IN PICS: On 16th Anniversary Of Devastating 2004 Tsunami, Tamil Nadu Residents Pay Tribute To The Lives Lost

FILE Photo: A woman grieves over the body of her son at Silver Beach in Cuddalore,some 185 kms south of Madras, 27 December 2004, after tidal waves hit the region. (Photo credit PRAKASH SINGH/AFP via Getty Images)

FILE Photo: Tsunami orphan sheds tears during a function organised to pay homage to the December 2004 Tsunami victims in Nagapattinam around 350 km south of Chennai, 25 Decemeber 2005. (Photo credit: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

FILE Photo: A survivor orphaned by the December 2004 tsunami weeps during a function organised to pay homage to the victims of the tragedy, in Nagapattinam some 350 kms south of Chennai, 26 December 2005. (Photo credit: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

FILE Photo: A woman pauses as she looks at pictures of victims in search of a missing relative at a centre for missing persons where pictures of unidentified persons who died in the tidal waves are put on display for identification in Valainkani, 06 January 2005. (Photo credit: Emmanuel DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

FILE Photo: Villagers who survived the tsunami recall the morning the tidal waves hit their village in Kallar. (Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

FILE Photo: People watch the scene at the Marina beach in Chennai on 26 December 2004, after tidal waves hit the region. (Photo: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Chennai: People honour the lives that were claimed by the disaster that struck after an earthquake in Indonesia sent tsunamis crashing westwards, sweeping men, women and children out to sea. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

Chennai: Nagapattinam was India's worst-hit district in Tamil Nadu, where almost 6,000 people died. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

Chennai: Tidal waves had devastated the southern Indian coastline killing 1000 people. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

Chennai: India had lost more than 16,000 people as villages were wiped out along its southern coast and on the Andaman and Nicobar island chain, and suffered material damage estimated by the United Nations at 2.5 billion dollars.. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

Chennai: Children pay tributes to the victims of Tsunami 2004 on its 16th anniversary, at Foreshore Estate beach (Pattinapakkam beach), in Chennai, Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

Chennai: Women pay tributes to the victims of Tsunami 2004 on its 16th anniversary, at Foreshore Estate beach (Pattinapakkam beach), in Chennai, Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

FILE Photo: A general view of the scene at the Marina beach in Madras, 26 December 2004, after tidal waves hit the region. (Photo by STR / AFP)