As the horrendous story of the deadly tsunami disaster began to unfold in South and Southeast Asia, Indian-American journalists and Indian journalists covering events on the ground, became a common site on American television.

Starting immediately at Phuket, Thailand, was CNN’s Aneesh Raman from the network’s Bankok bureau, who told of the havoc, disorientation and immediate chaos.

Then Satinder Bindra, CNN’s New Delhi Bureau Chief, immediately moved through southern India and into one of the more unreachable and worse affected region of Galle in Sri Lanka, even before many organized rescue teams could get there.

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta headed out to the site and began transmitting on Dec. 27 on the impending second wave of potential epidemics waiting to happen.

The virtual doyen of Indian-American journalists in this country and among the favorites of the American public, Dr. Gupta has traveled to almost every trouble spot in the world bringing home the tragedies and medical care in war-torn Iraq, rolling up his sleeves to lend a hand with the injured, just as he is probably doing now on site.

In May of 2004, the younger Raman also traveled to Baghdad reporting and producing for CNN. Beyond the daily news requirements of the bureau, Raman also spent time profiling the Iraqi people.

Before coming to CNN, Raman traveled to India as a Fulbright Scholar, honing the skills of digital newsgathering while producing a documentary entitled ‘Vande Mataram’ which detailed his experience of being an American-born child of immigrants, returning to India.

He joined CNN this July and is part of the network’s new unit of reporters who, at times, shoot, write and edit their own material in the field using laptop-based Digital Newsgathering system.

Like every natural or man-made disaster, most networks use local journalists, as did National Public Radio, and other TV networks.