Villages deal with aftermath

By Sunil Raman
BBC News, Tamil Nadu

Boats were thrown on to homes in the flattened villages

Eighty children died in Kallar. Many of their bodies were swept out to sea as the village was flattened by Sunday's tsunami.

Joseph, a fisherman, took us inside his home in the village in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

He lost his three children but his wife managed to survive.

"I have never seen anything like this before. It was a wall of water that engulfed my house... sweeping my small children away."

The doors of his home were wrenched off, its contents reduced to a slushy mess.

A few bodies were swept ashore here in Kallar. Freshly dug sandpits are the only reminders of their loved ones the locals could not save.

Engineering corps

Four days after the giant wave, the government machinery has begun to provide relief to survivors.

In neighbouring Akkaraipettai village there are white government cars and official vehicles.

Unclaimed bodies are cremated

A huge earth-mover pulls along a boat that has been thrown several metres.

Soldiers from the Army Engineering Corps are removing rubble and repairing bridges.

Naval helicopters have begun sorties to ferry foodstuffs.

DDT has been sprinkled around to disinfect the area.

Many boats are upturned, some even landed on the brick houses that survived the disaster.

A clutch of doctors and nurses have pitched a temporary clinic on the main village path. They came from neighbouring districts on Tuesday night.

Dr Ravi Kumar, head of the medical team, says they have given tetanus injections to 2,000 people.

"I cannot rule out disease spreading in the area," he says.

Many of the patients suffer from respiratory problems, gastro-enteritis, allergies and even depression.

But back in Kallar, survivors still await the arrival of officials. They complain that no government representative has visited them.

Fishermen point to two unclaimed, decomposing bodies on the shore. They say they will wait awhile before cremating them.

Asked when they plan to return to sea, they say: "Ask the government. We have nothing left except the clothes we wear."