World India Andaman And Nicobar Islands Port Blair

Paul Harding in India

High Tides in the Andaman Islands Mar 21, 2005

Flying into Port Blair (although the fortnightly boat from Chennai is back in operation, that little three-day sea crossing is not for me!) I could see the ongoing affects of the tsunami on South Andaman. High tides still had parts of the most populated island underwater, with many homes partly submerged.

The Andaman & Nicobar islands, 1000km east of India and close to the epicentre of the quake that caused the tsunami, were badly affected but it was the Nicobar Islands - off-limits to tourists and foreigners and inhabited solely by indigenous tribes - that bore the full force of the tsunami.

Port Blair is now the base for relief camps housing several thousand people and for relief organisations including Oxfam, World Vision and Unicef. Arriving at the airport I filled out the necessary forms for the permit required by all foreigners to visit the islands.

I wanted to see how, if at all, Port Blair had changed since my last visit, so I hired a moped, donned a hard hat that was supposed to serve as a helmet, and went for a ride in the tropical blast furnace of mid-afternoon (the guy who rented me the bike also wanted to sell me a 'secret' CD show video footage of the tsunami. Out of curiosity I bought it for Rs 50. It didn't work on my computer).

Aberdeen Bazaar was as busy as ever - the narrow shopping strip, lined with colourful open-fronted shops and clogged with autorickshaws, trucks, two-wheelers (motorbikes) and sari-clad pedestrians, could be anywhere in provincial India. Finding the coast road was a relief and I could see some of the minor damage the high water had caused, breaking the seawall in places, damaging Aberdeen jetty and stripping much of the sand from Port Blair's only beach at Corbyn's Cove. There had also been some damage at the main harbour, Phoenix Bay jetty, but, three months later, everything was working normally again.

I spent the late afternoon chatting with relief workers from Oxfam and visiting a camp at Nirmala School near the town centre. It was a relatively small camp - two long, makeshift open-sided tents with canvas covering and colourful fabric draped over the top. Displaced islanders lounged in the shade surrounded by suitcases and whatever belongings they have left. Boredom is clearly a problem now but vocational training and cash-for-work programs are helping. The children broke the ice, and when I produced a camera they were more than happy to bunch up for a photo and ecstatic when I showed them the digital results.

Now I have to tackle the ferry schedules - reduced due to the smaller numbers of tourists - to visit some of the islands and see what's happening outside the capital.