Today marks the 12th anniversary of that devastating event.
On the night of December 26, 2004, a massive quake of magnitude 9.1-9.3 — with its epicentre in Bay of Bengal — triggered one of the biggest Tsunamis the world had ever witnessed.
The massive waves, measuring up to 30 metres, created havoc in 15 different countries killing more than 2,00,000 people. More than half of those who perished in the calamity belonged to Indonesia.
The 2004 tsunami impacted people in 15 countries along the Indian Oceon region
In India, over 10,000 people were killed in the disaster, which is considered to be one of the deadliest in recorded history. The extent of damage it caused was attributed to a number of reasons, mainly poor infrastructure and warning systems and large population living in coastal areas
The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami or Christmas Tsunami, caused fatalities among large number of tourists because of the holiday season.
As per the official count, 10,136 people died in India with majority of the casualties reported from Tamil Nadu. However, unofficial estimates believe the actual number could have been over 18,000 people. The second most affected region in India was Andaman and Nicobar islands where official death toll reached over 1,300, with over 5,500 missing.
Millions were displaced and subsequent research work revealed that the environment also suffered damage because of it. The only active volcano of the country, Barren 1 on Andamad Islands, erupted on December 30 as a result of the seismic activity. However, nobody was harmed in the incident.
On January 1, 2005, Ministry of Home Affairs released a ‘Tsunami impact report’ which said: “The Tsunamis have caused extensive damage in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the States of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and UT of Pondicherry. 97 aftershocks of intensities between 5.0 to 7.0 on Richter scale have been reported so far. The death toll is now at 9575. This is likely to go up once confirmation regarding 5801 missing persons/feared dead (as per preliminary survey) in the Nicobar Group of Islands is received.”
According to the report, a total of 36,09,000 were impacted only in mainland states – Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. A concerted relief and rescue operation followed the catastrophic event and the world community donated over $14 billion in 2004 as aid. Apart from India and Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand were also severely impacted.
Since the unfortunate incident in 2004, India and other countries along Indian Ocean belt have now advanced their security systems to respond quickly to any such warning in the future.
Meanwhile, the 2004 Tsunami remains etched in memories of millions throughout the world as one of the most devastating natural disaster to have occurred in recorded history.
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