December 26, 2004 On the same day, a magnitude 9.15 earthquake shook the coast of Aceh, Indonesia. Then the tsunami caused by the earthquake gradually spread to the whole of South and Southeast Asia
The catastrophic tsunami killed at least 230,000 people, including 170,000 in Aceh alone. Indonesia was followed by Thailand, Sri Lanka, then India Just as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are in crisis today, so is the cry for death in South India. Cuddalore alone lost 600 people.
As images of the tsunami's damage and floating corpses began to circulate around the world, then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a New Year's speech that various German cities and places would form partnerships with the tsunami-ravaged regions.
Then, through the "German Agro Action", the forest town responded. In Cuddalore, South India, the students raised about লক্ষ 500,000 by organizing markets, lectures and charity concerts in support of the district.
There, in a small village in the Cuddalore district, the day the tsunami hit, everything was devastated - 15-year-old Sabinath no longer remembers that day. He did not remember exactly who died and how many houses were destroyed that day by the huge waves. He has been asked so many questions in the last eight years that his answers are now molded for Sabinath.