Chennai, December 29
Mass burial and cremation were carried out in various districts of Tamil Nadu today to prevent an outbreak of epidemic as the death toll due to Sunday’s tsunami waves in India crossed 20,000, with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands alone accounting for 12,000.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh reached here tonight on a two-day tour of the affected areas in South India. He will leave for Nagapattinam and Cuddalore districts of Tamil Nadu tomorrow morning and also visit the affected districts in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh followed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which were ravaged by the tsunami waves.

The suffering due to the wrath of the killer waves continued, as in the worst-hit Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu alone 4900 bodies were today either buried or cremated. Out of this 2400 were in Nagore town, 1500 in the Velankenni village and 1000 in other parts of the district.

The situation in Nagapattinam is turning out to be grave as unclaimed bodies are still lying beneath debris of destroyed houses and many more are still being swept ashore.

With a majority of the districts in the south-eastern coastline not equipped to combat such a disaster, the decomposed body piles, contaminated water and lack of health services might lead to some kind of epidemic.

The district administrations are working round the clock but in places where the toll is too high, they are struggling with the situation.

Since rescue operations are still on in many places, distribution of relief was inadequate and there were even demonstrations by fishermen in some places.

While the situation is grim in all tsunami-affected areas, the worst is Car Nicobar, which has been devastated beyond any imagination.

Like other states in mainland India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are governed by an administration which does not have a developed health service and whatever was there, has now broken down.

The death toll in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands today reached around 12,000, assuming that the many more thousands were missing.

The islands faced two more tsunami aftershocks this morning measuring 5.7 and 6.1 on the Richter scale this morning, the total being 54 aftershocks since Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, scientists have already expressed apprehension that some of the 72 indigenous tribes, some of whom like the Jarwas living in isolation on the 319 islands, might have been wiped out by tsunami.

In the south-eastern coastal states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, including Karaikal, the death toll today stood at 8,218 and is likely to keep rising.

The situation in tsunami-affected villages depict a common sight of wailing women and men searching among debris for their beloved amidst the stench of death.

There are signs of devastation everywhere and people could be seen washing in ponds, which have dead animals rotting in them.

The shortage of water is acute and the affected men not only need food, clothing and medicines but help from the administration to return and rebuild their homes.

While 4900 bodies were disposed of in Nagpattinam district, 250 km south of here, there are many more to be retrieved and many more which are still being returned by the sea. In Kanyakumari, the number of dead rose to 1300 while the figure reached 689 in Cuddalore district.

In the Union Territory of Pondicherry, it was 425 with 355 deaths in Karaikal.

In the seven other coastal districts of Tamil Nadu affected by the killer tidal waves the death toll today was 173.

The death toll in Kerala today rose to 170, with the small town of Kollam accounting for 120 of them, while the number of dead in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh officially stood at 104 but around 700 still missing.