The Tsunami tragedy has exposed the short sightedness of policies that disregarded the importance of natural environmental safeguards, such as sandbanks and mangroves which protect coasts . A country like India which is a major sea-fort nation having a mainland coastline of 5,422 km and island coastline of 2,094 km. needs to evolve developmental policies that incorporate the vulnerabilities of the costal ecosystem and the people who live there . The main purpose of this paper is to trace out the genesis of killer tsunamis, their impact on the environment and people of coasts and islands of India as well as to focus on the measures to protect both coastal eco-system and communities in the wake of the December 26, 2004, Tsunamis.