Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) south zone offices that include Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry have settled 268 claims amounting to Rs2.38 crore, according to the south zone's regional manager, R R Nair.

Except for a handful of claims, these represent the total claims on LIC following the tsunami tragedy. The largest number of claims was from Thanjavur division, which includes Nagapattinam the worst affected town where claims estimated at Rs1.70 crore were settled.

LIC expects claims through group schemes from Pondicherry where a large number of households are insured. Nair said the numbers are not large as the zone is normally faced with 50,000 death claims a year.