Remembering Tsunami of 2004

The tsunami that hit more than a dozen of countries from Indonesia to India to Africa's east coast in 2004 and was triggered by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the coast of Banda Aceh, northern Sumatra, claimed 230,000 lives. More than 16,000 lives were lost in India (Photo: AusAID)

The importance of mangroves can be underlined by the fact that many relief workers in tsunami-affected areas had reported that areas with mangroves or any other natural barriers, like Pondicherry, incurred less loss in life and property than Nagapattinam and Cuddalore, where the Tsunami waves went through the low lying areas that were occupied by settlements instead of forests (Photo: Pradip Saha)

In total, 14 countries were affected by the disaster. These were India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and the Seychelles (Photo: E Schneider/UN)

India has a long coastline stretching over 5,700 km, exposed regularly to tropical cyclones arising in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Therefore, 10 years after the disaster and increasing extreme weather events like cyclones and irregular rainfall, the question still remains: how prepared are they and how can we ensure that they act on time and do the needful? (Photo: Pradip Saha)

In India, Tamil Nadu was the state that was hardest hit by the tsunami. The monstrous waves destroyed or damaged about 130,000 houses—about 900,000 people were affected (Photo: World Vision)

One of the major causes of the disaster was that over the years, the natural protectors along the coast, like sand dunes and mangrove forests, have been consistently disturbed and in some places, even destroyed. Regulations have been flouted everywhere (Photo: Flickr)

Mangroves, the tiny forests along the coastline, holding rich nutrients of the land and the sea and home to a variety of marine life, are extremely crucial as they cushion the impact of tidal waves. This unique ecology has now been disturbed, and in many places even cut down, against all regulations (Photo: Melgupta/Flickr)