LR Jagadheesan BBC correspondent in Madras.

Police officials in Rameswaram coast in Tamil Nadu told the BBC that all those dead are from Vangaalai village in Mannaar district in Sri Lanka.

One Mr Punithavalan, his wife and two children and their relative Nirojini (19-year old women), are identified as those drowned in the sea.

Eleven people are said to be travelling in the boat, which capsized in the middle of the sea. Their relatives who were travelling with them in a separate boat rescued six of them hand.

This is the second such tragedy involving Sri Lankan Tamil refugees this year.

In May five Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were drowned in the sea in a similar accident.

Due to growing violence in Sri Lanka between Sri Lankan forces and separatist Tamil tigers LTTE, hundreds of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka have been trickling into Tamil Nadu coast.

First batch of them arrived in Tamil Nadu coast in January. In the last seven months, more than seven thousand Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have arrived in Tamil Nadu.

There is a sudden increase in their numbers in the past one week, because of the escalation of violence between Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil tiger rebels.

Some of the refugees told the local media that more than 20,000 Tamils are waiting in Sri Lanka to come to Tamil Nadu.

On arrival, Tamil Nadu state police officials question them and put them in refugee camps, where they are provided food, cloths and all other assistance.

Since the LTTE is a banned terrorist organisation in India because of its involvement in the assassination of the former Prime minister Riva Gandhi, police officials segregate those refugees whom they suspect as sympathisers of the LTTE and put them in a separate high security camp.

Other refugees are put in refugee camps situated in and around Rameswaram on the southern coast of Tamil Nadu.