The Andaman and Nicobar islands, the exotic southern most part of India, suffered massive destruction in the tsunami on December 26 last year. Over 3,500 lives were lost, largely in Nicobar islands, which are barely 107 km from Sumatra, epicentre of the earthquake that caused the tsunami.

The killer waves flattened over 10,000 homes, wiped out entire villages, swallowed more than 100,000 livestock, 6,000 hectares of plantation crops, destroyed jetties and devastated the Indian Air Force station on Car Nicobar island.

Articles in the series • Air Force base rises from tsunami wreckage • Sorrow exists in all their eyes • Picking up the threads • Tsunami's drifters • Struck by tsunami, isolated by geography • An island returns from hell • Grace by the sea • Know Andaman and Nicobar

Separated from the Indian mainland by 1,200 km of water, transporting relief to the affected islands was no easy task. All material, from nails to earthmovers, had to be shipped or flown in, and the armed forces were called in to assist the civil administration in relief and reconstruction.

Six months after the tsunami, intermediate shelters are ready, around Rs 500 million has been disbursed in compensation, and makeshift schools have been built, but officials say it will take at least two years for Andaman and Nicobar to return to normalcy as we knew it.

Senior Features Editor Archana Masih and Contributing Correspondent A Ganesh Nadar spent 10 days in the region and discovered that while the islanders remain scarred by the tragedy, they are also slowly rebuilding their lives.

A series on life in Andaman and Nicobar, six months after the tsunami.