THE SINKING OF THE NICOBARS

THE SINKING OF THE NICOBARS
http://infochangeindia.org/Agenda/Coastal-communities/The-sinking-of-the-Nicobars.html

The earthquake that caused the tsunami of December 2004 has altered the topography and ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands forever, writes Pankaj Sekhsaria. So far the impact of such marked changes in topography do not seem to have been taken into account by policymakers and government

Sippighat, outside Port Blair, submerged after the tsunami

If there is one thing that immediately springs to mind when the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are mentioned today, it is the devastating tsunami of December 26, 2004. Official figures give a sense of the massive damage that was caused to life and property: over 3,500 people dead or missing; nearly 8,000 hectares of paddy and plantation rendered useless; 938 boats completely damaged; more than 150,000 head of cattle lost.

These aggregated figures for the entire island chain hide an important detail that has not received the attention and analysis it deserves.

Of the 3,513 people reported dead or missing only 64 were from the Andaman group of islands; the remaining 3,449 were from the islands in the Nicobar group. Seventy-six per cent of the agricultural and paddy land destroyed, and 80% of livestock loss were also reported from the Nicobars. Likewise, nearly 70% of the construction of new housing for the tsunami-affected is in the Nicobar Islands.

It is evident that the impact of the tsunami was much greater in the Nicobar Islands than in the Andamans. So, while the Nicobars account for only 22% and 12% of the area and population, respectively, of the entire chain of islands, 98% of the deaths and 76% of loss of agricultural land occurred here. The damage caused was inversely proportional to the area and population of the two groups of islands, and strikingly so (see Table 1 and Table 2).

Tectonic movements

Although the tsunami was seen as the main cause of the damage, it was actually the earthquake that caused the tsunami in the first place that was responsible for most of the damage here. While the tectonic movements triggered by the earthquake catalysed the tsunami, they also caused a huge and permanent shift in the lay of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Assessments by a number of scientists from various institutes, including the University of Colorado in the USA and the Geological Survey of India, indicate that the Andaman group of islands were thrust upwards by four to six feet while parts of the Nicobar Islands went significantly under -- four feet of submergence in Car Nicobar; nearly 15 feet at the southernmost tip -- Indira Point -- on Great Nicobar Island. This important change in the lay of the islands was reported to have occurred almost immediately after the earthquake, a few minutes before the huge waves struck the coastline. Pre- and post-earthquake satellite maps released by the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) show striking visual evidence of this. It also explains the huge submergence and damage experienced in the Nicobars, though this group covers a relatively small area and is more thinly populated.

Jogindernagar, Great Nicobar

Ecological changes

Tectonic activity and the submergence and emergence it caused also resulted in significant ecological changes in the islands. A survey by the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team revealed, for instance, that huge areas (nearly 60 sq km) of coral reefs along the western and northern coasts of Middle and North Andaman Islands were lifted up, permanently exposed, and destroyed. Studies in the Nicobar group of islands by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Nature (SACON) showed that immense damage was caused to coastal ecosystems by the joint impact of the tsunami waves and the permanent subsidence and resultant permanent ingress of seawater. Coastal features like beaches, mangroves and littoral forests were the most badly impacted. Coastal wildlife like the endemic Nicobari megapode, the giant robber crab and the Malayan box turtle were among the species worst affected.

Coral reefs off the coasts of the Nicobars were also hit by a combination of submergence, a resultant increase in turbidity, and physical damage caused by tonnes of debris thrown back and forth by the furious water. A survey conducted by the Zoological Survey of India reported large-scale sedimentation on coral reefs around Great Nicobar Island, following the tsunami. A drop in the number of associated coral reef fauna, including nudibranchs, flat worms, alpheid and mantis shrimps, and hermit and brachyuran crabs was also reported.

Mangroves, Mayabundar, North Andaman

Increased vulnerabilities

Significantly, the region is reported to have become much more seismically active now. Data gathered by the United States Geological Service (USGS) show that over 20 earthquakes of a magnitude above M6, in addition to several hundred of lesser intensity, have struck the region in the last five years. The most powerful was the September 2007 quake that had a magnitude greater than M8. It was followed by a tsunami warning; there have been at least half-a-dozen such warnings since 2004.

It would appear that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have always been seismically active and therefore unstable, are even more vulnerable now. It is crucial that this increased threat becomes an important aspect of policy and development planning on the islands. Likewise, changes in the islands’ topography on account of tectonic movements must be factored into future planning. An important dimension, for instance, is the alteration along the coasts of all the islands of the high tide line (HTL). Unless this is recalibrated, any management or implementation of laws and regulations related to the coastal zone cannot be carried out effectively. They would in fact be meaningless.

Table 1: Island-wise losses
Island	People (dead or missing)		Livestock loss		Agricultural land lost		Permanent housing		Area		Population (2001)
	Total number	Per cent	Total number	Per cent	Area in hectares	Per cent	Number	Per cent	Sq km	Per cent	Number	Per cent
Andamans	64	2	31,521	20	1,877	23.5	2,796	28.6	6,408	77.68	314,048	88.1
South Andaman	7		19,634		1,667		823
Little Andaman	54		11,165		117		1,973
Middle Andaman			722		93
Nicobar	3,449	98	126,056	80	6,115	76.5	7,001	71.4	1,841	22.32	42,068	11.9
Car Nicobar	854		50,350		969.35		3,941
Chowra	117		11,896		230.4		346
Teressa			17,307		743.96		506
Katchal	1,551		18,678		1,628.50		315
Nancowry	378		1,440		256.57		269
Kamorta			7,501		637.4		518
Trinket			2,590		328.5
Little Nicobar			2,267				111
Great Nicobar	549		12,298		1,291.28		995
Kondul			336
Pilomilow			823
Bambooka			570		29.55
Total	3,513		157,577	100	7,992	100	9,797	100	8,249	100	356,252	100

Table 2: Losses in percentage (island-wise)
	Andamans (%)	Nicobars (%)	Total
Area (sq km)	6,408 (77.68)	1,841(22.32)	8,249
Population (2001)	314,048 (88)	42,068 (12)	356,252
People (dead or missing)	64 (2)	3,449 (98)	3,513
Livestock loss	31,521 (20)	126,056 (80)	157,577
Agricultural land lost (hectares)	1,877 (23.5)	6,115 (76.5)	7,992
Permanent housing	2,796(28.6)	7,001 (71.4)	9,797

The changed scenario also has direct implications on issues like land that can and cannot be allotted for reconstruction or for agriculture and plantation, as also on the materials and design of new buildings being built on the islands.

Fishers in Great Nicobar

All these aspects need careful consideration because they are the foundations on which any scenario for the future of the islands must be built. Many worry that they are not being given the importance and consideration they deserve. This was starkly evident in September 2009, when former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was in Port Blair to unveil Andaman Vision 2020 “for the strategic development of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by the year 2020”. Speaking at a national seminar on ‘Security and Development of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’, Kalam advocated, amongst other things, the construction of a 250 MW dedicated nuclear power station on the islands, and use of the islands as bases for static aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine-based fleet.

It’s as though the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004, and the hundreds of subsequent earthquakes, did not happen at all! Whatever visions of power we might have for ourselves, ‘security and development’ cannot be ensured by industrial and military might alone. If we ignore the foundational contours of the region’s topography, its seismic instability, and its environment, we only increase the risks and our subsequent vulnerability. And we do so at our own peril.

(Pankaj Sekhsaria is the author of Troubled Islands -- Writings on the Indigenous Peoples and Environment of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands)

Infochange News & Features, April 2010

THE ISLANDS HAVE A MUCH DEEPER HISTORY

by Pankaj Sekhsaria

THE LIGHT OF ANDAMANS, Vol 34, Issue 20, December 11, 2009
http://www.lightofandaman.com/news5.asp

The recent call by the All India Forward Block (The Light of Andamans, Nov. 25, 2009) to rename the Andaman & Nicobar Islands as Shaheed and Swaraj is neither new nor unexpected. It has been around in the islands since the 1950s and more recently even others like historian Swati Dasgupta, for instance, have made the same call (‘Remembering Kaalapani’, The Times of India, May 7, 2005)

If these calls are heeded, these islands could well see a monumental shift in their present namescape. The island named after Sir Hugh Rose, the man who finally cornered Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi after the mutiny of 1857, could soon be named Laxmibai Dweep or maybe Rani Jhansi Dweep. Havelock Island named after the British General who re-took Lucknow from Nana Sahib could well be named Nana Sahib Dweep and the direct reference to the call by Subhas Chandra Bose is the most evoked one in any case.
The Rani of Jhansi or Nana Sahib may have known little of the islands (or even that they existed) but that surely is of little consequence.

This group of 500 odd islands scattered in an arc in the Bay of Bengal, are certainly fertile territory for a massive, even lip smacking renaming exercise – Tantya Tope, Mangal Pandey, Subhas Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar…how about Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi….the list is endless; one’s imagination the only limitation and why not – reclamation of one’s history, after all, is believed to be one of the most important and effective tools of nation building.

There is one hitch however, a question that renaming enthusiasts might want to first consider – How does one reclaim what was never yours in the first place? The islands, located far away from mainland India can only be considered a gift that British left India with when the empire disintegrated. There are undeniable connections of India’s freedom movement with the islands; best symbolized by the mutiny of 1857 and the Cellular Jail. There can be no denying that and neither can one deny the close bonds that a large section of the country feels with these islands, but, and this is the crux of the argument here, all put together this history does not go beyond a 150 years. We might want to rename Havelock Island in the memory of Nana Sahib, but is it not worth asking whether the island that is today called Havelock had some earlier name too?

Let it not be forgotten, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been the traditional home of a number of aboriginal communities - the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese (in the Andamans), the Nicobaris and the Shompen (in the Nicobars) that have been living here for nearly 50,000 years. The 150 years that we want to claim now is like the blink of an eye in comparison. Injustices have been done and continue to be done to these communities in a manner that has few parallels in India. Their lands have been taken, their forests converted to plywood and agricultural plantations, and the fabric of their societies so violently torn apart that extinction looms on the horizon for many of them. The Great Andamanese who were at least 5000 individuals when the 1857 mutiny happened are today less than 40 people. The Onge who were counted at about 600 individuals in 1901 census are only a 100 people today. There are critical issues of survival that these communities are faced with – problems that are complex and will be difficult to resolve. If indeed there is energy and interest in doing something in the islands and for the islanders these are lines that we need to be thinking on.

These are people, like indigenous peoples everywhere, who have their own histories, their own societies, and yes, their own names for the islands and places. First the British called something else and now we want to call something else again. If indeed the places have to be renamed, should not an effort first be made to find out what the original people had first named them, why they were so named, what the significances were and which names are still in use by them. Should that not be the work of scholarship and historical studies? Why is that this is not a history that political parties want to correct? It would be a far more challenging and worthwhile exercise and perhaps not a very difficult one either because a lot of information does already exist.

If indeed the real and complete history of the islands is ever written, the British would not be more than a page and India could only be a paragraph. How’s that for a perspective and a context?

*Pankaj Sekhsaria is the author of Troubled Islands – Writings on the indigenous peoples and environment of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands

On the Edible nest swiftlet...

Edible-nest Swiftlet Collocalia fuciphaga: extinction by protection
by Pankaj Sekhsaria

Indian Birds, Vol. 5 No. 4 July–August 2009
Date of publication: 15th October 2009
www.indianbirds.in

PROLOGUE: This piece was first written sometime back, in 2004, and with detailed inputs from discussions with Dr. Ravi Sankaran himself. Tragically, Dr. Sankaran passed away in January 2009, after suffering a massive heart attack.
In a very recent development it was reported in August (Selling bird’s nest soup to save this bird: there’s a change in law, Tuesday, Aug 18, 2009 at 0354 hrs New Delhi: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/selling-birds-nest-soup-to-save-this-bird-theres-a-change-in-law/503342/0) that the Edible nest swiftlet had indeed been de-listed raising hopes that the project he had initiated in the Andamans will get a fair chance of being implemented and being successful.
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The path to hell, for humans, it is said, is paved with good intentions. For a little bird in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the Edible-nest Swiftlet Collacalia fuciphaga, the path to extinction, it would seem, too has being paved with similar good intentions. Being listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA), is the ultimate recognition of the endangered status of any creature in India

A NEST OF SALIVA
It also means that the highest degree of protection will be accorded to the species, and this is exactly what has happened in the case of the Edible-nest Swiftlet too. Herein lies the ultimate paradox, and probably the seeds of an unfolding tragedy. At the crux of the matter is the nest of the bird that is made entirely of its own saliva. The final product is a beautiful white ‘half-cup’, roughly six centimeters across with an average weight of 10 gm.
This is indeed a fascinating biological quirk, but one for which the bird has had to pay a heavy price. Since the 16th century, when the nest of the bird is reported to have become an important part of Chinese cuisine and pharmacy, its been heavily exploited across its range. While there is little modern scientific evaluation or validation of the efficacy or efficiency of the nest, consumption has been immense. A TRAFFIC International publication of 1994 estimated that about nine million nests, weighing nearly 76 tonnes, were being imported into China annually. Not surprisingly then, the wholly edible white nest was and continues to be one of the world’s most expensive animal products, pegged sometime back at US $ 2,620¬4,060 per kg in retail markets in the South–east Asian countries.
It is well known that a part of the international trade was being fed by the extraction of nests that takes place from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, but authentic information only started coming in 1995, when the first studies were initiated by ornithologist, Dr. Ravi Sankaran, of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON). He initiated a laborious and painstaking process of locating the nesting sites and enumerating the nests and birds. Detailed surveys were conducted on the islands between March 1995 and early 1997, where he visited a total of 385 caves (325 in the Andamans). The outcome was two pioneering reports. The first published in 1995 dealt with the Nicobars and the second, in 1998, presented a complete picture of the situation in the entire archipelago.

A THREATENED POPULATION
Sankaran’s studies estimated that the total breeding population on the islands was about 6,700 breeding pairs. He reported that at least 94% of the caves were being exploited for the bird’s nest, and that less than 1% of the breeding population was being allowed to successfully fledge as the nests were being harvested for the market before the nesting could be completed. Sankaran estimated that the Edible-nest Swiftlet had experienced a whopping 80% decline in its population, placing it in the critically threatened category (IUCN criteria A1c). This was primarily due to indiscriminate and unrestricted nest collection from the wild, leading him to the further conclusion that if this was not dealt with urgently the bird would soon be extinct in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
He initially advocated strict protection, but changed his stand when he realised that protection, in the conventional sense, would not work. He also learnt of the ingenious house ranching methods developed by the Indonesians for managing swiftlets.

HOUSE RANCHING
It was estimated that nearly 65,000 kg of nests were being produced in Indonesia annually, from colonies of the Edible-nest Swiftlet that reside within human habitation: a total of 5.5 million birds and their nests, in houses and rooms of human habitations, optimally managed by humans. “Thus, while swiftlet populations in caves will continue to decline, or become extinct, due to collection pressures,” Sankaran concluded, “the species will survive because there are hundreds of thousands of birds that reside within human habitation, all optimally managed”.
Nest collectors, he started to advocate, would have to be empowered to harvest nests within the rigid framework of strictly scientifically harvesting regimes. This would have to be complimented in the ‘Indonesian way’, with a realistic long-term strategy that would include both in-situ and ex-situ conservation programmes, i.e., house ranching, both based on the economic importance of the species and using this importance to organise local communities to conserve the species.
In 1999, his recommendation took the form of an innovative initiative that was launched jointly by the Wildlife Circle of the Department of Environment and Forests, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and SACON. The final aim of the initiative was to ensure protection of the nests in the wild so that eggs would be available for the house ranching ex situ component. The project took off well. Protection accorded to a complex of 28 caves on Challis Ek in North Andaman Island, and one cave on Interview Island Wildlife Sanctuary, saw over 3,000 chicks being fledged, a growth of over 25% in the population of the swiftlets at these sites. A team of local people, who were earlier nest collectors, were now being motivated towards protection, and subsequently, sustainable harvesting.

THE LAW BECOMES THE HURDLE
Just as phase one was taking off, the law came into the picture, and in October 2003 the Edible-nest Swiftlet was put onto Schedule I of the Wildlife Act. This meant that there could be no activity that involved use of, or trade in the nest of the bird—the primary premise on which Sankaran’s initiative had been based. The entire project was dealt a set back and in spite of continued efforts, over the years, to have the swiftlet removed from Schedule I, it continues to be listed there.
Admittedly there are genuine concerns about the de-listing of a species and the implications of an act of this kind. The biggest fear is of setting a precedent that could be misused by vested interests. In this case however, the recommendations are based on solid, detailed, and pioneering scientific studies of nearly a decade, and were in turn backed with a wealth of international information and experience. “Its more like apiculture,” would be Sankaran’s argument, “where bees are reared for their honey. House ranching of swiftlets cannot be likened to the farming of animals for skin or meat”. The implication of not delisting the bird is that the conservation initiative is bound to fail, while harvesting from the wild would continue unabated. The consequences of this would be the local extinction of the bird in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands—a predicament that was summed up with stunning simplicity by J. C. Daniel of the Bombay Natural History Society. Speaking during the concluding session of the International Seminar to commemorate the centenary Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society in Mumbai in November 2003, he spoke of the fate of the Edible-nest Swiflet if corrective action was not taken at the earliest: extinction by protection—the ultimate oxymoron.
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You can also visit the following links for pictures of avifauna of the islands including the nest and the habitat of the edible nest swiftlet and Ravi in the field in the islands

http://3fotosaday.blogspot.com/2009/11/birds-of-a-islands-1.html
http://pankaj-atcrossroads.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html
http://pankaj-atcrossroads.blogspot.com/2009/01/remembering-ravi-sankaran.html
http://pankaj-atcrossroads.blogspot.com/2007/08/tilt-and-turmoil-in-andamans.html

An earth shaking event

post-tsunami impacts in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
By Pankaj Sekhsaria

Sanctuary Asia, Vol XXIX, No. 3, June 2009
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Endless expanses of coral reefs that were once submerged even at low tide now lay exposed and dead, thrust by the forces of nature above the high tide line. Huge coral boulders studded with now-empty clam shells stood almost a metre in the air, with sand accumulating around them. We anchored that evening off the coast of the Interview Island Wildlife Sanctuary located towards the north of the Andaman group of Islands. I was with Harry Andrews and his colleagues at the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team (ANET) as they conducted a rapid assessment survey two months after the deadly December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami that had ravaged South and Southeast Asia. This was the sight we had seen as we sailed up along the west coast of the Middle and North Andaman Islands and it was an eerie experience to explore the almost lifeless, ‘moonscapish’reefs that now surrounded Interview.

Coral reef uplift on the west coast of the Interview Island Wildlife Sanctuary
(Pic: Pankaj Sekhsaria)

Located relatively close to Aceh in Sumatra, where it all began, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were particularly hard hit. Almost 3,500 people died, largely in the Nicobars. Huge coastal areas were submerged, basic infrastructure, schools, roads, power houses and thousands of homes were washed away. Post the event I visited the islands in February 2005 and was astounded to witness the brute force of the catastrophe.

THE ECOLOGICAL CHANGES
Justifiably the loss of human life and the destruction to private and public property dominated everyone’s concerns, but we could see that significant ecological changes had also occurred. The coastal systems were most impacted, as were many species of rare flora and fauna. From what I could see and the many scientific and anecdotal accounts I read, it was the 9.1 magnitude earthquake (which triggered the tsunami) that actually caused the greater damage. With a pivot roughly located near Port Blair, the islands witnessed a huge swing, like that of a see-saw, on account of the tectonic activity. Scientific assessments indicate that the Andaman group of islands were thrust upwards by 1.2 to 1.8 m. while Car Nicobar went under by 1.2 m. At the southernmost tip – Indira Point on Great Nicobar Island – the submergence was almost 4.5 m.

THE NICOBAR ISLANDS
Researchers who traveled to the devastated landscape around Great Nicobar Island reported that the small Megapode Island (a wildlife sanctuary) located west of Great Nicobar had been completely submerged. Coral reefs, beaches and low lying coastal forests across this island group were badly hit. The Nicobar reefs suffered a combination of submergence, increased turbidity and physical damage from tons of debris thrown back and forth by the lashing waves. Dr. R. Jeybaskaran of the Zoological Survey of India reported large-scale sedimentation on coral reefs around Great Nicobar Island. His post-tsunami surveys further revealed a reduction in the number of associated coral reef fauna, including nudibranchs, flat worms, alpheid and mantis shrimps and hermit and brachyuran crabs.

Submerged mangroves, littoral forests and paddy fields, Great Nicobar Island
(Pic: Pankaj Sekhsaria)

The submerged settlement of Campbel Bay, HQ of Great Nicobar Island
(Pic: Pankaj Sekhsaria)

Interestingly, immediately following the tsunami, fishermen from Great Nicobar reported a sudden and massive increase in their milk fish Chanos chanos catch, which was relatively rare earlier. So much so that fishermen began to refer to milk fish as ‘tsunami macchi’. No one can explain the phenomenon precisely but speculation centres around the findings of post-tsunami ocean salinity and temperature studies carried out in the islands by scientists of the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research. This study found considerable thermohaline variability in the upper 300m column of ocean water and concluded that such changes could have a significant impact on primary production and fisheries.

Chanos chanos, Milkfish that has now become tsunami macchi in Great Nicobar
(Pic: Pankaj Sekhsaria)

Early surveys conducted by ANET in the Nicobars also indicated huge losses of Pandanus Pandanus leram and the Nypa palm Nypa fructicans. The latter, in particular, was virtually wiped out from the estuarine regions of Little Nicobar and Great Nicobar Islands. Both plants are important for the Nicobari community as a source of food and materials such as thatching. An effort is now being made with the help of the local communities to replant the islands with these species.

Permanent submergence also saw most of the beaches vanish, including many vital nesting sites of the four marine turtle species found here – the giant leatherback, the green sea turtle, the olive ridley and the Hawksbill. But this change was short-lived, as new beaches had begun to form along the altered alignment within months. Sure enough, the nesting turtles too returned soon after.

The damage to low-lying coastal areas, coastal forests and mangroves was more permanent. Large tracts were completely destroyed. Every island in the Nicobars without exception was encircled by an endless brown wall of dying and decaying mangroves, pandanus and other littoral species. A remote sensing and GIS-based study of the Central Nicobar group of islands (Nancowry, Camorta, Trinket and Katchal) by the Institute for Ocean Management at Chennai’s Anna University assessed that the damage ranged from 51 to 100 per cent for mangrove ecosystems, 41 to 100 per cent for coral reef ecosystems and 6.5 to 27 per cent for forest ecosystems.

NICOBAR'S FAUNA
The late Dr. Ravi Sankaran of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) was the first to conduct a rapid impact assessment of the Nicobars after the disaster. His main interest was the Nicobari Megapode, a ground-nesting endemic bird that scrapes together a mound of earth as a nest in low-lying coastal forests. I had seen and photographed the megapode in 2002 near the turtle camp on South Bay at the mouth of the Galathea river and it was difficult to learn that nothing of that coastline remained. We feared the worst for the extremely vulnerable bird across its range in these islands. Sankaran’s report was therefore anxiously awaited and his findings turned out to be bitter-sweet. He reported that the permanent submergence had destroyed a huge part of the birds’ nesting habitat and that nearly 1,100 nesting mounds had been lost. He, however, reported sighting a few birds and also some active nesting mounds.

Subsequently, in early 2006, Dr. K. Sivakumar of the Wildlife Institute of India surveyed almost 110 km. of the coastline along 15 islands in the Nicobar group. He estimated that only about 500 active nesting mounds of the bird had survived and that the megapode population was down to under 30 per cent of the numbers estimated during surveys he had conducted around a decade ago. While the bird was badly hit, mercifully it was not wiped out. Little is known, however, of the other equally vulnerable, coastal forest-dwelling fauna, such as the giant robber crab, the reticulated python and the Malayan box turtle. There is almost no idea of how these have been impacted and there are indications that these may be worse off than the megapode.

Initially scientists worried that the giant robber crab had become locally extinct in the Nicobars as it inhabited one of the worst hit sections of the coast – a 100 m.-wide strip of forest adjacent to the sea. Reports that some were occasionally sighted were confirmed in late 2006 when Vardhan Patankar of Reefwatch sighted four individuals – two on Camorta Island and one each on Great Nicobar and Menchal.

THE ANDAMANS
Areas around Port Blair also experienced permanent submergence of about 0.6 to 0.9 m. It was a fate similar to the Nicobars and is best visible in the low-lying area of Sippighat just a few kilometres outside the capital town. Mangrove marshes that had been converted to paddy fields over the years were now permanently submerged. Comparative aerial images shot regularly from 2005 onwards, showed mangrove stands drying along the creeks at Sippighat. Today, the area is dominated by large expanses of water and one prominent waterbody. A study conducted by scientists from the Port Blair-based Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) found a similar impact on mangroves in the creeks of Shoal Bay, Chouldhari and the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park at Wandoor. This is probably on account of high salinity stress and permanent inundation. As in the case of the Great Nicobar, this also led to one dramatic, though short-lived change here. For the first few months immediately after the tsunami, the Sippighat Creek became a huge production ground for the best prawns that residents of Port Blair had ever eaten.

Ariel view of Sippighat, just outside Port Blair, that also experience subsidence and submergence like was seen in the Nicobar Islands (Pic: Pankaj Sekhsaria)

CARI studies revealed that mangroves stands at Deshbandhugram, Laxmipur, Milangram and Swarajgram in North Andaman remained exposed even during the high tides. Sea water did not reach the mangroves at all and within a few months of the event they had started to wilt.

As far as the coral reefs are concerned, it was initially estimated that an expanse of nearly 50 to 60 sq. km. had been exposed and killed – the largest area being nearly 25 sq. km. west and north of Interview Island, which we too had witnessed. Similar impacts were reported from parts of Indonesia. Interestingly a report by Living Oceans, Reef Check and IUCN suggests that the most dramatic damage to the Aceh reefs was also caused by the earthquakes: “Hectares of reef flat at Pulau Bangkaru Island and Simeulue were uplifted to a level above the high tide mark resulting in total mortality of previously healthy and intact reefs.”

The situation for sea turtle nesting beaches appears to have turned up a mixed bag in the islands. Flat Island, a small outcrop on the west coast of the main Andamans, was, for instance, an important sea turtle nesting site prior to the tsunami. The uplift caused by the earthquake exposed the reefs around the island creating a barrier for sea turtles. Some beaches such as the ones in Little Andaman Island have become wider and the gradients more gentle. The ANET team also reported extensive damage to sea grass beds. This will affect green sea turtles and many carcasses were observed in the course of the ANET surveys.

IN CONCLUSION
While there has been concern on the negative impact of all these dramatic changes, experts and those working on the ecology of the islands have suggested that the best intervention would be no intervention at all. The magnitude of the change is so huge that little can be done anyway. It has also been argued that if seen in the context of geologic time cataclysmic events such as the tsunami may even have been responsible for the creation of the archipelago in the first place. Such natural events have been occurring cyclically and species and habitats are bound to respond suitably in the course of time. The conversion of Sippighat into a big, open waterbody, the reformation of beaches where they had been destroyed, filling up of sand in uplifted coral reefs and movement of the line of mangroves are evidence of such changes.
Nevertheless, the entire coastline of the islands has been altered and there is an urgent need to re-calibrate our own developmental plans in response. The area must, for instance, be resurveyed from the point of view of the Coastal Regulation Zone Rules.

Such mega-geologic events provide us with unprecedented opportunities to observe and understand the long-term changes that have take place naturally down the ages. These are the very forces that have shaped the coral reefs, coastal forests, mangroves and coastlines we see before us today. The dramatic increases in catches of specific fish species and the re-formation of beaches are only two of the many phenomena we should carefully study. Some may take years, even decades to reveal themselves. Hopefully, scientists will find the support they need to document such changes.

India plans to deport Rohingya boat people

http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/1655-india-plans-to-deport-rohingya-boatpeople.html

by Solomon
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 21:33

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Indian authorities are planning to deport boatpeople, who were rescued near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in December.

An official in the Andaman Island told Mizzima on Wednesday that about 450 boatpeople, whom the Indian Navy and coastguards had rescued in separate batches are in custody. The authorities will soon deport them to Bangladesh.

"They will be deported soon after the completion of affirmation [to Bangladesh]," said the official.

"They have been rescued from our Islands and placed in our custody so the administration will formally go ahead with deportation to Bangladesh," he added.

The official, who declined to reveal his identity as he is not authorized to speak to the press, said India has chosen to deport the boatpeople to Bangladesh, as they originally boarded the boat there.

"Actually they are from Bangladesh, there are only a few from Burma," the official said, adding, however, that all the boatpeople have revealed themselves to be Rohingya Muslims.

Since December last year, hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople have been rescued by Indian Navy from the Andaman Island while Indonesian Navy also rescued several of the boatpeople from Sabang Island in Ache province.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Indonesia said it has been trying to access the boatpeople since last month but are still waiting for permission from the government.

Anita Restu, spokesperson of UNHCR Indonesia said, "They [Rohingya] are under the care of the authorities in Aceh."

"We cannot get access them because we have not got permission from the government," she added.

She said, once permission is granted the UNHCR will assess the boatpeople's protection needs and register them if they request for asylum. It would provide international protection according to the mandate of the UNHCR.

On Tuesday, another batch of 198 boatpeople was rescued by Indonesian authorities and Restu said they all belong to Rohingya Muslim minority community from Burma.

Meanwhile, the official at the Andaman Island said, they have not received any request from the UNHCR for assessing the situation of the boatpeople.

"No one came here," the official said.

The official said, apparently a few agents collected money from the Rohingya boatpeople and promised to take them to Malaysia and offer them jobs.

But their dreams of entering Malaysia and finding jobs were dashed when their boats were intercepted by Thai coastguards and Navy, which then arrested them and put them adrift on sea on engineless boats.

"These poor people did not know about the plan of the touts. They just paid money and wanted to go to Malaysia. Finally, they found that they were cheated," the officer said.

--

Remembering Ravi Sankaran

rubber slippers, a smoking pipe and binoculars dangling around his neck

Ravi in Nagaland, November 2005

Who would have imagined that so many of us would be looking into our collections for pictures of Ravi because he would not be there with us so suddenly? I've had to do that too and here are some pictures of his I have from a trip he made to Nagaland with many of us in Kalpavriksh.
My main and close association with Ravi was in the context of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where I had the opportunity of spending some great time with him. I first met him a decade ago, and can't believe there will be no more of those occasions. Here are also some pictures of the species in the islands that he worked with closely, species which we understand much better today because of his painstaking and path-breaking work.

Bird watching in Khonoma Village, Nagaland

Lighting up that famous pipe...

RAVI'S A&N BIRDS

The Nicobari Megapode, Great Nicobar Island

The nest mound of a Nicobari Megapode, Great Nicobar Island

The nest of the Edible Nest Swiflet, Jarawa Creek, Baratang Island

Nesting site of the Edible Nest Swiftlet, Chalis Ek, North Andaman Island

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/andaman-culture-clash-boat-people-bikinis/

Sunbathers should ask: Where are the latest 46 refugees now?

Photo by Big Island Media

Andaman Culture Clash: Tourists and Boat People

By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Filed for the South China Morning Post
TOURISTS on diving day-trips along the Andaman coast of Thailand hope to snap photos of a rare whale shark, or perhaps a turtle or two, down among the delightful coral reefs.

Yet recently, chances are that they will find themselves sharing an idyllic beach with thin and hungry refugees under armed military guard.

The golden sands of the Andaman, stretching north from the holiday island of Phuket, are renown as a wonderful place for swimming, sunbathing, and having a good time.

And as it turns out, those same sunny beaches provide convenient stretches of open space for laying out large numbers of illegal-immigrant boat people.

This week, images emerged of one tourist's memorable holiday day-trip, with sunbakers at one end of the beach, and rows of boat people, hands tied behind backs and faces forced onto the sand, at the other.

Such a contrast in the human condition on a single small arc of sand raised a range of moral issues at the same time as it highlights the plight of one of the world's most desperate and ignored people.

Just as most tourists went on frolicking and relaxing at one end of the beach while the boat people were laid out like so many sardines in the sun, so the nations of South-East Asia collectively go about ignoring the Rohingya.

An Asean summit next month, appropriately enough in Thailand, where all these moral issues have been exposed, may change all that.

Boatloads of these persecuted people, once a problem just for Thailand, Bangladesh and Malaysia especially, are now turning up in the waters of Indonesia and the isolated Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Were the boats deliberately detoured to Indonesia and India with the prevailing winds and currents because of a covert and horrifying change in policy in Thailand?

That's the question now being examined by the widening circle of Governments involved, along with human rights groups.

And because witnesses to the tragedy of the Rohingya boat people now include snap-happy day-trip tourists from Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, the outcome is that the issue of the Rohingya may finally be getting the international attention it has long deserved.

The Andaman coastline, remote but appealing for many reasons, is replete with paradoxes. This coast last came to global attention during the 2004 tsunami, when rich tourists and poor villagers alike were killed by the big wave.

Now the tsunami coast is home to a secret exile island where the Thai army hides unwelcome boat people before recklessly releasing them on unsafe vessels with only paddles for power.

As it happens, the same coast is home to some of the world's leading five-star resorts, many of them rebuilt after the tsunami.

So it is that in the same week as the esteemed New York Times travel section christened Phuket and the Andaman ''the luxury destination of the year,'' a tourist who had a memorable day trip came forward because he was also not prepared to forget the people being mistreated at the other end of the beach.

It is thought that Rohingya boat people land along the Andaman coast for two reasons: because they run out of food, or because they hope to proceed to Malaysia on foot.

For most, Malaysia is the goal.

A misguided attempt by predominantly Muslim Malaysia a few years ago to solve the ''problem'' of the Rohingya, who are also Muslims, simply gave it fresh poignancy and pain.

According to advocates and other who work with the Rohingya, the people smugglers, known as ''brokers,'' are the prime cause of the flow of human traffic south from Bangladesh and northern Burma.

Because some of the brokers are also known for allegedly dealing in arms and the refugees are all men of military age, the Thai Army fears the latest boatloads of Rohingya may be destined to become insurgent fighters in the deep south of Thailand, where a deadly daily conflict is largely blamed on Muslim unrest.

Like the strange scene on the sand at the Similans islands, another picture came together this week of two aspects of the same world.

Amnesty International condemned the Thai Army for ''torturing insurgent suspects'' while another international human rights group, Refugees International, blasted the same arm of the Thai military for recklessly pushing Rohingya back out to sea.

The Thai tourist industry has always gone to great lengths to make the point that the insurrection in the Deep South of Thailand is hundreds of kilometres from the Andaman coastline.

Chances of the conflict ever spreading to the Andaman, where Buddhists and Muslims have live contentedly together all along the coast for decades, are exceedingly remote.

But the covert activities of the Thai Army have, for the first time, inadvertently connected the tourist holiday Andaman coast with the bloody conflict of the Deep South.

It happened because of a sudden and unexpected change in policy.

In past Rohingya sailing seasons, the Royal Thai Navy, Marine Police and regular police would apprehend boat people between November and April, and repatriate them through Immigration channels.

But since early December, the Thai Army has been overseeing the collection of Rohingya boat people, hiding them in jungle on the island of Sai Dang (Red Sand) and setting them back out to sea in large numbers, in expectation that they will drift . . . where?

Perhaps to India or Indonesia, if their food holds out, or to an uncertain fate on the high seas.

Residents near the secret exile island and the local Army HQ say the Army has purchased two large boats recently, probably to carry the Rohingya out to sea.

Many of the smaller vessels in which the boat people arrived have been left to rot among the coastal mangroves.

According to advocate Chris Lewa, who runs the Arakan Project, the Rohingya are a people who are sandwiched on the margins between South Asia and South-East Asia, and disowned by Governments in both.

Connections with the small community of Rohingya in Malaysia lead them to believe a better life is possible, if only they can get there.

Brokers offer a passage for the equivalent of 10,000-12,000 baht, and poorer would-be voyagers win reduced fares if they round up other passengers.

''Brokers will charge more if their boats are in better condition,'' Ms Lewa said. ''Richer relations in Malaysia usually will not pay the broker until the passenger is on their doorstep.''

As to the Thai Army's security concern that only males are coming, Ms Lewa says the more conservative Rohingya townships keep women indoors and would not allow them to undertake such a dangerous 10 day or 12 day voyage south, in hope.

Those who have been forced to flee from Burma, where they are denied citizenship, to Bangladesh are no longer able to register as refugees, unlike the 28,000 already in camps there.

''Bangladesh treats the Rohingya badly, and so, of course, does Burma,'' she said.

One Project Arakan colleague was jailed briefly in Bangladesh.

That provided the opportunity for discovery of the ''released prisoners,'' a community of 700 Rohingyas in never-never land who have completed their prison sentences for immigration breaches but, as stateless citizens, cannot actually leave jail without official recognition as refugees.

''Some of them have been in this situation for 10 years,'' Ms Lewa said. ''It is just appalling,'' she said. ''I hope to make it my next project.''

Life is so harsh in Bangladesh and Burma for the Rohingya that one man, who narrowly escaped death from thirst on a failed journey to the promised land to the south, told her: ''I am going to try again because life in Burma is worse than the time we spent adrift on the sea.''

So they come south, believing that ''the Thai police are very nice,'' imagining a job as a construction worker in Malaysia, and sailing into the hands of the uncaring Thai Army.

Elements within other branches of the Thai military have already suggested that the Rohingya exodus should be examined by the United Nations.

Phuketwan and the South China Morning Post have been supplied with telling photographs over the past weeks by tourists, by the Royal Thai Navy, by Marine Police, and by the regular police.

We do not expect to receive photographs any time soon from the Thai Army.

The travails of the Rohingya across the Andaman Sea to Indonesia and Indian territory will inevitably provoke more questions, and their fate will almost certainly now become a topic at the important Asean summit in Thailand next month.

For one young Australian tourist, that day at Donald Duck beach on Similans Island Number 8 left indelible memories. It was a snorkelling celebration with three close friends to mark her 23rd birthday.

''We didn't know what was happening, but what we saw was horrible,'' she said. ''The day started as such fun, and it was such a contrast at the other end of the beach.

''At first, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was awful. They were treated like animals.''

Boat People 'Aiming for Phuket, Phang Nga'
Latest The prospect of tourists encountering boat people is increasing on and around Phuket and Phang Nga as questions are being asked about Army brutality against refugees.
Boat People 'Aiming for Phuket, Phang Nga'

Similans Tourists See Boat People Mistreated
Bikinis and brute force Thailand's Similan islands, one of the world's top dive sites, is now also a destination where tourists may see boat people roughly handled by armed military on the beaches.
Similans Tourists See Boat People Mistreated

How the Andaman Links to Amnesty 'Torture'
Photo Album Amnesty accusations of 'torture' have an Andaman connection. The holiday coastline from Phuket northwards is now home to a mix of tourists and boat people, as well as locals.
How the Andaman Links to Amnesty 'Torture'

Exclusive: Secret Rohingya 'Exile Island' Revealed
Photo Album Concern is increasing about the manner in which Rohingya are being secretly turned back to sea off Thailand after first being detained on an Andaman island
Exclusive: Secret Rohingya 'Exile Island' Revealed

In Pictures: Arrest of the Rohingya

Photo Special: Phuket Navy Holds Burmese Muslims
Photo Exclusive The first astonishing photos of hundreds of Burmese Rohingya attempting to enter Thai waters are on Phuketwan now, as chronicled by the Royal Thai Navy.
Photo Special: Phuket Navy Holds Burmese Muslims

'Starving' Boatloads: Phuket Call for UN Action
World Exclusive Hundreds of hungry boat people are being apprehended north of Phuket, prompting a call for United Nations intervention. Phuketwan exposes the Andaman's serious human rights issue, the Rohingya.
'Starving' Boatloads: Phuket Call for UN Action

Spotted Deer off Banned List in the Andamans

Spotted Deer off Banned List; Hunting License in Process

THE LIGHT OF ANDAMANS, Vol. 33, Issue 34-35, January 2, 2009

BYSTAFFREPORTER
N ew Year brings a rea- son to smile for those interested in sport hunting and all those who havve been resorting to illegal means to get venison or deer meat. If you have a licensed gun rusting in some corner of your house, its time get busy with oiling, cleaning and shooting practice.
The department of wildlife has taken spotted dear off the list of protected species of animals on the ground that it is an exotic animal introduced by the British regime sometimes in early 1920s.
"Spotted deer is an exotic species that plays havoc with the environment. It causes tremendous damage to the forest and hence the department has decided to take it off the protected list" said Bhanu Pratap Yadav, Divisional Forest Officer, Havelock Forest Division. "Process is on to introduce hunting license and it will be implemented very soon" he concluded.
Deer meat or venison is very popular among the local people. Putting it on the protected species list had come as a rude shock. The demand was mostly met by illegal had come up allegedly in connivance with unscrupulous forest officials. License to hunt would go a long way to eliminate the black market. However, it would be nobody's interest if the species is washed out through over exploitation.
The Wildlife department would certainly take precaution to contain rather than annihilate the species.

No more padauk in South Andaman forests?

We have no padauk trees in the entire South Andaman area

THE ANDAMAN CHRONICLE
http://andamanchronicle.com/

Jan 04, 2009 at 09:48 PM
Presently extraction of padauk is done from North & Middle Andaman District, which may not last for long: SS Choudhury, PCCF

Port Blair, Jan. 4: A state level marketing workshop on Handicrafts of Andaman & Nicobar Islands was organised at Sun Sea Resort, Port Blair on Friday, Jan 2, 2008. The Secretary (Textiles), Govt. of India, Shri A K Singh was the chief guest on the occasion.
During the interactive session, the artisans who were linked to the furniture industry demanded that they are not given Padauk timber, which is in major demand. Replying to the artisans, Mr. S S Choudhury, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest said, “We are left with not even a single padauk tree in the entire south Andaman. At present extraction is done from Diglipur area and in a limited quantity”. The PCCF Mr. Choudhury also underlined that the present crises of padauk is only because we always want to harvest but no one tries to replace it by planting trees.
Addressing the inaugural session, the chief guest explained the need for giving importance to quality and consistency of handicraft products so as to attract customers and fetch good returns. This will benefit the artisans engaged in production of handicrafts. He advised the artisans to take advantage of trainings provided to them by different agencies and utilize the skills in their handicrafts with innovative designs and quality.
Shri Sanjay Agrawal, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, New Delhi highlighted the objective of the workshop and informed that various initiatives need to be taken up for the improvement of handicrafts in the islands such as sea shell, coconut shell, wooden handicrafts, cane & bamboo. For these, the Govt. would provide financial help in the form of advance, he said.
Smt. SKP Sodhi Secretary, Industries explained that branding of products is more important that production. A study of the demand and then branding would definitely help in fetching good returns, she said.
In the technical session, speakers highlighted the role of different development agencies in development of handicrafts of the islands including marketing, raw materials, insurance of artisans and the problems they face. The speakers included S/Shri R Nityanandam, DGM NABARD, A Sinha Roy, Executive Officer KVIC Port Blair, N C Saravanan, DCF (Mill), S K Halder, GM, DIC, Abhijit Bhattacharya, Branch Manager LIC of India, D Halder, Chief Manager (CSC), M K Biswas, President, AFIA, A Jobai, President SSAWA and A M Abdul Kader, Asst Director (Handicrafts Marketing & Service Extension Center, Port Blair.
About 100 artisans attended the workshop which was organized by the Office of the Development Commissioner, Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, GoI, Southern Regional Office, Chennai.
--

5 Onge die of toxic drink; 15 others seriously ill

Andaman tribesmen die of toxic drink
9 Dec 2008, 1430 hrs IST, PTI

http://timesofindia .indiatimes. com/Pollution/ Andaman_tribesme n_die_of_ toxic_drink/ articleshow/ 3813023.cms

PORT BLAIR: Five Onge aboriginal tribesmen, whose population has been
dwindling, died and 15 others took ill after consuming a toxic chemical at
Dugong Creek of Little Andaman island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"Onge tribals have drunk the chemical mistaking it to be alcohol last
night from a plastic can that had got washed ashore from the Bay of
Bengal at Dugong Creek," said South Andaman district SP Ashok Chand.

A medical team led by deputy director R C Kar had gone to the far flung
island, about 125-km south-west of Port Blair, to provide emergency
medical service to the seriously ill tribesmen.

They would be flown to Port Blair for further treatment as the remote
area lacked proper healthcare facility, Chand said.

With the death of five Onge tribesmen, the island's population of the
tribe has come down to 95.

According to official sources the population of Onge tribals, who
numbered 672 in 1901, had dwindled to 100 recently.

Good news on the tsumani's third anniversary

http://www.pauldeegan.com/index.php?id=6391307091242273579

Dec 26, 2007 | personal | permalink

18 months before the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami struck the islands in the Andaman Sea, I was fortunate to be invited on an expedition to the Andaman & Nicobar islands.

In addition to making a rare ascent of Barren Island, the team was granted a permit to sail to the island of Car Nicobar, which until we arrived had only been visited by one non-Indian national since Independence in 1947.

We were only allowed to stay for one day, but during that time we were royally entertained by the Nicobarese. Warm memories of our experiences (which included traditional circular dancing, local cuisine, and pig wrestling) linger long in my memory.

When the Tsunami struck, I was left feeling upset and impotent. Desperate to do something – anything – for the survivors, I linked up with one of the expedition's photographers, Martin Hartley. We contacted Geographical magazine with a proposal for a story about the islands, and subsequently directed our fees for the article towards the Foundation for Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning (FERAL). One of FERAL's trustees is Dr Rauf Ali, a scientist living in the Andamans who accompanied the 2003 expedition.

Over the past two years, FERAL has been designing a low-cost coconut press to enable the Nicobarese to extract oil from their groves. The coconut oil can then sold directly to businesses, ensuring that all profits flow into the hands of the people who need it most. The money from our article was used to build a prototype. Earlier this year, using some funds from FERAL, Rauf took the unit (which the organisation named 'DeeganPress') to Car Nicobar. The large box required several people to help unload it.

Since the start of 2005, the Nicobarese people have been subjected to a barrage of visits from high profile charities, which has resulted in very little aid: the few items sent to the island have been largely useless (boxes of teddy bears, anyone?). Understandably, the local population was initially sceptical of Rauf's proposal. However, once the unit was unwrapped and they saw it in action, Rauf told me that everyone's mood visibly changed.

Every village on Car Nicobar requested their own DeeganPress, and the long process of raising the necessary funds began. The latest news is that the Government of India's Ministry of Science and Technology has agreed to fund the new prototypes.

While there is now sufficient cash to build the next generation of prototypes, the marketing of the cold pressed coconut oil in India – perhaps as much as 6000 litres a month from the outset – is one of the big issues that remains to be tackled. Which is where you come in. If you have any suggestions or ideas about how to create this link in the marketing chain, please shoot Rauf a message. He'd love to hear from you.

New Vulnerabilities - A&N Islands

New vulnerabilities
PANKAJ SEKHSARIA
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/12/23/stories/2007122350110400.htm

A changed topography in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and increased seismic activity in the area have to be factored in for drafting appropriate disaster responses.

Photo: Pankaj Sekhsaria
Advancing sea: Forests and plantations destroyed due to subsidence in the Nicobar group of islands. December 26, 2004 is remembered primarily for the devastating tsunami that struck coasts across South and South-East Asia with unprecedented fury. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located close to the epicentre of the earthquake that caused the tsuna mi were also hit very badly and suffered huge damage to life and property. Official figures list 3,513 people as either dead or missing and 7,992 hectares as the paddy and plantation land that was affected. The number of boats fully damaged was 938, while the number of livestock reported to have been lost in the disaster was 1, 57,577.

The figures do tell us one important story; at the same time, however, they also hide another equally important one, albeit unintentionally. Disaggregating and looking at these numbers along the lines of the two island groups (Andamans and Nicobars) reveals a crucially important scenario that has not attracted the attention and analysis it actually deserves.

More damage in the Nicobars

Of the 3,513 people reported dead and missing, only 64 are from the Andaman group of islands; the remaining 3,449 are from the islands in the Nicobar Group. Seventy-six per cent of the agricultural and paddy land destroyed and 80 per cent of livestock loss was also reported from the Nicobars. The latest figures of houses being constructed for the tsunami affected also indicate a similar trend. 71 percent or 7,001 houses of the 9,797 being constructed are in the Nicobars

So, while the Nicobar Islands account for only 22 per cent and 12 per cent of the area and population respective of the entire chain of islands, 98 per cent of the deaths and 76 per cent of loss of agricultural land occurred here. The damage caused is inversely proportional to the area and population of the two groups and strikingly so.

Tectonic movements

While the tsunami was directly responsible for most of the damage, a more fundamental explanation of the situation in the islands lies in the earthquake that caused the tsunami. While the tectonic movements triggered by the earthquake catalysed the tsunami, they also caused a huge and permanent shift in the lay of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Preliminary assessments by Dr. Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado (http://cires.colorado.edu/%7ebilham/IndonesiAndaman2004_files/AndamanSRL4Mar.htm) showed that the Andaman Islands experienced an average permanent uplift of one to two metres while there was a subsidence of up to four meters in parts of the Nicobar group of islands. In a paper titled “Partial and Complete Rupture of the Indo-Andaman plate boundary” published in June 2005, Bilham and his co-authors point out that the tide gauge at Port Blair recorded an initial rise of sea level about 38 minutes after local shaking commenced on the day of the disaster. A 2005 report by the Geological Survey of India quoting eyewitness accounts indicated similarly, that the main shocks were felt in Port Blair around 0635 hrs local time on December 26, 2004. While the first influx of sea waves was noticed 15-20 minutes later, it was about two hours after the main shock (0830 hrs local time) that a third wave hit the shores with a velocity that caught citizens unaware. Other reports ( http://www.asce.org/files/pdf/tsunami/3-7.pdf ) indicate that the first wave of the tsunami in Port Blair came about 50 minutes after the initial earthquake. Three more waves with a gap of 30-35 minutes between each other are reported to have followed.

While this sequence of events has not been corroborated from developments on other islands here, it can be assumed that the pattern everywhere was the same and by implication, that the subsidence and uplift of the landmass occurred before the most powerful and damaging of the tsunami waves hit the shores of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Nicobars, though spread over a smaller area and also more thinly populated, suffered much larger damages that the Andamans because of the subsidence that occurred.

Ecological changes

Surveys by ecologists and environmental researchers conducted after December 2004 provide supporting evidence. A report by Harry Andrews of the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team pointed out that huge coral reef areas totalling more than 60 sq. km along the western and northern coasts of the Middle and North Andaman Islands have been permanently exposed and destroyed. Studies in the Nicobar group of islands by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Nature (SACON), supported by the Wildlife Trust of India, revealed that the ecosystems that were badly damaged by the joint impact of the subsidence, the tsunami waves and the permanent ingress of sea water included forests along the coast line — particularly the mangroves and littoral forests. Faunal species that primarily reside in littoral forests like the Nicobari Megapode, the Giant Robber Crab and the Malayan Box Turtle were among those that were the worst hit. A survey in early 2006 by Dr. K. Sivakumar of the Wildlife Institute of India confirmed the findings of SACON. Sivakumar estimated that the post-tsunami population of the Nicobari Megapode was only 30 per cent of what it had been a decade ago.

The dominant human population in the Nicobar Islands is the Nicobari tribal community that is essentially coastal dwelling. They were therefore the most vulnerable and in the direct route of the powerful tsunami which followed the significant subsidence that had taken place on account of the earthquake. Of the 3,513 people reported dead or missing, 2,955 indeed were from this tribal community.

There is also evidence that the region where the islands are located has become even more seismically active since December 2004. Data gathered by the United States Geological Service (USGS) shows that nearly 20 earthquakes of a magnitude over M6 in addition to several hundred of lesser intensity have been recorded in the region in the last three years.

Some, like the September 12, 2007 earthquake off the Sumatra coast have been extremely powerful. This particular earthquake was of a magnitude greater than M8 on the Richter scale and led to the issuing of a tsunami warning along the Indonesian coast as well as in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

New factors

Increased seismic activity and increased threat because of this needs to now be made an important aspect of policy and development planning in the islands. Similarly, the change of the topography of the islands on account of the tectonic movements caused as a result of the massive earthquake of December 26, 2004 needs to be factored in, both for the ongoing relief and rehabilitation work here as also for future planning. An understanding and incorporation of these two basic aspects should be made fundamental to dealing with the present and the future of the A&N islands.

One important dimension, for instance, is the alteration along the coasts of all the islands, of the High Tide Line (HTL). Unless this is recalibrated, any management of or implementation of laws and regulations related to the coastal zone cannot be done effectively. They are in fact meaningless. The changed scenario also has direct implications on issues like land that can or cannot be allotted for reconstruction or for agriculture and plantations as also for materials and design of new buildings being constructed in the islands.

An understanding and through analysis of the changed ground situation and the new vulnerabilities would be the first step towards articulating and creating appropriate responses. Ignoring these and the implications is only an invitation to more trouble in the future with potentially disastrous consequences.

2004 earthquake shifts southern Indian cities

The Hindu, Aug. 15, 2007
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2007081558450100.htm&date=2007/08/15/&prd=th&

Y. Mallikarjun

Horizontal movement towards Nicobar

---

Major tectonic shift occurred at a fast pace

Land mass might take long to return to earlier position

---

HYDERABAD: The Andaman and Nicobar belt moved horizontally by 3 metres to 6 metres, Chennai by 2 cm, Bangalore by 1.5 cm and Hyderabad by 11 mm following the undersea Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004.

In the normal course such a tectonic shift would have taken hundreds of years to occur but it happened in less than 10 minutes during the earthquake. The impact caused by the 9.2 magnitude temblor could be gauged by the fact that the Indian plate was moving at the rate of 4 cm a year with respect to the Burmese plate.

Scientists from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) who carried out GPS-based studies in the Andaman and Nicobar islands before and after the earthquake, told The Hindu on Monday that horizontal movement was noticed t owards the Nicobar side.

While a 3-m movement was found in the middle of Andamans, it was 6 m between Car Nicobar and Great Nicobar.

The entire island also subsided by 1 m to 2 m vertically. Interestingly, it began to rise again but at a slow speed, and 30 per cent of the land had ‘re-emerged,’ said NGRI Director V.P. Dimri and seismologist V.K. Gahalaut.

Explaining that the uplift of the subsided land mass was occurring in a non-linear manner, they said it might take up to a couple of hundred years for it to return to the pre-2004 position.

Dr. Gahalaut said the boundary between the Indian plate and the Burmese plate, in the sub-duction zone, is about 150 km west of the Andamans. The overriding plate (Burmese) moved by 3 m to 6 m during the earthquake along the 1,500-km faultline extending from North Andaman to West Sumatra.

He explained that before the earthquake, the Indian and Burmese plates were moving together as they were locked and there was no relative movement between the two.

After the earthquake, they got disengaged and the Burmese plate was moving in a southwest direction with respect to the Indian plate at a rate which is faster than the normal plate motion but less than the speed which occurred during the massive temblor.

Tilt and turmoil in the Andamans

TEXT AND PICTURES BY PANKAJ SEKHSARIA

Frontline, Vol. 23, Issue 16, August 12-25, 2006

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2316/stories/20060825000206600.htm

The earthquake and tsunami of December 2004 caused huge changes in the coastal systems of Andaman and Nicobar Island

AN 11-PICTURE COMPILATION showing the huge uplift and destruction of coral reef - covered with mud and debris - west of Interview Island.

December 26, 2004 will be etched forever on our memories for the tsunami that killed lakhs of people and caused unprecedented damage in the coastal regions of South Asia and South East Asia.

PADDY FIELDS AND mangrove forests lie submerged at Sippighat, on the outskirts of Port Blair. The old channels of the creek are still visible, clearly outlined by dead mangrove trees.

Among the worst hit areas in India were the fragile Andaman and Nicobar Islands, particularly the southern group of the Nicobars. Of the nearly 3,500 people reported dead and missing in the entire islands, nearly 3,000 were in the Nicobar group, which has only about 10 per cent of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands' estimated population of 400,000.

Another important indicator of the damage is the area of agricultural and horticultural land that suffered temporary or permanent submergence. In the Nicobars nearly 6,000 hectares (14,826 acres) has been damaged, and in the Andamans about 1,800 ha (4,447.8 acres). The magnitude of the damage to the Nicobars becomes clear when one considers the fact that the Andaman group, with a total area of about 6,400 sq. km, is more than three times the size of the Nicobar group. In the Andamans, too, much of the damage occurred in the southern parts, in the Little Andaman and South Andaman islands. The northern groups escaped virtually unscathed.

The explanation of this stark contrast lies in the earthquake that set off the tsunami. The tectonic activity initiated in December 2004 caused a significant shift in the lay of the islands. Assessments done by Dr. Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado indicate that the northern parts of the Andaman group of islands experienced a permanent average uplift of four to six feet (1.2 metres to 1.8 metres) while most parts of the Nicobars went significantly under - four feet in Car Nicobar and a staggering 15 feet (4.57 m) at the southernmost tip - Indira Point on Great Nicobar Island. The pivot of this swing experienced by the islands can be calculated to be roughly located south of Port Blair.

AT JOGINDERNAGAR, GREAT Nicobar Island, buildings and coconut plantations that were far inland before the tsunami are now right on the coastline, on the new beaches.

In the Nicobars, therefore, the water that the tsunami brought in stayed back, permanently inundating huge areas of coastal and low-lying forest and, where they existed, fields, horticultural plantations and settlements of the Nicobaris and the settler families. Among the most significant but little studied or understood implications of this sudden, phenomenal change in the architecture of the islands is the impact on coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, coastal (littoral) forests and coral reefs.

The submergence of the coast has brought this well, filled with sand as a result of wave action, right to the edge of the coast.

Proof of the damage caused to mangroves and littoral forests lies everywhere in the Nicobars. A continuous wall of submerged, dead, brown, decaying timber of various kinds engulfs every single island. The extensive damage to these forests has also had catastrophic implications for a diverse range of rare and endemic flora and fauna that inhabited these systems.

For instance, the submergence in the Nicobars has permanently destroyed a huge part of the nesting habitat of the Nicobari Megapode, an endemic bird that scrapes together a mound of earth for its unique nest. A survey carried out by Ravi Sankaran of the Coimbatore-based Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in the first few months of the disaster reported that nearly 1,100 nesting mounds were lost in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami.

A survey in early 2006 by K. Sivakumar, who was a student of Ravi Sankaran and is now with the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, covered nearly 110 km of the coastline in 15 islands in the Nicobar group. The Nicobari Megapode was the subject of his doctoral thesis and he had conducted extensive surveys of the bird in 1993-94. Sivakumar's present estimates indicate that there are now only about 500 active nesting mounds of the bird and that its population is less than 30 per cent of what was reported a decade ago. While the bird has been hit badly, fears of its extinction have been put to rest.

Little, unfortunately, is known of the other littoral forest-dwelling fauna, mainly the Giant Robber Crab, the Reticulated Python and the Malayan Box Turtle. South Sentinel, a 1.6 sq. km flat, uninhabited island that is also a wildlife sanctuary, had one of the most significant populations of the Giant Robber Crab. Beaching a boat here was always a tricky affair and after the changes in December 2004 it is reported to have become even more so. No credible scientific information exists of the present situation on this island, and therefore of the Robber Crab.

UPLIFTED BED OF mangrove creek.

CORAL REEFS UNDER DEBRIS

Another ecological system that has been affected on either side of the pivot is the pristine and extensive coral reefs that the islands are famous for. In the Nicobars the damage was caused by submergence, increased turbidity of the water and the sheer physical impact of debris.

Surveys by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have reported significant impact on the coral reefs around the Central Nicobar group of islands, including Camorta, Nancowry, Trinket and Katchal. R Jeybaskaran of the ZSI's regional station in Port Blair had conducted extensive surveys in the waters of Great Nicobar in 1999. He took a re-look at the reefs after the tsunami only to find that large coral areas were under debris, sand and mud. Also reported was a noticeable reduction in associated coral fauna such as nudibranchs, flat worms, alpheid shrimps and hermit crabs.

Another interesting associated change has been the sudden increase in the otherwise uncommon `Milk Fish' Chanos chanos in the Great Nicobar waters. Fisherfolk catch them in such large numbers that they are now called tsunami macchi.

THE GIANT ROBBER Crab in South Sentinel Island is said to be one of the most badly affected species of fauna by the destruction of coastal forests.

While the Nicobar coral reefs suffered on account of submergence, those in the Andaman waters were permanently thrust above the high-tide line, destroying them in weeks. Among the first to survey these areas for the changes was Harry Andrews of the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team. His report and that of Ravi Sankaran of the Nicobars were published as part of a series by the Wildlife Trust of India - `Ground Beneath the Waves - Post Tsunami Impact Assessment of Wildlife and their Habitats in India'.

Andrews has estimated that more than 50 sq km of pristine coral reefs were thoroughly exposed and destroyed, and the largest single area, on the west and north of Interview Island measured 25 sq km. Like the coral reefs, these parts of the Andamans have also seen loss of mangroves because of the fact that unlike the Nicobars they are now permanently above the high water mark.

The survival of the Nicobari Megapode with its nesting mound (partly seen) in low-lying coastal forests is now under threat.

Significantly, most of the experts and others working on ecological issues in the islands have unanimously advocated no intervention as the best form of intervention. "Allowing nature to take its course is the best way," says Ravi Sankaran, "to allow habitats to restore themselves, and species to colonise areas. Leaving areas alone should be the preferred management option."

Natural systems are bound to respond in complex ways in an attempt to move towards some kind of equilibrium and this should be allowed to happen. The example of sea turtles is a good one. The beaches of the islands (particularly in the Nicobars) that have been important nesting sites for four species - the Giant Leatherback, the Green Sea Turtle, the Olive Ridley and the Hawksbill - were all lost when the coastline in the southern group submerged.

In a few months, however, new beaches started to appear, like soothing, soft caresses all along the altered alignments of the ravaged islands. The turtles, too, were back and there are now regular reports of their using these new beaches for nesting.

SUBMERGED AND DEAD coconut plantation in Great Nicobar Island.

In the Andamans, too, many of these exposed reef areas rapidly filled up with sand, creating additional new landmasses and new beaches. The process goes on and change continues to happen. What will be the nature of the equilibrium ultimately attained? For the answer we have to wait and watch.

Pankaj Sekhsaria is National Foundation for India Media Fellow 2005-06 for writing on the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

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