Mention the word ?adoption? to the Nicobarese tribespeople of Andaman and Nicobar islands and you will likely receive a glare even though the Asian tsunami orphaned dozens of children from their tribe. ?Adoption? Never. They are like my own children,? said Judith, a teacher, pointing to 1-year-old Prerna and 6-year-old Lidveena, who lay on straw mats in a relief camp in Port Blair, the capital of the Andamans.

Prerna and Lidveena survived the tsunami after a Nicobarese man picked them up ? along with three other small children ? and put them in a tree before clambering up himself. ?It is natural for us to look after our own. Somehow, I will make ends meet,? said a weary Judith, who has two children of her own and whose husband is unemployed.

Judith is the sister-in-law of the girls? father, who along with his wife was washed away by the tsunami in Car Nicobar island in the southern part of archipelago, close to the epicentre of Dec. 26 the undersea earthquake that caused the huge waves. She is also one of many aunts, uncles and friends from the tribal group who have taken orphans into their families, saying anything less would be a betrayal of their age-old tribal tradition of large extended families.

There are 32 orphans among the more than 1,000 survivors at the relief camp ? flown in or brought by boat from outlying islands ? and each is being looked after by adults. ?We remain one big family. No one will be left out,? said Nathanial, a tribal leader at the relief camp. In Car Nicobar alone, one of about three dozen inhabited islands in the cluster of more than 550, at least 3,000 Nicobarese are dead or missing.

Thousands more of the 27,000 predominantly Christian population have lost their homes and the group accounts for the largest chunk of the more than 6,000 people dead or missing on the tropical islands. Overall, children account for at least one-third of the more than 150,000 killed around the Indian Ocean by the tsunami. But tens of thousands more, from Europeans holidaying on Thai beaches to the sons and daughters of poor Indian fishermen, have been orphaned. Thousands more have only one surviving parent who cannot look after them alone. While authorities in many areas are mulling the possibility of putting the orphans up for adoption, the Nicobarese oppose the idea vehemently.

?They are very resistant to even the possibility of adoption. Their concept of extended families is so strong. It?s amazing,? said Shivani Tyagi, a relief worker who works with children. Not far away 9-year-old Manisha, one of the orphans, sits quietly in a faded red dress. Asked if her new family ? friends of her parents ? are taking care of her well, she nods quietly.

<B>Kamil Zaheer</B>