PORT BLAIR, DECEMBER 28 Choose your death toll. This may sound insensitive but that’s exactly what’s happening here 72 hours after the waves crashed into the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

While briefing the Defence Minister and Sonia Gandhi yesterday, Lt Governor Ram Kapse speculated that 2,000 deaths had occurred in Car Nicobar alone. And today, senior officials in the Integrated Command Headquarters were betting on anything between 6,000 plus and some even 10,000.

To be fair, though, the arithmetic has gone haywire mainly because of geography—and the logistical nightmare it has created when it comes to relief and rescue.

In the best of times, the cluster of 535 islands in the Bay forms a picture of pristine isolation but these are the worst of times.

Consider the following:

• Relief and rescue so far has largely been restricted to the Car Nicobar Indian Air Force Base which undoubtedly demanded attention after the death of over 100 personnel. This has sidetracked even a preliminary assessment of villages in a 5-10 km radius of the base.

• No team either from the civil administration or the Defence forces has so far been tasked to visit villages like Malacca, Lapatty, Perka, Kanka, Arong—each of them has an average population of 1500.

• Officially, only 38 of the 535 islands have human habitation but unofficially, there are scores of smaller islands with an average population between 50-100.

• Of these 38, only about 10 have been ‘‘preliminary assessed,’’ the rest remain to be reached, even aerially. ‘‘Every infrastructure has collapsed,’’ Chief Secretary V B Bhatt told The Indian Express. ‘‘From roads to communication networks, from power to fuel-storage tanks and landing jetties.’’

• That has serious repercussions. For, in normal times, motorboats and speedboats are the prime mode of transport for the islanders but all along the coastal belt, jetties have been washed away making it virtually impossible for these boats to operate. Still, some Naval ships were said to have been despatched to several islands today—word is awaited.

• These islands are connected through a wireless network run by the police but these channels have snapped. Only today, bigger islands like Car Nicobar and Campbell Bay could be connected—a couple of satphones were provided.

• Even access through the aerial route is difficult. Commander in Chief of the Integrated Command Lt Gen B S Thakur admitted that it’s not been able to rustle up ‘‘adequate crew.’’

• Then there is the problem of aviation fuel: most storage facilities have been damaged, aircraft sent to far-off islands need to be refuelled on reaching the destination which is not possible now.

• Not helping matters are the aftershocks. ‘‘Tremors of the scale of 5 on the Richter scale are being recorded in Port Blair even today,’’ said Bhatt. ‘‘In any other place, this would be considered an independent earthquake.’’ And here, it’s not being discussed except for reports that there was a ‘‘swell of water’’ in the Nankowry group of islands.

The one glimmer of hope is in the middle and southern islands where the Jarwa tribals live. Most of these islands are mountainous and have high land. Bhatt said that an Assistant Commissioner of Tribal Welfare was sent by road to the Jarwa habitat. ‘‘In the areas he could visit, apparently there was no major damage,’’ Bhatt said.

Meanwhile, in Campbell Bay, India’s southernmost port, 15 have been confirmed dead with extensive damage to military property.

A Navy spokesperson confirmed that the Coast Guard HQ and residential quarters had been hit, including the single jetty. A large number of military vehicles, boats and utility buildings at the Bay were also destroyed or damaged, he said.

Two Coast Guard vessels, deployed from Port Blair yesterday, and two Naval vessels that set sail off Kamorta today were expected to reach the island this evening, though the Navy said it could not yet confirm their arrival.

A Naval Dornier aircraft and an IAF AN-32 managed to land yesterday on the island’s transit airfield with relief, communications equipment and provisions, though the IAF said it had no record of any evacuations.

Campbell Bay is the last possible refuelling or logistical stopover for Indian ships or aircraft before they cross South East into international territory.