| India
For the first time in over half a
century, India
was hammered by a tsunami
which killed over 14,000 people and injured 7,000 more.
The Boxing Day tsunami saw waves between 3 and 10 meters
(10 and 30 feet) high strike over 2,000 kilometres of
coast. In some places, sea water came inland up to 3
kilometres.
India's south-east coast, especially
the state of Tamil Nadu, was the worst affected area
on the mainland. In addition, the offshore Andaman and
Nicobar Islands -- closer to the origin of the tsunami
-- were also badly hit.
The incident devastated
communities with its massive overall
damage to life, property and environment, and left
behind families torn apart by death or injury.
Most of the damage was done to fishing
families living on the coast -- they lost homes, fishing
craft and gear as well as their livelihoods.
Over 150,000 houses
were fully or partly damaged: more than half were temporary,
lightweight structures belonging to poor fishermen.
Many of these people already owed debts to big merchants
and informal money lenders, and the tsunami only made
their conditions worse.
Fishermen were not the only ones to
suffer damage. Small farmers were affected as incoming
saline water destroyed crops and ruined cultivatable
land. Many families lost their domesticated or farm
animals.
On the whole,
the disaster will have little discernible impact on
India’s GDP growth, but the total financial
loss has been estimated to be US$ 1.2 billion.
In the face of tragedy, the Indian
government reacted quickly. It allocated US$ 630 million
dollars of funds for relief and rebuilding. The governments
of affected states, and the central government provided
also rushed relief materials to affected families.
Community members and NGOs joined
these efforts, and the private sector donated funds
and supplies to both government and established relief
NGOs like Oxfam and CARE.
UN agencies coordinated its relief efforts with the
state and local authorities.
For BBC Country
Profile on India, see:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/country_
profiles/1154019.stm
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