Date:07/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/07/stories/2005010701551500.htm

National

Nicobarese boys help rescue family

PORT BLAIR, JAN. 6. Defence forces today rescued 17 members of a Nicobarese family, marooned in the West Bay of the tsunami-hit Katchal island since December 26.

Two boys of the family ventured out of the marooned island and waded 18 km through a slushy jungle path to report the ordeal of the family to the defence rescuers.

The operational head of the Integrated Relief Command, Lt. Gen. B. S. Thakur, said here that the boys informed them that the family lived on coconuts and bananas all these days since the tsunami slammed the islands.

``We sent a reconnaissance Chetak helicopter with one of the boys as guide to locate that family,'' Lt. Gen. Thakur said.

``It was such a difficult topography and we could not have located them had we not taken the boys with us,'' he said. — PTI