Offerings of milk, flowers, prayers mark 20 years since Boxing Day tsunami

Offering milk and flowers to the sea, silent processions and prayers along Tamil Nadu's lengthy coastline on 26 December 2024, Thursday, marked 20 years since the massive tsunami struck the state on 26 December 2004.

People from all walks of life joined the fishers and the tsunami survivors in paying a tearful homage. People visited the mass burial sites since morning and offered silent prayers in remembrance of the lives claimed by the giant tidal wave.

In Chennai, Tamil Nadu governor R.N. Ravi, along with the fishermen and the families who lost their kin in the devastating 2004 tsunami, participated in the Tsunami Remembrance Day march along Marina Beach. He honoured the memory of those who lost their precious lives in this catastrophic tragedy, the Raj Bhavan said.

The giant wave had swallowed about 7,993 people in the state including 6,065 lives in Nagapattinam district alone in the tsunami triggered by an earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean near the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

The unprecedented devastation due to the fury of the waves affected around 50 town panchayats of six coastal districts of Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi in the state.

As per the intensity of disaster, the affected town panchayats were categorised as worst damaged and partially damaged and 19 out of 50 town panchayats were declared as worst damaged as the loss of lives and damage to property was high, an official said.

The calm Sunday following Christmas had turned into a dreaded nightmare for several hundreds of families in the coastal districts from Cuddalore to Kanyakumari. The huge waves ravaged habitations and infrastructure, besides claiming human lives.

People gathered in large numbers and paid homage at the memorial in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kanyakumari districts, too. In Thoothukudi, the people lit candles, offered milk and flowers at the sea.

At Nagore, the residents paid homage at a mass burial site on the dargah land and lighted candles.

The remembrance day was observed at Pichavaram and in Mayiladuthurai, too, where the people from 28 fishing villages paid their homage.

Meanwhile, with a two-minute silence observed nationally, Sri Lanka on Thursday marked the 20th anniversary of the South Asian tsunami that had killed over 30,000 in the island nation.

Sri Lanka now marks 26 December as National Safety Day, and the main memorial ceremony was held at Peraliye, about 90 km from Colombo in the southern province, where over 3,000 people died in the world’s worst train tragedy caused due to the tsunami.

The 9.1 magnitude earthquake-induced tsunami was first felt in the island’s eastern coast before moving south resulting in devastation beyond belief.

At 9:25 a.m. on 26 December 2004, the train from Colombo to the southern town of Matara was hit by the raging tsunami waves and within no time, the train and its tracks became a mangled heap, killing all on board.

The Reverend Wimala said over 3,000 tsunami victims from the village had been buried in the three mass graves located on either side of the monument.

He said the need to preserve the grave site was important as two of the graves have already been covered with mangroves and shrubs.

At 9:25 a.m. on Thursday, the train came to a halt at the same place where it was hit with the tsunami waves 20 years ago. Relatives of some of the victims were seen carrying flowers to pay tribute at the nearby monument.

Some local villagers who had jumped on to the train thinking they would be safe too had perished that day. “This was the world’s biggest train tragedy with over 3,000 dying,” said Paraliye Wimala, who heads the local Buddhist temple and is now in charge of the board that maintains the monument to commemorate the victims.

Twenty years on, Peraliye is a site for many museums and abandoned plots of land as their owners disappeared without a trace.

“I don’t want to talk about it — it hurts so much even after 20 years,” Thushanthi Jayani, who lost her father-in-law and her six-year-old niece in the tragedy, said.

The powerful undersea megathrust earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 9.1, had struck off the coast of Sumatra Island, Indonesia, on 26 December 2004, prompting a series of turbulent tsunami waves that ravaged the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India (including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Thailand, Maldives and Myanmar.

'Sri Lanka was one of the hardest-hit countries, with over 40,000 fatalities and property damage worth several million rupees. Thousands were left homeless as waves pushed debris several kilometres inland, pounding buildings into rubble,' news portal Adaderana.lk said.

Since 2005, 26 December has been declared as Sri Lanka's 'National Safety Day' and commemoration events are held in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the country due to the various natural disasters, including the tsunami disaster, the portal added.