The official death toll in the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster has mounted to 9,571 and the number of missing rose to 5,801, according to the status report issued Tuesday by the Indian Home Ministry.

The report quoted by a local website, in.rediff.com, as saying that there was no confirmation about the status of missing people,mainly from the remote Nicobar Islands.

Meanwhile, the report said, the massive relief and rescue operation, mounted jointly by the states and the central government, was now focused on the restoration of power and water supply.

Fishermen in the coastal district of Nagapattinam, the worst tsunami-hit area in southern India's Tamil Nadu state, Tuesday gotback to their routine, said the website.

The army, in an attempt to instill confidence among the trauma-stricken fishing community, sent its men along with the fishermen of Akkaraipettai, which has over 7,000 families.

The fishermen set on sail on three boats repaired by an engineering group of the army, said J. Radhakrishnan, who is supervising relief operations in the district.

"We have completed relief work and will now concentrate on rehabilitation. We want the cooperation of the people (tsunami victims) in this program. That is why we repaired the boats and encouraged fishermen to go on with their routine. Their response is encouraging," he said.

Schools in Nagapattinam, however, remain closed since temporarycamps for victims of the tsunami disaster have been set up in the buildings.

Majority of the tsunami victims were staying in the schools in the district and until they returned to their native places, the institutions would remain closed, said a local official.

The Indian armed forces have launched its largest peacetime relief operation codenamed Operation Andamans in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are located in the Bay of Bengal and about 1,100 kilometers southeast of the mainland of India.

Over 800 people have been confirmed dead and about 5,400 peopleare missing in the archipelago.

Operation Andamans has seen the deployment of 8,000 Army troops,32 ships, dozens of helicopters and aircraft, 5,500 naval personnel and 2,000 Air Force personnel.