Agence France Presse

Port Blair, February 11:

A teenager who lived on wild fruits and coconuts for 45 days after tsunamis ravaged the Indian Ocean archipelago of Andamans in December has been rescued, police said today. The 18-year-old was evacuated on Wednesday from Pillopanja, one of the southernmost islands of the archipelago ravaged by the giant waves on December 26, the police chief of nearby Campbell Bay island, Shaukat Hussain, told AFP.

He identified the woman only as Jessy and said her husband and her one-year-old child were missing and presumed dead. “Jessy took to the forests when the waves came but by the time she came out after several days the rest of the population had been either evacuated to Campbell Bay or swept away by the waves,” Hussain told AFP by telephone. Fewer than 1,000 people lived on Pillopanja before the tsunami struck. Police said another tribal resident, identified only as Michael, returned to the devastated island on Wednesday and found the seriously ill woman on a deserted beach. “Michael found her on the ocean’s desolate shores and alerted the crew of the boat that had taken him there,” said Hussain. Jessy was ferried back to Campbell Bay and is receiving urgent medical treatment. “She has lost weight and her body is swollen and scarred by mosquito bites,” he said.

Hussain said the young woman survived on wild jackfruit, coconuts and the little fresh water she could scavenge on the deserted island. India, which administers the Andamans and Nicobar archipelago, refuses to give up the search for survivors in the devastated islands, including Katchal where more than 80 per cent of the 5,600 population is listed as missing.