Saturday, January 8 2005 15:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Car Nicobar: ''The tsunami is a thing of the past. We will stay put even if another one comes and people try to influence us to leave our homeland,'' says Susan, who lost her husband and son to the killer waves.

Her words reflect the steely resolve of her brethren in the Nicobari tribe of this group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, which were pounded by the tsunami on December 26.

The repeated quakes due to aftershocks invoke fear in them but cannot shake their determination to stay on in their centuries old habitat.

Obed, first captain of the Kakana settlement and the grandson of Padmasree Edward Kutchet, earlier chief captain of Car Nicobar, spoke to a team of visiting scribes today (Jan 8, 2005) with a smile on his face.

''We love our land and will not leave it under any circumstance,'' he says waving his arms to describe the fury of the sea waves that had risen to the heights of the coconut trees on that fateful day.

Of the 400 villagers in his hamlet, 85 are missing after about a fortnight since the calamity struck.

A number of the tribeswomen and children, under treatment at the nearby Bishop John Richardson Hospital for physical injuries sustained during the calamity, appeared to be trying to come to terms with reality.

At Sawai and Arong villages, many tribals in resettlement camps have expressed their wish to be relocated at the very place where their houses stood, says Brig J M Devdoss, officer-in-charge of relief operations at Car Nicobar.

'Operation Madad' undertaken by the Integrated Relief Command was trying to infuse the spirit to fight back the odds back among the tribes, he said.

The Air Force residential colony in Car Nicobar, that once throbbed with activity, has been reduced to a heap of rubble.