Monsoon Pics - Andaman islands

Neil Island, September 2007

Neil Island, September 2007


North Bay, September 2007


Ross Island, September 2007


Clouds over Port Blair as seen from Ross Island, September 2007

Conviction for hunting spotted deer in Marine National Park

Three found guilty & convicted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act

Port Blair, Jan 04

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS, January 5, 2009

The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Port Blair, Shri Manas Basu has
convicted three persons and sentenced to them suffer simple imprisonment
for one year each. The accused pesons are A Muthu, S Kumar and Karthick
and they have been convicted under section 51 of the Wildlife
(Protection) Act 1972.

The case against all the three convicts was initiated by the
Assistant Wildlife Warden of Mahatma Gandhi Marine National park,
Wandoor alleging therein that on Jan 31, 2002. While on routine
patrolling duty he apprehended two accused persons red handed while they
were loading spotted deers on an engine dinghy anchored at the shore of
Tarmugli Island.

The persons apprehended A Muthu, Panchayat member and S Kumar, both
residents of Indira Nagar when interrogated implicated one more person
named Karthick who alongwith them captured the spotted deers at the
Tarmugli Islands.

The hunting / capturing of the spotted deers is totally prohibited
being wild animal of schedule III except as provided U/s 11 and 12 of
Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972. After hearing the evidence adduced on
behalf of the complainant the Chief Judicial Magistrate found the three
persons guilty of the offence and sentenced them accordingly, the APP,
Shri Salim Mohammed informed in a communication here.

Tuna: business plans for vanishing fish?

Tuna: business plans for vanishing fish?

HINDU SURVEY OF THE ENVIRONMENT 2008


The Andaman and Nicobar islands are proposed to be made the hub of a thriving tuna fisheries industry. Without a sustainable approach, though, it will seriously deplete fish stocks and harm marine biodiversity, says Manak Matiyani (Email: manakmatiyani@gmail.com)

"The Zonal Director, Fishery Survey of India (FSI), based on their field experience clarified that there will not be any environmental impact by promoting tuna fishing in the islands."

--Minutes of stakeholders meeting to discuss tuna fishing in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands held on March 10, 2008.

On January 6, 2008, the Minister of State for Commerce, Mr. Jairam Ramesh released the first draft of the plans for expansion of tuna fishing in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) is spearheading the plans to develop packaging and processing plants and landing centres in Port Blair so that the fish caught by trawlers can be landed, marketed and exported directly from the islands. The proposal met with opposition from various fisheries associations and the Human Rights Law Network in Port Blair when it was publicly announced, on grounds of loss of livelihood of local fishing communities and harm to the environment, marine mammals and birds.

There is a sense of urgency behind the plans, which is attributed to the migratory nature of tuna and its export value. The current project is being promoted on the assumption that if we do not catch the tuna here, it will be caught by other nations elsewhere. Fishing grounds the world over are facing stock depletion and these waters are perhaps some of the few remaining sites where, reportedly, stocks still abound. Rather than mutual cooperation to promote long term sustainable fishing in South East Asia, the driving force here is competition between coastal nations that will lead to precipitous decline of fish stock.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands have a rich biodiversity and ecological wealth protected by the isolation of these fragile ecosystems. Any development project must take into account possible impact on the environment. The government's attitude here is purely profit-oriented and seems to show little concern for the environment. By declaring that "there will not be any impact" the government has done away with the need for any studies or assessments to support this claim. The soft steps taken to appease the fishermen will prove to be further damaging to the environment without giving any real opportunity for growth.

The geography of the islands is such that fishermen need not go too far into deep water seas to find tuna and tuna-like species. By asking the government to not grant permission to outside vessels within 24 miles, the local fishermen wish to harvest the potential of those waters themselves through a "fishing corporation" that would operate long liners close to shore. This was considered by the administration along with loan schemes for procurement of more boats. It was decided that outside vessels would be permitted to fish only beyond 24 nautical miles from the islands. The FSI has stated that in the islands, tuna fishing operations can be conducted economically only during three to four months of the year. There is no guarantee therefore, that a new fishing corporation will not meet the same fate as the previous Rubber Board and Forest Corporation that created ecological disasters in the islands and also became financial liabilities due to heavy losses. What is needed instead is to promote diverse small scale fishing operations which allow replenishment of stocks without causing irreparable harm to the environment.

The administrative position is that they cannot control vessels operating beyond 24 nautical miles. The permissions being given then are only for landing, processing and exporting from the islands. In stating so, they are conveniently avoiding the task of regulating and monitoring the operations.

Increased traffic in these waters will have a damaging effect in the long run. Pollution and dumping in the sea, activities that are currently unregulated, will increase dramatically. The mortality of animals such as the dugong, dolphins, birds and various species of turtles that come to nest on these islands due to entanglement in monofilament lines is also likely to rise. It is interesting that certain areas of the United States have effective systems for proper collection and disposal of discarded monofilament lines so that they do not become environment hazards. All over the world there are companies that catch and package certified "Dolphin Safe Tuna" but no such conditions have been included in the proposed plan. The FSI, in fact, has said that they only have "negligible shark by-catch" and the threat to other species such as dolphins, dugongs and turtles, all protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Act, has not been considered.

The capacity of the Coast Guard to monitor the waters around the islands is obviously inadequate. The Director of Fisheries has admitted that it is impossible for the department to monitor the waters effectively. Local fishermen report regular poaching of sea cucumbers, turtles and even dolphins by Indian and foreign vessels around the islands. With increased activity and no strong monitoring agency in place, poachers will find it easy to operate. The months during which the operators would be in these waters are not specified in the plan. If tuna fishing can be conducted economically in only three or four months, the case for maintaining a year round presence around the islands becomes weak, and the motives questionable.

The long term impacts of the proposal are not being considered in the face of likely short term gains and no party is interested in conducting an impact assessment. The government has already given the go ahead to the tuna fisheries plans by allowing two private companies to commence operations. The latest development in the sector, however, is most curious. According to two reports published in The Hindu in March 2008, while the Fisheries Department has made an allocation of Rs.1.5 crores specifically for the development of tuna fisheries, a lot of operators have ceased operations in the Bay of Bengal due to losses as there is no tuna available.

Clearly, we need to evaluate afresh the plans that appear to be failing even before they have taken off. Without proper surveys, environmental studies, or assessments, we seem to be heading towards not just an ecological disaster, but a financial one as well.

Great Andamanese in Port Blair

Will this be the fate of all the indigenous communities of these islands?

Great Andamanese begging in Premnagar, Port Blair.

Photo by Zubair Ahmed, The Light of Andamans.
Contact: zubairpbl@gmail.com

Undoing the damage?

President Smt. Pratibha Patil planting a casuarina sapling at Wandoor where the A&N admin cut down scores of trees for her visit there. (Photo: Press Information Bureau)



(Clarification issued by the A&N Admin)
NEWS REPORT CLARIFIED
The Daily Telegrams
December 28, 2007

Apropos the news item appearing in the Indian Express and the Andaman Express dated 27.12.2007 it is to be clarified in this connection that on the basis of the report received from the local Air Force Authorities requiring clearance of obstacles including trees in the funnel area of Wandoor helipad, the Department of Environment & Forests has given no objection to Andaman PWD to remove and to prune some trees to provide safe and free movement of VVIP helicopter at Wandoor Helipad. Cutting of these trees will not create any environmental damage as these trees are Casuarina species which were planted in the past primarily to beautify the beach. However, some trees to be pruned and very few trees coming coming within the funnel area had to be removed for safe landing and take-off of the VVIP helicopter. Felling of these trees do not attract the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act 1980. In replacement of trees removed, the Forest Department will undertake planting suitable species in the blank areas.
As regards other reports relating to cutting of large number of trees in Havelock Island and Port Blair Municipal area, it is to clarify that not a single tree has been cut; only pruning of branches of avenue trees has been carried out wherever it is needed for reasons of the security of the VVIP, says a press note issued by the A&N Administration here today.

Tree Cutting at Wandoor - More pictures

Some more pictures of the tree cutting in Wandoor.
These pictures are from Manak Matiyani. Email: manakmatiyani@gmail.com

Tree Cutting At Wandoor - President in the islands

Dear Friends,
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)

Subsidised Tourism Worsens Andamans' Woes
By Pankaj Sekhsaria*
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=40361

Credit:Pankaj Sekhsaria Susidised domestic tourism has strained resources on the Andaman islands

PORT BLAIR, Dec 6 (IPS/IFEJ) - Tourism, promoted as a major economic activity and employment generator in India’s far-flung Andaman Islands, has run into opposition lately. Concerns are being raised, ironically, by local residents and tour operators who are supposed to be the prime beneficiaries.

A chain of about 550 islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is clothed in thick rainforests and home to excellent beaches and coral reefs. Agriculture, forestry and government jobs have traditionally been the mainstay for the people of this centrally-administered territory that is closer to Thailand, Burma and Indonesia than the Indian mainland.

But increased awareness of the need to protect forests, dwindling agricultural returns and a continued growth in the population, now at 356,000, has led the government to promote tourism as one of the key areas for economic growth and employment on the islands.

Government figures clearly indicate the trend. An estimated 100,000 visitors came to the islands in 2004. The figure was roughly the same for the year 2006 and is expected to cross 150,000 for 2007. While this might not seem like a big jump, the significance becomes obvious when one factors in the tourist numbers for the year 2005. Fewer than 50,000 visited in 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the Dec.26, 2004 earthquake and the tsunami that followed.

The damage to infrastructure and, more importantly, the uncertainty that followed, hit the islands’ fledgling tourism industry hard. Tourist arrivals dropped dramatically prompting the launch of ‘Vitamin Sea’, a tourism promotion campaign for the islands.

In a related move the central government also extended its Leave Travel Concession (LTC) programme to a section of its employees, allowing them free air travel if they chose to holiday on the islands. For nearly two years now employees from the government-owned Steel Authority of India’s units in Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur and Rourkela (small towns in central and eastern India) have constituted the bulk of the tourists visiting the islands.

While this might sound like a welcome trend, the fact that a large chunk of these visitors are low-spending domestic tourists is a matter of some consternation. Increasingly people in Port Blair are complaining that the government policy of promoting tourism, using its own employees, does little good to these tsunami-affected islands, located barely 150 km away from the badly-hit Aceh province on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

Such is the resentment against the policy that World Tourism Day, Sep. 27, saw local tour operators and agencies come out on the streets of Port Blair in protest.

Members of the Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industries point out that the LTC tourists visiting the islands not only spend little money but, through bulk bookings offered by travel agents, use up the scarce resources and facilities and crowd out genuine up-market tourists.

In a recent article published in a local newspaper, green campaigner Samir Acharya of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, wrote: "Tourism, instead of bringing a boon to the islands, has actually brought a curse on the islanders...the only contribution (of LTC tourists) to the islands is bringing scarcity of water, (cheap)inter-island boat tickets, island-mainland ship tickets and even air-tickets for the localities. What makes it worse and intolerable is that it is totally state-funded.’’

The LTC tourists have sorely strained the resources on the islands. The summer of 2007 saw unprecedented water cuts for residents, with parts of Port Blair receiving water only once in five days, and that too for only a couple of hours. "Due to curtailment of water supply by municipal council," said a notice put up in the state-run Hotel Megapode in Port Blair at the height of the monsoon season in September, "all guests are requested not to waste water and not to wash clothes. Water supply timing: Morning 6 am to 10 am. Evening: 6 pm to 10 pm." Other restaurants and hotels too encourage guests to use water judiciously.

"LTC tourists," says Zubair Ahmed, a journalist working with the local weekly ‘The Light of Andamans’, "are always welcome, if they know in advance what to expect in the islands.LTC tourism is helping the unorganised sector to earn something, but the organised sector is up in arms against it because they are losing their clientele."

Sanjay Ray, a resort owner and an elected representative on Havelock Island, agrees. "No benefit comes to us from the Indian tourist and 80 percent of our benefit comes from foreigners."

Not everyone disagrees with government policy. New Delhi-based tourism expert and researcher Nina Rao, told IPS: "I am surprised at this campaign (World Tourism Day protests). We have always felt that everyone has a right to be a tourist, and this is a democratic right.’’

However, she adds that tourism should stay within carrying capacity limits. ''Today, it is established that the 800 plus million tourists (around the world) are a serious cause of global warming and this affects island people the most.''

While more domestic tourists are being solicited, little attention has been paid to basic details such as infrastructure, waste management or the impact on sensitive ecosystems like coral reefs.

Officials admit privately that the move to boost tourism via the LTC route in the aftermath of the tsunami is backfiring. Evidence of this lies in the fact that the administration recently refused permission to the Indian Railways (the world’s largest employer with 1.6 million workers on its rolls) to include the islands as part of its LTC schemes.

Other tourism promotion moves -- like the 2005 agreement to twin Port Blair with Thailand's Phuket, 500km away -- have been abandoned following protests by academics and activists that this could have negative social and environmental impacts in the Andamans.

For now, what is certain is that domestic tourism in the Andamans appears to have become a classic case of a remedy being worse than the problem.

(*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by Inter Press Service and the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ). It replaces the version issued on Nov 28)

Andaman Tourism plan backfiring?

PORT BLAIR, India, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A flood of low-budget tourists since the 2004 tsunami is hurting India's ecologically fragile Andaman and Nicobar islands and ruining plans to make it a top global destination, industry officials said.

It has drained scarce resources such as water, sparked excessive demand for airline tickets, hit hotel revenues and created a service culture which is insensitive to the needs of wealthier travellers, they said.

The problem, officials said, is a decision to allow all levels of government and state-run firms' workers to use their paid family and home leave travel allowances, awarded every two years, to fly if they want to visit the Andamans.

That means low wage state workers were visiting -- taking up the chance to fly for the first time and visit the far-off islands -- with trips previously restricted to senior level state employees.

The islands, known for their sparkling beaches, tropical forests, coral reefs, tribal cultures and emerald Indian Ocean waters, are 1,200 km (750 miles) from the mainland, and are closer to southeast Asia than India.

However, a move to exploit this to attract more visitors and boost the economy, badly hit by the tsunami has backfired as it has overburdened the isles without raising earnings correspondingly, tourism officials said.

"For these tourists, the destination does not matter. They come because they get to fly for the first time in their lives," said Mohamed H. Jadwet, head of the Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"We also pushed for this after the tsunami but we never thought it would come to this."
A dreaded penal territory during British colonial rule, the islands have for long been a destination cloaked in mystery.

Tourism, farming and fishing are the main sources of income for the islands, which can be reached only by air or a three-day ship journey from the mainland.

The tsunami hit the isles badly, killing about 3,500 people, and displacing 40,000.
It also hurt tourism, with the number of visitors in 2005 plummeting to 32,000 from an annual average of 100,000. But the government move saw it surge to over 125,000 in 2006 and it is expected to cross 150,000 this year, officials said.

CAPACITY TRAMPLED

The influx, however, has not seen an increase in revenues as an estimated 80 percent are low-wage state workers.
They are drawn by travel firms on the mainland known to corner cheap airline tickets and offer them to state employees who get full fare leave travel allowance, allowing them to pocket the difference, tourism industry officials said.

"These people will not spend more than 500 rupees ($12) per day on rooms, food and sight-seeing, " said G. Bhasker, who owns a middle-level hotel and runs a travel firm in Port Blair, the quaint capital of the archipelago.

"We are not against any strata of society coming here but we also have to see what it is doing to the island's resources and the industry," he said.

Foreign visitors, often the most high-paying of visitors to India, are few and far between.
The Andamans have faced a severe water shortage this year and the rising number of tourists meant that Port Blair got 30 minutes of tap water supply once every five days this summer, residents and activists said.

Garbage disposal has become a huge problem as the sprawling town has no modern waste management system. While an airline boom has seen fares fall, they remain artificially
high for Port Blair, preventing island residents from flying and putting off regular tourists.

"We have limited tourism carrying capacity due to limited resources and that has been overstretched, " said Samir Acharya, of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology.

"Now the Andamans are badmouthed so much that genuine tourists don't want to come," he said.

(Additional reporting by Sanjib Kumar Roy)

Punishment for culprit in Nu Case

Dear Friends,
You would recollect the incident a few weeks ago where Nu suffered serious burns. (See Postings on the blog dated July 18 and 8)The administration seems to have finally taken note. See the news report below.
pankaj

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS, Aug 8, 2007

Lt. Governor orders probe, wants exemplary punishment to the culprit

Port Blair, Aug 07

The Lt. Governor, Lt General (Retd.) Bhopinder Singh, today visited Adi-Basera, located near Nehru Yuva Kendra. After preliminary inquiry into the recent incident of burning of a Great Andamanese lady, who is under treatment in Chennai, the Lt. Governor ordered for a thorough investigation into the incident and directed the concerned authorities for an exemplary punishment to the culprits and disciplinary action against the staff dealing with the security & safety of tribal people staying in the Adi-Basera.

The Lt. Governor on the spot directed the Executive Secretary of Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS) to proceed to Chennai forthwith to ascertain the condition of the tribal lady and ensure that she is getting proper treatment. He also sanctioned an amount of Rs 5 lakh for meeting the treatment charges of the tribal lady.

The Lt. Governor informed all concerned that any untoward incident to tribal people should be brought to his notice immediately and directed the authorities to take immediate measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents in future.

Trouble Down this road

The Hindu, June 10, 2007
MEENA GUPTA
The Andaman Trunk Road, a boon for settlers on the island, could be the death-knell for the Jarawas. But little is being done to protect the Stone Age tribe from contact with the 21st century.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/06/10/stories/2007061050090100.htm

THE deprivation of a name, the loss of a homeland, the extinction of a tribe — this seems to be the ominous progression of one of the oldest extant hunter-gatherer tribes in India, indeed, possibly, in the whole world. ‘Ang’ is what they call themselves, but the world knows them as the Jarawa, the Palaeolithic tribe that lives deep in the jungles of the Andaman Islands. The word ‘Jarawa’, in the language of the Great Andamanese (another Stone Age tribe of the Andamans) means ‘the stranger’ or ‘the outsider’. To the Andamanese, the Jarawa were outsiders; a different people, albeit of the same Negrito stock and inhabiting the same islands. It is unfortunate that this name — rather than Ang meaning ‘humans’, which the Jarawa use for themselves — should become the name by which we know them.

TOTAL ISOLATION
The Jarawa are one of the five Stone Age tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have lived in almost total isolation in the dense tropical forests of the islands, and have survived virtually unchanged up to modern times. They are hunter-gatherers, who do not practise even rudimentary agriculture, wear no clothes, shun contact with outsiders, and are fiercely independent. Their physical appearance — dark, almost ebony skin, closely curled woolly hair, and negrito features — are quite distinct from the population that originates from the Indian mainland and mark them as a race apart. Because of their small numbers (240 persons as per the 2001 census, 317 persons as reported by the Andaman administration in 2007) and their being nomadic deep forest dwellers, they are virtually unknown as a community to the rest of India and are only a name even to the inhabitants of the islands. The plight of the Jarawa has, in recent years, generated a lot of interest because of an almost sudden change in their behaviour in the late 1990s — from avoiding all contact with the outsider to actively seeking such contact. This change, which began in 1997, has heightened their vulnerability and threatened their way of life. The single activity that has had the most significant, and adverse, impact on the lives of the Jarawa is the construction of the Andaman Trunk Road. Running in a south-north direction from Port Blair, the administrative headquarters in South Andaman to Maya Bunder in the north, the ATR was started in 1958 with the very laudable intention of linking Port Blair with the several settlements scattered in the middle and north of the Andaman Islands. These settlements, which consisted entirely of people who migrated from the mainland (refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan, other people who had migrated in search of better opportunities, descendants of convicts and jailors brought by the British) were either consciously established by the administration or, more rarely, had sprung up on their own. Established at great human and financial cost, they are now flourishing habitations, with the people conscious and vociferous about their rights. Before the construction of the Andaman Trunk Road, these habitations were connected to Port Blair (and to the mainland) only by sea routes. With the completion of the ATR (an endeavour that took approximately 40 years), a direct and unimaginably convenient land link was established between the settlements and Port Blair. The trouble was that the ATR sliced right through territory that was, until then, the exclusive and undisturbed preserve of the Stone Age, hunter-gatherer Jarawa tribe. In fact it was because this territory was, by and large, undisturbed that the Jarawa had been able to survive with their way of life almost unchanged over centuries. The incursion into their territory, through the means of the ATR, exposed them to modern civilisation and its baneful influences like tobacco, alcohol, unfamiliar foods and diseases against which they had no immunity, which could together take them to the brink of extinction. What was a boon for the settlers, therefore, could very easily sound the death knell for the Jarawa.Alarm bells about the impact of the ATR on the Jarawa should have started ringing long ago. When the road first started, sensibilities about the environment and human rights and the different rights of tribals were low. Therefore creating a road through someone else’s homeland, destroying virgin forests was not a matter of great concern.

OPPOSITION
But over the 40 years or so it took to construct the ATR, consciousness of environmental issues and human rights has grown by leaps and bounds. However when the rights of a tiny group of people clashes with those of a much larger one, it is usually the more clamorous and stronger voice that is heard. And that is what has happened in the case of the ATR. There was certainly no dearth of opposition from the Jarawa. Starting with the killing of the labourers building the road, to shooting with bow and arrows at buses and other vehicles when they started to ply on the road, the Jarawa made their objection to the violation of their homeland and space quite clear. That the administration continued with their efforts could be seen as an act of valour and determination in the face of odds or callousness and insensitivity towards the rights of weaker people depending on the point of view. The Jarawa became the subject of a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Calcutta High Court in the 1990s with the High Court issuing an order to frame a policy for the Jarawa. The Jarawa Policy was prepared as a consequence, in consultation with a number of experts, and was adopted on December 21, 2004. The Jarawa Policy dwells not inconsiderably on the ATR and its impact on the Jarawa. It recommends, among other things, that the traffic on the road be restricted to essential purposes (which have been specified) and allowed to move only during restricted hours and in convoys. It repeatedly stresses that all manner of interaction between the Jarawa and the travellers, particularly tourists, be prevented. Very importantly, the policy talks of encouraging and strengthening facilities for travel by boat and ship. The policy also talks of removing encroachments in the Jarawa territory on priority basis, and ensuring that no such encroachment of non-tribals take place.

NO IMPLEMENTATION
In the two and a half years since the Jarawa policy has come into being, little has been done to implement its recommendations, particularly the more difficult ones. In defence of the administration, it must be pointed out that the inaction was not, perhaps, deliberate. The Jarawa policy was adopted on December 21, 2004. Just five days later, on December 26, the devastating tsunami struck the islands. The Jarawa were not affected by the tsunami, so the administration, whose entire attention got diverted to the affected areas, had little time to think of the Jarawa, apart from verifying that they had not suffered any loss. The Jarawa policy has thus remained, by and large unimplemented. No attempt has been made to explore alternate sea routes to link the places that the ATR goes to. Little effort has been made to curtail the number of vehicles plying on the road. The average number of vehicles plying on the ATR annually shows a steep increase from 17,179 in 2001 to 35,798 in 2006. The number is poised to exceed 40,000 in 2007. Convoys of vehicles leave eight times a day from Jirkatang and Middle Strait — the two opposite ends of the portion of the ATR that runs through the Jarawa reserve — with an average of 120 vehicles per day. And despite explicit stipulations of no contact with the Jarawa, vehicles conveniently break down or stop on one pretext or the other on the portion of the road inside the Jarawa reserve to allow tourists to see and sometimes interact with the Jarawa. The subject of the Jarawa was again studied by a sub-group of experts and officials, set up in January, 2006 by the National Advisory Council, to examine inter alia institutional arrangements for protecting the Jarawa and to suggest various measures to ensure greater protection. By January 2006, the Jarawa policy adopted in December 2004 had not had a fair chance at implementation. Just a year had passed, and the tsunami and its aftermath had grabbed all attention and resources. The sub-group studied various aspects including the notified Jarawa policy and its implementation and made several recommendations. Regarding the ATR, it has suggested that the portion that runs through the Jarawa reserve eventually be closed, after alternate arrangements for transportation by sea or air were put in place. This means a further delay since very little action has been taken to explore other arrangements. Unless a firm decision to close the ATR (i.e. the portion inside the Jarawa reserve) is taken, the administration will continue to drag its feet on alternate routes.

OTHER ALTERNATIVES
Despite the Supreme Court having taken such a decision in 2002, the administration has filed a review petition, which is yet to be finalised. It is easily forgotten that before the completion of the ATR (which is fairly recent), sea routes were the only alternative. Even today, for all other islands, e.g. Car Nicobar, Havelock, Great Nicobar, other islands of the Nicobar group, Little Andaman and many others, transportation is only by boat or ship and, very occasionally, by helicopter. Therefore the people living in North and Middle Andaman can hardly claim that they will be specially inconvenienced. Almost all the officials who work or have worked closely with the Jarawa, whether of the Andaman administration or the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti, a registered society set up to look after matters relating to primitive tribes, privately aver that closure of the ATR is essential to reduce contact with the Jarawa and protect them from abrupt induction into the 21st century. However, other officials strongly claim that closure of the ATR, even a portion of it, is impossible since it is a lifeline for the northern settlements. The attitude of these latter officials is understandable, but unsupportable, if one keeps the future of the Jarawa in mind. It is apparent they are thinking not of the Jarawa but of the other inhabitants. For these inhabitants, other alternatives are, or can be, made available. For the Jarawa, who virtually have their backs against the wall, there is no alternative, and time is fast running out.

Traffic on the Andaman Trunk Road inside the Jarawa Reserve. Photo: Pankaj Sekhsaria, 2003

Port Blairians to get water every 96 hours

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS June 5, 2007

City dwellers to continue to get piped water every 96 hours: LG

Port Blair, June 04

The existing pattern of water supply in the Port Blair city would continue till the end of this month. Accordingly, piped water will be supplied to the people every 96 hours, the Lt. Governor informed the accompanying mediapersons after inspecting the water level at Dhanikhari and discussing with the Engineers of Andaman Public Works Department at the dam site this afternoon.The Lt. Governor reiterated that the situation was not at all alarming and asked the mediapersons not to create any panic on the issue of water availability. He said, the fall in the level of Dhanikhari Dam due to a long dry spell and subsequent delay in the onset of monsoon has rendered us into a difficult spot but "we have made all necessary arrangement to tide over the situation". If necessary, arrangements will be made to fetch water from Rutland Island, he said, adding that there was, however, no dearth of raw water thanks to the special efforts made over the few months towards cleaning of wells and ponds in and around the city. Answering a query of the newsmen about the desalination plant, the Lt. Governor informed that 8 out of the 10 plants, which were earlier procured could be successfully activated in different islands to cater to the needs of drinking water and that more desalination plants would be acquired for the islands. Referring to the construction of a sweet water lake at Sippighat where a vast stretch of agriculture land have been rendered permanently unploughable due to ingression of sea water, the Lt. Governor informed that the project to be taken up phase-wise, once completed, will be a long term solution for the water crisis.The Lt. Governor also met the affected persons of the submerged land at Sippighat and discussed with them the acquisition of the land for construction of sweet water lake. He told them that apart from the cash compensation, the Administration will also take up the matter for allotment of alternate land to these persons in lieu of the submerged land. The Lt. Governor was accompanied by a number of senior officers of the Administration.

Thai boat with 2000kgs of sea cucumber seized in AN waters

CG Ship intercepts Thai poaching boat with 2000 kgs of Sea Cucumber

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS, May 25, 2007

Based on an information received from a naval aircraft on routine surveillance Indian Coast Guard launched operation on 22 May 2007 to intercept unidentified fishing vessels operating in the EEZ of Andaman and Nicobar Islands near invisible bank SO miles east of Port Blair. Coast Guard Ship Bhikhaiji Cama under the command of Comdt SK Sahu was sailed from Port Blair within one hour of receipt of information.The ship weathered the rough seas and proceeded at maximum speed towards the reported position of the vessels arriving there with in three hours. However, on arrival no vessel was either located visually or on the radar. Anticipating that the vessels would have moved in the easterly direction, the Coast Guard Ship proceeded in the easterly direction maintaining high degree of surveillance. Because of high degree of alertness on the part of the CG Ship's crew an unidentified vessel was detected on radar at about 0300 am on the night of 23 May 07. Anticipating the radar contact to be the suspected vessel, the Coast Guard Ship manned its armament and closed in to find a fishing vessel trying to evade detection and proceeding at high speed to cross-over the Indian EEZ. However, the CG ship managed to over power the vessel after one and a half hour of hot pursuit and identified the vessel as that of Thailand with 31 fishermen on board (all Thai nationals). Immediately a Boarding Party was dispatched and the vessel was searched to reveal approximate 2000 kgs of sea cucumbers. Some of the sea cucumbers were found alive spread over the deck to be stored in frozen holds.On initial interrogation of the Thai fishermen by the Coast Guard personnel it was established that the vessel was engaged in poaching of sea cucumbers over the shallow depths of invisible bank and had collected the entire 2000 kgs using diving equipments fitted en board the vessel. Having violated the provisions of law the vessel was apprehended at sea and was brought to Port Blair in the morning of 24 May 07. The vessel along with the crew have since than been handed over to the A&N Police for further legal action as per the MZI Act 1981 as well as under the Wild Life Protection Act 1972 as sea cucumber is a prohibited specie under Schedule I of the said act.As per the records, it is observed that this is the first time that a Thai vessel has been found engaged in poaching of sea cucumbers using different modus operandi as compared to Myanmarese who have been apprehended for poaching sea cucumbers near to the coast. The catch of sea cucumbers by the Thai vessel was stored in ice whereas the Myanmarese generally dry their catch.The Coast Guard ships and aircraft have intensified surveillance in the seas of A&N islands with a view to prevent any such activity, a communication received here said

Forgotten Islands

PANKAJ SEKHSARIA
The Times of India, May 24, 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Forgotten_islands/articleshow/2069864.cms

If a certain line of beliefs and historical thinking ('Remembering Kaala Paani', The Times of India, May 7) has its way, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could well see a monumental shift in their present namescape.The island named after Hugh Rose, the man who finally cornered Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi in 1858, could soon be named Laxmi Bai Dweep or maybe Rani Jhansi Dweep. Havelock Island named after the British general who retook Lucknow could well be named Nana Sahib Dweep and the island chain itself should be the Shaheed and Swaraj Islands because that is what Subhas Chandra Bose wanted them to be. 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, is certainly fertile territory for a massive, even lip-smacking renaming exercise - Tatiya Tope, Mangal Pandey, Subhas Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar... 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 A&N islands, located far away from mainland India (roughly 1,200 km from Chennai) can only be considered a gift the British left India when the empire disintegrated. There are undeniable connections of India's freedom movement with the islands best symbolised by the revolt 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 all put together this history does not go beyond 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?

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been the traditional home of a number of aboriginal commu-nities - 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 5,000 individuals when the 1857 uprising happened, are today less than 40 people. The Onge who were counted at about 600 in the 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 them something else and now we want to call them 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 their significance was and which names are still in use by them. Should that not be the work of scholarship and historical studies? 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 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?

Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese

If you have been following the discussions related to the renaming of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (see posts below) you will find this new website by Dr. Anvita Abbi of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) useful and relevant.
pankaj


VANISHING VOICES OF THE GREAT ANDAMANESE
www.andamanese.net


Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese is a Major Documentation Project directed by Prof. Anvita Abbi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. It is funded and supported by the SOAS, UK under the ELDP program. Readers may view the ongoing research under this project as well as on other tribes of the Andaman in the following pages.

It is generally believed that all Andamanese languages might be the last representative of those languages whose history goes back to pre-Neolithic times in Southeast Asia and possibly the first settlement of the region by modern humans. These isolated Andamanese languages that are spoken by the descendents of the aboriginal population of Southeast Asia are, at present, ‘very critical’ stage (see Map 1).

Living Andamanese tribes can be grouped into four major groups, i.e. the Great Andamanese, the Jarawa, the Onge and the Sentinelese (Map 2). Barring Sentinelese, other tribes have come into contact with the mainlanders. Their history of contact varies from tribe to tribe, chronologically, the first one to come into contact with the mainlanders were the Great Andamanese followed by the Onge and finally the Jarawa. All attempts to establish contact with Sentinelese have failed so far.

Tribals in general have shown better resilience than the non-tribals in facing the Tsunami havoc. The Great Andamanese, who are 50 in number, live in Strait Island, 53 nautical miles away from Port Blair as well as in the city of Port Blair. The Jarawa, approximately 250 in number, live in the thick forests of the Middle Andaman, were totally isolated from the outside world till very late. Onge, who lived in two separate reserves in Little Andaman, i.e. Hut Bay and Dugong Creek (Map 3), have recently moved further interior to the forest after Tsunami killer waves attacked the Island. The fourth, a totally obscure and isolated tribe is Sentinalese who live in Sentinel Island. No human contact has been established with this tribe so far as they resist all outside intervention. For details refer to my book entitled Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands. 2006. Munich, Lincom-Gmbh.

At present we are trying to document the language of the Great Andamanese.

On renaming of islands in the Andaman and Nicobar

There have been some interesting responses related to the renaming of the islands in the Andaman and Nicobar that have appeared in an ongoing discussion on ‘andamanicobar’ an active yahoo group dedicated to the issues of the islands.
I am pasting a selection here…If you would like to join the ediscussion group please write to me at psekhsaria@gmail.com
thanks
Pankaj
----

while there is a race to change the names of the islands it is absurd to change them to the names of warriors who were defeated by the Britishers. Why don't we rename all these islands, if they have to be , by their original names still intact in Andamanese languages? We have been fortunate in collecting indigenous names for all of the relevant islands.
Anvita
Prof. Anvita Abbi
Centre For Linguistics
School of language, Literature and Culture Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067, India
Phone +91-11-26704234 [Uni]
+91-11-26172401 [Res]
Email: anvitaabbi@gmail.com


Thanks Anvita.
Can you also please give us a few examples of this? Are there for instance Andamanese names of islands in the Ritchies's archipelago - Havelock, Neil.
Also other places on South, Middle or North Andaman islands?
pankaj
Pankaj Sekhsaria
C/o Kalpavriksh
Apt. 5, Sri Dutta Krupa,
908 Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411004, India
Tel: 020 - 25654239
Web: www.kalpavriksh.org
http://pankaj-atcrossroads.blogspot.com/


Dear Anvita,
I completely agree with you-- this would afford many opportunities at once- primarily one of knowing what the Andamanese language sounds like and how they named these islands-- no doubt these would be based on some special characterisitc of each island-- related to flora/fauna or anything else—a great way to bring in these ideas into the public realm. I can well imagine that perhaps some children's publishing/ creative writers and illustrators coudl use what you know to produce something based on this for children!Should we ask our friends in this sector? God knows whether administration or any one else would take note of this idea, but if implemented in this way, it will certainly capture the imaginaiton of the next geenration!
Warm regards,
Madhulika.

Madhulika Banerjee
Reader, Department of Political Science
University of Delhi, Delhi 110007.
XB4 Sahvikas Society
68 Patparganj
Delhi 110092.
Phone : 011-2223 1846 (home)
98 181 81661 (mobile)
Email: madhulika.banerjee@gmail.com


Hi Pankaj!
For Discussion sake. If one is keen to rename the Islands, (which I personaly should not be done) why not name them after those Freedom Fighters who have spent their life in " Kalapani" or heros like Sher Ali who stabed Lord Mayo to death here in the Islands. Certainly not those who even did not know about the existance of these Islands.

Col. KV Cherian
Email: cherrycol99@indiatimes.com


Renaming the islands with heroes and zeroes is absolutly absured- in any context- but we have people who can only see and think so far. A couple of years ago i had placed layers of names- Andamanese, british and Indian for the islands and places which have them or such-it looks quite nice- Wonder if the renaming lobby would care to take a look- there are stories in these transformations and quite interesting too.
Best
Manish
Email: manishchandi@yahoo.com

Kaalapani came later

Kaalapani Came Later
Pankaj Sekhsaria

If a certain line of beliefs and historical thinking (‘Remembering Kaalapani’ Swati Dasgupta, The Times of India , May 7, 2007; see post below)) has its way, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could well see a monumental shift in their present namescape. The island named after Sir Hugh Rose, the man who finally cornered the Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi after the mutiny of 1857, could soon be named Laxmibai Dweep or maybe Rani Jhani Dweep. Havelock Island named after the British General who re-took Lucknow from Nana Sahib could well be named Nana Sahib Dweep and the island chain itself should be the Shaheed and Swaraj Islands because that is what Subhas Chandra Bose wanted them to be. 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, Bahadur Shah Zafar, 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 A&N islands, located far away from mainland India (roughly 1200 kms from Chennai) 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? 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?

Remembering Kaala Paani

Remembering Kaala Paani
SWATI DASGUPTA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Remembering_Kaala_Paani/articleshow/2009048.cms[7 May, 2007 l 0010 hrs IST]
A tiny uninhabited island in the Andamans with a solar-powered lighthouse as its current sole usefulness still bears the name of a knighted general of the English East India Company and its successor British administration in India: Hugh Rose.Even the Andaman and Nicobar administration sometimes gets confused about the name. In some maps it is shortened to Rose island and in some others it is misspelt as Ross island.What was in British eyes Hugh Rose's lasting claim to fame in India? This general's forces besieged Rani Laxmibai at Jhansi, pursued her from one battle to another in central India for more than two months and ultimately killed, on June 17, 1858, this (by an assessment of her adversaries) bravest and best leader of the Indian Mutiny.If the national committee set up by the ministry of culture to prepare for a suitable observance of the sesquicentenary of the Great Indian Mutiny or India's First War of Independence accepts the idea of renaming Hugh Rose island it need not fear any objection.The committee has been stumbling through one controversy to another from its birth. The initial announcement of a budget of Rs 150 crore for the 150th anniversary of the uprising appeared hugely extravagant to many who suspected that this was opening a honeypot soon to be infested by corrupt hordes.Culture minister Ambika Soni hastened to explain that Rs 10 crore would be sent on the anniversary of the Mutiny of 1857 and there were other coincidental occasions to celebrate, like the diamond jubilee of India's independence and Bhagat Singh's birth anniversary.Nothing much has been heard so far about the programme of celebrations the committee may be drawing up.The anniversaries of the rumblings of the Great Mutiny such as the revolt of the XIX Regiment at Behrampore in Bengal on February 26 and the individual uprising and hanging of Mangal Pandey on March 29 and April 8, dramatised in a film by Aamir Khan, were allowed to pass in silence.One cannot be sure that those in charge will look as far away as a small island cluster in the Bay of Bengal.The Andaman and Nicobar adminis-tration is reported to have requested only a seminar like the one held at Port Blair during the golden jubilee of India's freedom from the British.The Andamans can claim not too unimportant a place in any programme for remembering the Mutiny and its aftermath. The notorious Cellular Jail at Port Blair was planned initially for transportation of the unbroken fighters for India's freedom to a Dantesque hell.And with sardonic deliberateness the British Indian government named or renamed some of the nearby islands after the soldiers who had crushed the mutineers of 1857.Hugh Rose was one of them. Names like Outram, Havelock, Nicholson, Neill still proclaim from the Andamans the glory of British generals of an era long bygone.And in an amusing hash cooked by bureaucrats, the recently-created Rani Jhansi Marine National Park now cradles the islands named after Outram, John Lawrence and Henry Lawrence.A touristic jewel is known as Havelock, the name of the general who retook Lucknow from Nana Sahib. Quite incongruously again, a Subhas Mela is held on Havelock every January.Netaji Subhas took symbolic control of Andamans and Nicobar for his Arzi Hukumat Azad Hind, renamed them Shaheed and Swaraj, flew the tricolour at Port Blair and appointed Colonel A D Loganathan of INA as governor of what was called a liberated part of India.The old names came back after World War II. In Indira Gandhi's days Samar Guha tried in the Lok Sabha but failed to revive the names chosen by Netaji Subhas.But Pygmalion Point in Nicobar was renamed Indira Point. Nobody has felt so far any need for taking up the cause of renaming the islands Havelock, Henry Lawrence, John Lawrence, Neill, Outram, Inglis, Sir Hugh Rose, Paget.The sesquicentenary celebrations are a good occasion to do what should have been done long ago.
The writer is a historian.

Moving on from a cataclysm

Photo Feature
HIMAL SOUTHASIAN
Vol 20. No. 3, March 2007

Moving on from a cataclysm
Text and Photographs by Pankaj Sekhsaria

If there is a single day for which the Andaman and Nicobar Islands will be forever remembered, it is undoubtedly 26 December 2004. For the small chain of islands located far from mainland India, this was a tryst with a cataclysm, as huge waves engulfed the coasts with unforgiving power and ferocity.
Official estimates suggest that nearly 3500 people were washed away on that day, while about 8000 hectares of horticultural and agricultural land were permanently submerged. Two years later, there are no clear answers as to how the recovery process is proceeding. Part of the reason for this is because the islands are an extremely complex place – geographically, logistically, demographically and culturally. Not only are the Nicobars distinctly unique from the Andamans, but there are substantial differences even between the islands that make up each group. The earthquake and tsunami of 2004 also meted out different treatments to the various islands – to their respective ecologies and to the human communities, if any, that inhabit them.
Less than 10 percent of the over 500 islands constituting the Andaman and Nicobar group have human communities. The rest are uninhabited. In more ways than one, then, the impact of December 2004 can only be considered a natural phenomenon. Indeed, it has been argued that this is precisely the type of event that could, over a geological timescale, have been responsible for creating the islands in the first place.
Due to a host of complex phenomena, it was the Nicobars that were the worst hit by the tsunami. Each and every member of the indigenous Nicobari community of nearly 40,000 was affected. And yes, the process of rehabilitation is far from over. It has, in fact, barely begun.
One of the least-known aspects of the disaster of December 2004 is the fact that the earthquake that catalysed the tsunami also caused a permanent and vast transformation to the coastline of the islands, particularly in the Nicobars. With a pivot located roughly around Port Blair, the Andaman Islands were thrust upwards by five feet in the extreme north, whereas the Nicobars subsided by anywhere from five to 15 feet. This is a permanent change, the likes of which are rarely, if ever, seen.

http://himalmag.com/2007/march/photofeature.htm