[India News]: Campbell Bay (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Feb.15 : A teenaged woman, who survived on wild berries and rainwater for over 40 days on a tsunami devastated Indian island, was rescued by a search helicopter earlier this week.
Jessy, an 18-year-old mother of one, was found on the tiny island of Pillopanja in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, seriously ill and lying alone on a deserted beach by locals who had returned to the devastated hamlet.
She had fled into the forest interiors when the massive waves struck but lost her way and could not come back to the fringes in time to be evacuated.
She is now at a hospital in the nearby Campbell Bay being treated for malnutrition and mosquito bites and has had a stream of well wishers including India's interior minister Shivraj Patil, visiting her. Her husband and child are missing and presumed dead.
"I lost my husband in the tsunami. I ventured into the forest where I lost my way. I survived on wild berries. When I came back to my village, there was no one. Many a times, I saw helicopters but could not draw their attention," she said.
Around 7,500 people, a majority of them Nicobarese tribals who normally live on the coast, have died in the island chain which had a population of more than 356,000.
Rescue and relief have been slow in coming to the islands mainly because all the harbour jetties were destroyed. Most of the 36 inhabited islands in a chain of hundreds can only be reached by sea. (ANI)
