Chapter 2 — The Tsunami

The tsunami struck on 26 December 2004. It hit Thailand and parts of India including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Tamil Nadu coast. It was triggered by a massive earthquake off northern Sumatra.

Ignesious was the manager of a cooperative society in Katchall. After the tremors, he and his family rushed outside. In the chaos, two of his children caught hold of their mother's father and mother's brother and ran in the opposite direction — Ignesious never saw them again. His wife was also swept away. Only the three children who came with him were saved.

Sanjeev was a policeman serving in Katchall island. He managed to save himself, his wife, and his baby daughter. However, when he heard cries for help from the wife of John, the guesthouse cook, he jumped into the water to rescue her. Both he and the woman were swept away.

Thirteen-year-old Meghna was swept away along with her parents and seventy-seven other people. She spent two days floating in the sea, holding on to a wooden door. Eleven times she saw relief helicopters overhead, but they did not see her. She was eventually brought to the shore by a wave and was found walking on the seashore in a daze.

Almas was ten years old and had gone with her family to her mother's home in Nancowry island to celebrate Christmas. Her father noticed the sea recede and tried to rush everyone to safety. Her grandfather was hit by something and fell; her father went to help him and both were swept away by the first giant wave. Her mother and aunts, clinging to a coconut tree, were washed away when the tree was uprooted. Almas climbed onto a floating log and fainted; she woke up in a hospital in Kamorta.

Tilly Smith was a ten-year-old British schoolgirl on holiday with her family at a beach resort in southern Thailand. She had studied a tsunami video in a geography lesson two weeks before. When she saw the sea slowly rise and start to foam, bubble, and form whirlpools, she recognised the warning signs and screamed at her family to leave the beach. Her parents took her and her sister away, and a number of other tourists also left. The family took refuge on the third floor of the hotel, which withstood three tsunami waves.

Tilly's geography teacher had shown the class a video of a tsunami that had hit the Hawaiian islands in 1946. The teacher also told them that tsunamis can be caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides.

According to eyewitness accounts, elephants screamed and ran for higher ground; dogs refused to go outdoors; flamingoes abandoned their low-lying breeding areas; and zoo animals rushed into their shelters and could not be enticed to come back out. About an hour before the tsunami hit Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, three elephants were observed running away from Patanangala beach. A man in Galle said his two dogs refused their daily beach run that morning.

According to the chapter, the giant waves killed more than 150,000 people in a dozen countries. Not many animals were reported dead. At Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, sixty visitors were washed away from Patanangala beach, but no animal carcasses were found except for two water buffaloes. Along India's Cuddalore coast, buffaloes, goats, and dogs were found unharmed.

The chapter presents two ideas: first, that animals possess a sixth sense and know when the earth is going to shake; second, that animals' more acute hearing helps them hear or feel the earth's vibration and sense an approaching disaster long before humans do. The chapter notes that we cannot be sure whether animals have a sixth sense or not.

Almas lost her father, grandfather, mother, and aunts in the tsunami. The chapter states that the little girl does not want to talk about the incident with anyone and is still traumatised — greatly shocked and distressed by what she witnessed and experienced.

Yes. The NCERT Class 8 English Honeydew Chapter 2 PDF is free to read and download on CBSE PrepMaster — no sign-up or payment required.