Thursday, January 6 2005 17:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: To help Tsunami victims combat the severe psychological trauma they have suffered, counsellors from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Bangalore are training as many as 26,000 volunteers in Andaman Nicobar Islands and Tamil Nadu.

Since the devastation in the Andaman and Nicobar, where out of the 38 islands 30 have been affected, is immense, it is not possible to provide psychiatric help with a handful of volunteers, Director and Vice-Chancellor NIMHANS Dr D Nagaraja said.

It is not just the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which show up in the victims much later but various psychological problems like acute shock and depression, which need immediate attention, he said.

In view of this, three teams have already been dispatched to Port Blair and have started identifying representatives of various voluntary agencies there who can be trained, Nagaraja said.

The picturesque Islands, which once attracted tourists in droves for its water sports and coral reefs stand battered by the gigantic waves, with the official numbers going upto 9,675 with more than 6,000 still missing.

The Islands experienced nine more tremors yesterday (Jan 5, 2005).

Two more teams comprising psychiatrists are leaving for Nagapattinam, the other Tsunami ravaged coastal town near Kanyakumari, he said.

NIMHANS has been the first to provide psychiatric help and direct care during calamities like the Bhopal Gas Leak in 1984-85, Super Cyclone in Orissa, Latur quake in Maharashtra and the earthquake in Kutch region in Gujarat, Nagaraja said.