Port Blair, India (AFP) - Glued to battery-operated radios, survivors in the
remote Andaman and Nicobar islands are getting updates on missing relatives
and aid with the help of the state-run All India Radio (AIR).

Its transmission centre in the Andaman capital of Port Blair has been
relaying messages 16 hours daily to islands where telephone lines have been
washed away.

"The archipelago's total population of 350,000 are our listeners and since
the tsunamis struck there is not one radio set which is not tuned into our
medium or short-range message transmissions," said programme executive Ashok
Srivastava.

Hotels, shops and taxi drivers are turning their dials to AIR, whose
executives have become regular announcers broadcasting messages received
from around the islands and from the Indian mainland in several languages.

On the ravaged island chain, 812 deaths have been officially documented,
according to the government.

However residents, police and aid workers fear 10,000 people died across the
500-plus islands which stretch over 800 kilometres (500 miles). Bodies are
still being pulled from the debris.

The Port Blair radio station, near the mouth of one of the world's busiest
shipping lanes, the Straits of Malacca, is also reaching boats in the
region.

"Two days ago a US ship after listening to our broadcasts in English rescued
six Indian fishermen who were lost in international waters," Srivastava
said.

"Our profile has now been converted into that of a support provider to
rescue and relief missions across the Andamans," he said.

Two female AIR workers, Lalita Tigga and Jaysheela Lakra, and five engineers
cancelled their year-end vacations when the tsunamis struck and volunteered
to carry phoned-in messages on special broadcasts.

"We are not official announcers but we are taking in appeals or broadcasting
live messages that come on the telephone or are handed over to us personally
by survivors, police or the army," Tigga said.

"We broadcast live with one hand on the red button to cut off anyone who
tries to spread rumours while on air," said Lakra, before donning headphones
for a full day's work.

"So great is the fear of the tidal waves here that one day when we announced
the arrival of drinking water, people left their homes and ran to higher
ground thinking tsunamis were coming. We have to be very careful," she said.

"The programme has become so important that from today we are relaying
tsunami-related news from New Delhi to local listeners."

The messages come from some of the 12,000 survivors living in makeshift
camps or from their frantic relatives in mainland India.

"Maybe in a day we are broadcasting up to 700 messages. Maybe 1,000 or
perhaps 2,000. We have just lost count," said station technical manager P.S.
Sehgal.

A bedraggled man Sunday came to the station trembling with emotion.

"You are our God. Beceause of you I now know my wife, son and daughter are
alive and well in Car Nicobar," said the man, who identified himself as
Jeevan.

He was separated from his family when tsunamis devastated his home. He was
brought to Port Blair by military rescuers last week.

His family members handed over a slip of paper to the Car Nicobar police who
gave it to the radio volunteers.

"There are thousands of such emotional reunions and that is our reward,"
said Tigga.

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