Decade of uncertainty over the missing

This day a decade ago, Marimuthu was taking a stroll on the Marina Beach. Little did he know that it would be his last—a giant tsunami would strike soon after, sucking him into the sea.

Till date, Marimuthu's relatives are yet to come to terms with his death, as his body was never found.

Marimuthu's is not an isolated case. Thousands across Tamil Nadu, including in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Chennai, Kancheepuram and Kaniyakumari districts, went missing in the tsunami, leaving their families in a similar limbo.

“It was a sad day for me when my husband perished in the tsunami. Even now there is no clue as to where he disappeared,” said Marimuthu's wife Kamakshi, tears rolling down her cheeks. Though she received some compensation from the government, Kamakshi said her scars remain fresh.

The fishermen's community in the state was rattled by the tsunami's trail of devastation. “I lost my son-in-law and sister to the tsunami. The bodies have not been recovered till date,” said Arumugam, a fishermen from the Nagapattinam district.

Though Arumugam, who lost all his properties and savings to the tsunami, has started a new life since then, the nightmare still persists in his head.

A senior revenue official, who was doing rehabilitation on the day the tsunami struck, said its impact was huge, and they had to dig earth and bury bodies non-stop for more than a week.

“A street in Akkaraipettai in Nagapattinam was lined with corpses of both the young and the old. They were loaded into a truck for mass burial,” he recollected.
Nagappan, from the Cuddalore district, lost his wife and mother to the waves, and is still recuperating from mental illness at an orphanage.

Official statistics said more 2,000 are still missing in Nagapattinam alone, which was the worst-affected district. The death toll in Nagapattinam was little over 6,000, while more than 600 perished in Cuddalore district, and more than 200 in Chennai.

The uncertainties continue even as people observed 10th anniversary of the tragedy.
They lit candles and offered floral tributes at memorials for the victims in Tamil Nadu.
In Cuddalore, the memorial pillar in Devanampattinam has been decorated with flowers to mark the occasion. Various artists in Tamil Nadu have started making sand sculptures along the seashores depicting the horrors of the tsunami.

The fishermen in the tsunami-hit coastal districts have decided not to venture into the sea on Friday as a mark of respect for the tsunami victims.