow what I say," said Jiroki, wearing a red T-shirt and shorts.
"We asked the wireless operator to send a message to Port Blair. But the machine and battery had been flooded by the water. They were spoiled." The island's jetty was smashed so no boats' could land. The tribe members' clothes, utensils and other household' articles were all washed away, Surmayee said.
And contrary to speculation by some anthropologists, she said the Great Andamanese did not sense the impending arrival of the tsunamis.
Some experts say the Great Andamanese are a sad example of how indigenous people quickly lose centuries of tradition and culture when they come in contact with the outside world.
"I have written them off. They hardly have a culture or tradition of their own," said Samir Acharya, head of the independent Andaman and Nicobar Society. "They have all forgotten their own dialect They are mostly acting as copycats of the rest of us." The tribe maintains links with government officials, and a police officer, a wireless operator and a doctor's assistant live with them on Strait Island.
Some members of the tribe work in police and government for jobs in Port Blair. The tribal leaders admitted their lifestyles are different from those of their ancestors. "We don't use bows and arrows now, we have given them up. We hunt fish and pigs with spears," Surmayee said.
The Great Andamanese traditionally eat roots, seafood, turtles and turtle eggs, but in recent years have begun eating rice, pulses and bread. But the tribe's increasing exposure to the rest of India has placed it at risk.
"They are exposed to highly communicable diseases besides unhealthy drinking habits which, of course, are acquired after contact with the moribund dominant and advanced communities," according to the Andaman and Nicobar government website. Surmayee was ready Friday to leave the city and return home. "I want to go back. I don't like it here. I am used to being in the forest," she said. But her husband disagreed. "We feel nice interacting with the outside world. Earlier our heart was only in hunting," Jiroki said.
"There were no movies, nothing". AP

New Delhi, Jan. 14: The tsunami-affected tribals in Andaman and Nicobar Islands want to build their houses themselves and only expect the government to help with money and raw materials like timber and bamboo. Union tribal affairs minister P.R. Kyndiah, who returned to the capital yesterday after visiting the affected islands, said the tribals did not favor the government constructing homes for them. Kyndiah today said he has already contacted the governments of Bengal and Kerala for supplying timber and bamboo to the affected islands.
The Supreme Court has recently eased a ban on cutting trees in the Andamans to meet the need for urgent reconstruction. Kyndiah said people belonging to various aboriginal tribes in the islands were safe though some tribes, including the Nicobarese, Sentinelese and the Shompens, were hit hard by the tsunami. "All tribes, including the Onges, Sentinelese and the Jarwas, in the islands are safe. There is no question of extinction of any tribe."
The minister pointed out that the government had already "fine-tuned and streamlined the entire relief operations in the islands". The target would be to rehabilitate the affected people before the onset of monsoon by end April.