dogs and dead people: Tsunami Relief Team reporting from Andamans

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Organization: WILDLIFE S.O.S ® - New Delhi - India

" WILDLIFE S.O.S ® - Delhi " <wildlifesos

Relief Team reporting from Andamans

Sat, 5 Feb 2005 21:28:19 +0530

 

 

Report from the Disaster Relief Team at Andamans:- Our team finds it

very difficult to send regular mails as the electric connections are

almost continuously down. They have spent some time at Hud Bay-

Little Andamans which is completely washed out now. The sea water

reached 3 kms inside for an 8 km stretch, the average height of the

waves was 25 ft and more than 100 kms per hour at the time of the

Tsunami. The main port and the commercial hub of Little Andamans is

reduced to a ghost town with damaged vehicles in grotesque piles and

tonnes of dead coral scattered all over the ground. They could not

find more than 20 dogs there on the first day although there were

plenty of pigs around being the live stock of the natives that live

in 80% of Little Andamans that is thickly forested and on higher

grounds.

 

As per survivors reports, the pigs ate the decomposing bodies

and not the dogs, Jose writes, " Deepak a constable in Andamans police

told me that the dogs continued sitting next to the dead bodies of

the owners and never touched a single body, he himself buried more

than 40 bodies and the policeman depended on position of the dogs to

locate the bodies. It was only after the bodies were burnt that the

dogs went and hid in the forests or went to the relief camps where

the survivors are awaiting evacuation in search of food. "

 

A feeding plan had to be made for these abandoned pets as

the people are leaving the islands. During our return trip the boat

carried three times its passengers capacity. The authorities are

unable to persuade them to stay back. Frequent earthquakes and the

rumors that the island is going to sink is making everybody run for

their lives. In Little Andaman there is plenty of fodder and natural

grass and leaves available for the cattle. It is however the dogs and

cats who need medical treatment and ABC. The animal husbandry

hospital is damaged and closed down.

 

Kannan (14 yrs old) is the son of a Tamil settler who owned a

small tea shop in Hud Bay. The location was 0.5 kms from the

seashore. He recalls how the earth quake happened when he was working

in the tea stall, he fell down and a mug of hot water spilt on him,

so that he ran out and within seconds the tea stall crumbled he

watched in horror as he saw houses collapsing people trapped inside

screaming, then the quake stopped. His dog Kaiser was with him as

they were the best of friends. The night before many animals had

behaved abnormally and the dogs belonging to many of his friends had

run away into the forests the previous night. Suddenly the people

began shouting that the sea had gone dry for almost for 1.5 km and

they rushed closer to the seashore wondering what had happened to the

fishermen who were out at sea. Others were rescuing the injured and

nobody was aware that the Tsunami was getting ready for a strike.

Suddenly a huge water wall began moving towards the shore, Kaiser and

he both began to run towards the forest and at some point, he found

himself lifted by a murky salty wave, when the wave pulled back,

Kannan was still on land and he ran for his life to the forests, but

he could not see his beloved Kaiser anywhere. On the 3rd day, the

people hiding in the forests decided to come back to where his home

and tea stall was. Suddenly from nowhere, Kaiser jumped on him,

licking him all over. When we landed at Hud Bay, the tea stall had

been set up again by Kannan's father and we stopped here for a cup of

tea. After telling us his story Kannan whistled and Kaiser came

running, he told me to take a photo of them and to send him a copy he

wants to keep it on his wall. Here the bonds are stronger than the

concrete which gave way when the killer wave struck.

 

Mr & Mrs Pappi Naidu, met our team at the Zilla Parishad Bhavan they

had escaped from Hud Bay, Mrs Naidu pleaded with our team to look for

Pepsi their lost cat when they went to Little Andamans. She remembers

that the cat seemed very upset the previous night and wouldn't enter

the house. " It was looking at me sitting outside the house even when

the earth quake struck, our house was 400 metres from the sea shore.

My husband pulled out our neighbors from his damaged house and rushed

him to hospital. I was alone there when i saw the tide come in and

ran towards the forest ( high land) I remained there for a day.On

the second day when I came down my husband was there looking for our

belongings, only some pillars of the house remained. For us Pepsi was

our child and a member of the family, we searched three hours, but

became frightened after the aftershocks began shaking the island, our

son was safe in a camp, but he was in tears when we said we had not

found Pepsi. The next day we searched for her .... no luck... then we

came to Port Blair. Our team followed the directions given by the

Naidu's down to the last land mark but we never saw Pepsi, the Naidus

however have not given up and request passengers inn every boat to

inform them if they sight Pepsi their cat.

Port Blair, we are now feeding 800 animals. The list of villages &

families are with us, fodder is supplied to the cattle once in two

days, we have started lifting the weakest of the dogs from the

streets and sheltering them at the BJJRSP shelter. The necessary

treatments are done here. We hope to find more feeding points for the

cattle as villagers approach us inviting us to remote parts of the

islands where cattle is stranded.

 

 

WILDLIFE S.O.S® & FRIENDICOES-SECA sincerely thank the Tsunami

Relief Team for their commitment and hard work in the affected

areas. We also thank the volunteers who design and distribute the

E-mailers. We thank all those who support us in many ways to carry on

this relief work. With out your help this was not possible.

 

 

Your Support to : FRIENDICOES SECA or can be sent by cheque to

 

D-210, Define Colony , New Delhi - 110024. INDIA

 

 

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish

language subsections.