Operation Tsunami Relief

Introduction

On 26th December 2004 an Earthquake erupted at around 7.30 am, under the Indian Ocean waters near the Indonesian Coastal town of Banda Aceh. It triggered a Tsunami that adversely affected six countries. Within minutes, the town of Aceh was engulfed by the giant wave. The wave affected the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Andaman, Nicobar island group by 8.30 am. The town of Nagapattanam in Tamil Nadu was the most affected one. Surprisingly, the wave turned around and hit the western coast of Kerala at around 12.30 pm the same day, in Kollam District.
India had no Tsunami warning system in place at that time. The warning was made available by American weather satellites. But the warning system at local level was not in place and hence, the unsuspecting coastal population was severely hit. Thousands perished and hundreds of coastal dwellings were destroyed. Infrastructure along the coast was severely damaged. The catastrophe was a severe shock to the country and rescue/ relief efforts were unorganised because of lack of organised forces, except the armed forces, and the political leadership as well as the bureaucracy found wanting in planning and organizing efforts and mustering of resources.

Pre-Induction Actions of DiMaRF

DiMaRF decided to offer relief to the victims, a gigantic task considering that the organization was new, lacked essential equipment and the volunteers were not fully trained. Initial contact was established with Prof Vinod Menon who was working with UNICEF and was responsible for coordinating response of the government agencies at Central and State Govt levels. He further coordinated the response location of DiMaRF and it was decided that Kerala had received no outside help and the concentration of efforts was in Tamil Nadu. Communication was established with the District Collector (and DM) of Kollam District and a broad plan of action emerged. The place of response was identified by the District Collector (Mr. B. Srinivas) as a village Airam Thengu. It was decided that DiMaRF will provide relief to approximate 500 victims till the District Collector was able to start rehabilitating the victims. There were many problems that the organization faced and finally surmounted. These are enumerated bellow:

  • Duration: It was anticipated that it would take about 7 to 8 weeks of relief intervention.That amounted to having multiple teams to take turns. The manpower requirement and finance became major constraints.
  • Manpower: We had very meagre number of volunteers. This issue was sorted out by approaching Fergusson College. There were many young students who volunteered to offer help. In the later batches, students and staff from Bhosala Military College at Nashik also contributed manpower. The availability of doctors was the next issue. Approaching BJ Medical College and Ayurved Colleges in Pune solved this problem. Clinical Psychologists were arranged by contacting SNDT College.
  • Material: Providing relief to about 500 victims for 7 to 8 weeks required the following type of material:
    • Camping tents for victims and volunteers.
    • Rations and cooking material.
    • Medical equipment and medicines.
    • Other administrative material like Fire Fighting equipment, toilets material, essential commodities for the victims (including clothing and bedding), security related arrangements, identity cards for the victims etc.
  • Finance: Since DiMaRF did not have the required material, it had to be bought. Also, travel of volunteers in batches had to be organized. It was decided that each batch would function in the camp for Seven days. Including the travel time to Kerala and back, a team was out of Pune for 10 days. It was magnanimous of the General Public that they reposed faith in DiMaRF and contributed. Main contributors were – Anil Deshpande (Through Col Marathe), Sansui Software Pvt Ltd (Through Col Ahluwalia) and many individual donors. Students of Col Marathe were very enthusiastic and purchase teams were made out of them and the entire material was bought within 48hours.

Planning and Induction

Following broad plan was:

  • (a) The first batch of responders would have a total of 43 volunteers, as the camp had to be established ab-initio and would require a lot of work. The 43 volunteers would include 3 doctors and 2 clinical psychologists.
  • (b) Induction would be two pronged – 3 volunteers accompanying truck full of material and 40 volunteers to induct by train with bare essential stuff required to sustain one night.
  • (c) Subsequent batches would be of 30 volunteers. Each batch would stay in the camp for six days. On the sixth day, the next batch would reach and both the batches would perform duties jointly for a few hours and the earlier batch would start the return journey on the seventh day.
  • (d) A team of four volunteers would man the Pune office/ facility to plan for the next batch, ensure their rail reservations, buy additional material to be ported with the next batch, handle accounts.
The first team was ready to start inducting on 3rd Jan 2005. The truck was loaded on 3rd Jan by afternoon and was dispatched on NH 17. The team boarded a train the same evening. Kayankulam was the destination station. The team reached Kayankulam on 5th Jan 2005 morning and was received by the representatives of the District Collector. A bus was arranged for the team and the team was taken to the camp location. The truck reached on 6th January morning. By then, the team travelling by train had cleaned out the camp area. Immediately on arrival of the truck, the volunteers started setting up the camp.

Camp Establishment and Organization

Tent Setting: The team had tents of the specifications 20 ft X 16 ft, in which 16 people could be easily accommodated. 32 tents were pitched for the victims. There were three tents for the living accommodation of the volunteers. There was a tent for cook house, one tent to store rations, one tent for medical inspection that also acted as stores for the medicines. There were two tents for bathrooms of the volunteers, one for the gents and another for the ladies. Latrines and bathrooms for the victims were set up with plastic sheets screens. The camp was ready to receive victims by 7th January morning. The collector gave a list of people whom our camp had to accommodate. A total of 513 victims were accommodated from 7th January morning onwards.

Reception Centre: A reception centre was established in verandah of a building. It was manned 24 X 7 by two volunteers.

Water Points: A water point was established for drinking water and water for other usage. There was a capacity of 5000 litres storage, of which 4000 litres was kept for the victims. The collector provided water twice a day. Arrangements to add chlorine purifier were done.

Cooking Arrangements: Rations for 500 people for four weeks had been carried in the truck. The main staple diet was rice based. However, the Collector started providing dry rations after about eight days. Thereafter, DiMaRF was required to purchase fresh vegetables and milk only. Teams of ladies from within the ‘victim crowd’ were made. Each team was to cook for one day every week. The victims were served tea twice a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Children were provided with milk mixed with bournevita or chocolate.

Sewage Disposal: Dry and wet waste was disposed by the volunteers in conjunction with the male members from the victims’ lobby.

Media and Visitors’ Management: An event diary kept record of all events. A visitor book was started. There were many visitors including local dignitaries and experts appointed by the Central Government. Media coverage was regulated to pre-decided script. Local NGOs also sought training from DiMaRF, in the camp location.

General: The subsequent teams turned over every seven days. Games, Yoga, Competitions were organized to bring the victims out of their psychological trauma. Philosophical lectures of Hindu, Christian and Islam preachers were arranged. Volunteers also helped in cleaning the damaged houses of the victims across the backwaters. A study was conducted of the houses that were damaged and not damaged, from the structural engineering perspective. The Collector also placed an ambulance at the disposal of the DiMaRF Camp Commandant for emergencies. Red Cross had donated some medicines to the camp.

De-induction

The collector started rehabilitation of the victims by beginning of March. It was then that the DiMaRF team returned, winding up the camp. DiMaRF gave some essential articles to each family as they started moving out of the camp. DiMaRF also provided rations to a small village where the Collector could not provide relief.

The Camp was finally wound up and the stuff was brought back to Pune in the empty vehicles of Bombay Sappers returning to Pune by mid-March 2005. DiMaRF had helped the army unit in terms of providing medical inspections and medicines.