Here are some pictures of what is being written about - tree cutting in a number of places for the visit of the President Smt. Pratibha Patil to the islands. The pictures posted here are from one location, the beach front near the helipad at Wandoor. We will upload more pictures as and when they become available.
Tree Cutting at Wandoor for the President' visit, December 2007(Photo: Zubair Ahmed/The Light of Andamans)
Tree Cutting at Wandoor for the President' visit, December 2007(Photo: Zubair Ahmed/The Light of Andamans)
The same site a few months ago - August 2007. The helipad is just to the right of picture and outside the frame (Photo: Pankaj Sekhsaria)
The same site at Wandoor in August 2007. The helipad is behind the line of casuarina trees that can be seen here (Photo: Pankaj Sekhsaria)
10 comments:
Thanks for sharing pictures.
The news of cutting trees for making helipad for president undeniably affirms that we live in a world which very now and then portrays what is the priority of powerful and rich.
thanks,
Rifat
Dear Pankaj thanks for picture, as i spend my 2 year for Tsunami rehabilitaiton in Andaman, wandoor is my favourate place, our organization Friends Society done shelter and livelihood work in Wandoor, it is really heartbreaking that the trees which stopped the big waves no cutting only for the President visit, there is no importance of life of common man & environment, it is really frustrating, we have stop such practices to save our Andaman
Sharad Pant
Dear Pankaj,
These look like Mimusops littoralis , or Khari mahua ,also called bullet wood trees,, its really sad that they are cutting all these trees,,, for a helipad which will never get used again,, just for saving the travel time from port blair to wandoor,, shameful ..
Amlan Dutta
This is the farce of our system. The ones RESPONSIBLE for the system are either, not aware of the importance of each and every small entities of the system, or are just turning a blind eye. Systems which prevented greater damage during the Tsunami are now being destroyed. WHEN WILL BE LEARN? A & N Islands are 2 jewels in our crown and we need to preserve them as such.
Vinay Kumar
they look like casuarina trees in which case the esteemed president has done our beach some good. Why did we not protest when these horrible trees were planted on those beautiful beaches in the first place - as it has been across much of our coastal areas? or the eucalyptus or the gliricidia etc etc across our country. Planting anything is perhaps as bad as cutting them!!
Hi Vidya.
You are right that most of the trees are casuarinas, and therefore the loss is not perhaps as big as it would have been if these were native trees, mostly littoral species that would have been cut.
However, the following points need to also be considered:
a) We need to look at the reason for which the trees were cut - for a short visit by the President of India. It just happened (fortunately, you would say) that the trees here were casuarina. This does not mean that if the trees here were any other species they would have been spared. The trees were not cut because someone considered they were inappropriate for where they were growing...In any case there is no intention of replacing the cut trees with more appropriate local species
b) It also has to be borne in mind, that a large part of the beach here has been lost to the construction industry of Port Blair in the last couple of decades. A number of the uprooted littoral sea mohwa trees lying along the coast here are proof of that. For whatever its worth the casuarina was performing the role of a wind breaker and perhaps also afforded some protection to the beach and the land beyond.
c) There is also the point to the considered that casuarina is not such an 'outside' tree in islands as we might want to believe. There are a number of islands in the A&N which are uninhabited but have stands of casuarina. It is even considered native to Australasia and South East Asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casuarina
http://geography.berkeley.edu/ProgramCourses/CoursePagesFA2004/geog148/Term%20Papers/Darin%20Jensen/habitat.html
pankaj
When I saw the cutting tree's picture it hurt me because I know the beauty of Wandoor. My home is also in the same kind of place and I have lived in closer to the nature. It is really bad because I never aspect with our President to this kind of act. There is no right to anybody to distroy our environment because we have reside there. They come once in a year then how can they understand importance of the trees. This kind of act increases our problem. Mathias
When the nature, trees/environment can be destroyed, how can any one thinks that the tribal are safe living in their own land? when trees are not safe, it means the tribal are not safe living?
Thanks for sharing these pictures. The only way to make a difference is to raise awareness. The President herself should see these pictures and be asked to express her views. Is the national press not interested in addressing such issues?
Excellent information provide for us.....................thanks for sharing
Tree felling toowoomba
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