Thursday, January 6 2005 11:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Campbell Bay: He saw it all over the TV and read in newspapers - the death and destruction that the Tsunami wrought in the Andamans. Yet, a faint hope lurked in his heart that his father, a wild life photographer, would survive somehow.

So he, accompanied by his father-in-law, arrived in Campbell Bay all the way from Pune on December 30.

His search proved futile, but Amal Nagarkar went back to Pune with that smouldering hope that someday his dear father would be found.

Amal trekked 11 kms through the dense jungles to reach 41 Point at Galatia South Bay where his father, Pramod Nagarkar, and three doctor friends, were staying in a tent on the shore.

''My father was a wildlife photographer and he had gone there to click photos of turtles which came from Australia to lay eggs,'' he said.

Pramod, who reached Campbell Bay on December 23, was last seen by a forest guard on that fateful morning at 05:00 hrs (IST), just one and a half hours before the killer waves had struck.

After that there was no information about him and his friends, Milind Patil, Commander of the coast guard in Nicobar Islands, said.

The three friends - Ramesh Vidwe, Sanjay Limaye and R Khande - also nature lovers, were staying with him in the tent just a few hundred metres from the shore, Patil said.

''My father came here to the Campbell Bay thrice earlier to watch and study the turtles, Amal said.

A coast guard helicopter had dropped Nagarkar and his father-in-law at Thirty km and they had to trek to the jungle with the help of some local people.

''We had to take that path since there was no road; everything was washed away. The terrain through the hills in the jungle was very difficult to negotiate, he said.

Despite failing in his search, Amal was grateful to the local people, coast guard and Defence personnel. ''They were very helpful. One person even gave accommodation to us for the night and food when we had gone there.''

Asked if there was any possibility of his father's survival, Patil said that chances were very remote since there was no high ground around the shore upto 2 kms and the other side was infested with crocodiles. ''However, we will carry out search operation,'' he said.