Thursday, January 13 2005 14:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Port Blair: As thousands of people in relief camps across the capital city of this emerald green archipelago choose to make it their home post-tsunami, Port Blair faces a threat of massive over population in years to come.

Sources in the Andaman and Nicobar administration today (Jan 13, 2005) expressed apprehension that the population of the city, which currently stands at nearly one lakh could be almost doubled giving them logistical headaches as more and more people, move to this geographically safer terrain.

For the thousands who have lost everything to the waves, going back to the smaller devastated Islands seems to be pointless.

''It is a vast stretch of sea where our house once stood. Then where shall we go? We will have to stay back in Port Blair which is far safer,'' says Anita Lakda, who has been in a relief camp with her two children after being evacuated from the Lapati area of Car Nicobar.

Her husband, Bhima Bhagat, a contract electrician, has been searching for a job in the capital.

As people who have some accommodation in Port Blair move out of the relief camps and those who have alternate homes in the mainland leave the Islands, the number of people in the relief camps has dwindled substantially.

''Those who had somewhere to go have gone. But what will happen to settlers like us? We will have to stay back in Port Blair,'' says Sweta Seth whose husband had a roaring garment business in the Shastrinagar area of Campbell bay, 350 kms off Port Blair.

Seth, whose family had shifted to Port Blair from Kanpur long ago, has decided to begin their own business and stay back with her three children and mother-in-law in Port Blair.

Kotamma, who ran a betel shop with her physically challenged husband, Giri Raju, in the completely wiped off Malacca area in Car Nicobar, said that the tribals inhabiting the Island did not want mainlanders to come back.

''As it is they were hostile towards us. After the tsunami they have threatened to kill us if we went back. We have to stay back in Port Blair,'' she said.

In the School Lines relief camp near the airport, there are only 177 people left as against the over one thousand people who were brought to Port Blair from Campbell Bay, Car Nicobar and Hut Bay areas post tsunami.

Similar is the scene in the 15 other relief camps across the city.

''Most of these people are going to stay back for the fear of the seas. This is certainly going to pose a challenge for the Andaman and Nicobar," the official said.