SAVE THE JARAWA TO SAVE HUMAN RACE

Mother Nature Beckons – Save the Jarawa

The Jarawas on an elegant fishing spree

One year after the death of the last member of the Bo tribe of the Andaman Islands (January 26), the UK based International NGO Survival International, working for tribal peoples’ rights worldwide, has warned yet again that the neighbouring Jarawa tribe is also in alarming danger.

Boa Sr, the last member of a unique aboriginal tribe - Bo, died last January, aged around 85, and with her death a unique part of human civilization, culture, society and value systems, is now just a memory.

Late Boa Sr

The Jarawa tribe number about 365 people, and fiercely resisted contact with outsiders until 1998. These largely un-contacted people, who inhabit these pristine Andaman Islands and have voluntarily chosen to continue almost completely isolated, have been harassed by encroachment on their lands by the British and post-independence settlers, in the last 150 years.

Jarawa girls making flower necklaces on the ATR

Perennial pressure from poachers from the neighbouring countries like Myanmar & Thailand on the coast has driven them inland, and their nomadic and hunter-gatherer way of living has thus been increasingly threatened. Although a few Jarawas, particularly women and children, still come out onto the road or into the nearby settlements, they continue to live an admirably self-sufficient life in their forest.

They live in groups of 40-50 people, hunting pig and monitor lizard, fishing with bows and arrows, and gathering seeds, berries and honey.

Their survival became more jeopardized in 1970, with the building of a road through their forest, which brought more settlers, poachers and loggers into their land. Survival International has been calling for years the closure of that Andaman Trunk Road and removal of settlers from the tribal reserves. They have been campaigning to have the Jarawas’ rights to their land and to self-determination respected.

In 2002, the Govt. of India accepted to abandon resettlement plans for the Jarawa. And finally, in the face of strong political opposition, the Supreme Court of India accepted the recommendations of Commissioner Shekhar Singh, and issued the order to close the road, withdraw encroachers from the tribes' land, and end logging of their forests.

The order was issued in a petition about logging on tribal lands filed by the Society for Andaman and Nicabar Ecology (SANE), Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Kalpavriksh, a Pune based non profit organization working on environmental and social issues.

According to Survival’s director Stephen Corry, ‘As more and more people travel through the heart of the Jarawa’s land, the threat to their survival becomes ever more severe. If the Indian government is serious about preventing the extinction of yet another tribe, it must close the road.’

Statutory display of rules on the ATR

The government, meanwhile, has cleared the decks for creating a Buffer Zone around the Jarawa reserve in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. An amendment to the Andaman and Nicobar (Protection of Aboriginal Tribals) Regulation Act of 1956, promulgated by President Pratibha Patil on July 22, 2010 allows the island authorities to ban private tourism within the buffer zone. The proposal for a 5km-buffer zone has been sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs. It’s being heard that if cleared, the Lieutenant Governor would be able to curb commerce in the 5Km Buffer Zone.

But the islands’ Tribal Welfare department is understood to have appealed against the apex court’s order. The ATR road is a lifeline that links the South Andaman with the Middle and North. If closed, the sizable number of settlers in those areas is going to have a tough time in the absence of a suitable alternative arrangement for their essential connectivity with the capital.

Present-day Diglipur (N/Andaman)

Meanwhile, Bishnu Pada Ray, the MP for the Andaman Islands, who wants to keep the road open, called a couple of months ago for the government to ‘civilize’ the Jarawa. He has demanded, “Quick and drastic steps be taken to bring the Jarawa up to the basic mainstream characteristics and the restrictions imposed on development activities for national highway level maintenance of Andaman Trunk Road be lifted immediately. The restrictions posing to be an impediment to the laying of railways linking Port Blair with Diglipur are lifted immediately to facilitate initiation of the project. This would require going hand in hand with the lightening mainstreaming of the Jarawas, which will also ensure survival of the Tribe as an entity blatantly threatened in the present context.”

The Bo, the Jarawa and other aboriginal tribes are known to have lived on the Andaman Islands for about 55,000 years, making them the descendants of some of the oldest human cultures on Earth.

The Bo were one of ten tribes now collectively known as the Great Andamanese. Most of the Great Andamanese were killed or died of diseases brought by the British, who colonized the islands in 1858. The British tried to ‘civilize’ them by capturing them and keeping them in an ‘Andaman Home’, where many died.

A rare picture of the Great Andamanese of the yesteryears

Survival’s Sophie Grig said, ‘The Jarawa are perfectly capable of deciding their own future, as long as the forest they rely on is protected and they are not forced to live in the way someone else t hinks best. History has shown that attempts to impose development on tribal people and remove them from their land are disastrous.’

I vehemently feel that it’s indeed an agonizing irony that these tribes, the only people who are enlightened and erudite enough to be able to offer the so-called civilized world some of the rarest techniques of survival in this era of frequent disasters of mammoth degrees, are being mercilessly led to the most hapless extinction, much, in fact, to the peril of their civilized counterparts.

The grand ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea, underground vibrations and birds that was prudently passed on from one generation to another had superbly saved the five indigenous tribes on the archipelago from the gargantuan Tsunami that had hit the Asian coastline on Dec. 26, 2004, in stark contrast to the Nicobarese tribe that are now completely civilized, who suffered the maximum loss of life and property.

The author donating Rescue Kits to the Tribal Captain of a Nicobarese village after the 2004 Tsunami

What good did the civilized world do for the welfare of the hapless Nicobarese tribe by civilizing them, thereby forcing them away from their lifestyle in the lap of Mother Nature, and what good would they do again by meting the same treatment out to the other primitive tribes of the land?

An insightful, prudent and truly humane deliberation is indispensable before venturing to meddle with the future of these precious jewels of the human race. We have just watched the horrendous fate of Japan…

Wake up! If not for them, dread digging your own graves, at least…!!!

WORLD'S MOST ISOLATED TRIBE IN DANGER

Sentinelese –

The Heroes of Andaman

 

 

Poachers targeting rich fishing grounds in India’s Andaman Islands are endangering the world’s most isolated tribe.

 

More than a hundred illegal fishermen from Burma have been arrested in recent weeks. Fourteen were fishing off North Sentinel Island, home to the Sentinelese tribe, who attack anyone approaching their island. Members of the tribe killed two fishermen in 2006.

 

Burmese and local poachers also threaten the survival of the Jarawa tribe, who have only had contact with outsiders since 1998. A local poacher and a Jarawa man died in a conflict in the Jarawa’s reserve in 2008. The Jarawas denounce poachers who invade their land.

 

The Indian Coast Guard has announced a series of arrests of more than a hundred Burmese poachers since late August this year, mostly in the vicinity of the Jarawa reserve. However, local poachers are rarely targeted.

 

 

Poachers catch turtles and dive for lucrative sea cucumber for the Chinese market, and also hunt in the Jarawa’s forest. Local poachers often enter by the illegal Andaman Trunk Road that cuts through the tribe’s land. Many NGOs like Survival International have repeatedly urged the local authorities to close the road, but it remains open.

 

Local sources say the scale of the problem is much greater than the recent arrests suggest, with most poachers going undetected. Both the Jarawa and the Sentinelese are hunter-gatherers, and theft of the fish and animals in their territory endangers their food supply. Poachers also risk introducing common diseases to the tribes. The Sentinelese are especially at risk: their complete isolation means they are likely to have no immunity to diseases such as flu and measles.

 

 

Survival campaigner Sophie Grig said recently, “The Indian Coast Guard’s recent crackdown shows they are taking the poaching problem seriously, but it also reveals the huge scale of the threat. The Jarawa and the Sentinelese have lived on the Andaman Islands for about 55,000 years, but if this invasion of their territory continues, their days could be numbered.”

 

The Sentinelese are believed to be the World’s Most Isolated Tribe, and have had no contact with outsiders. The neighboring Bo tribe of the Great Andamanese group on the Andaman Islands became extinct in January this year with the death of its last surviving member, Boa Sr.

 

Boa Sr, the last surviving member of the Bo Tribe, who expired in January this year.

 

The Sentinelese live on their own small island, North Sentinel, and continue to resist all contact with outsiders, attacking anyone who comes near. They hit the headlines in the wake of the 2004 Tsunami when a member of the tribe was photographed firing arrows at a helicopter.

 

 

A Sentinelese man, as seen in the picture above, aimed his bow and arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter as it flew over his island on Dec. 28, 2004, surveying for Tsunami damage. Circumstantial evidence suggests that these indigenous tribes used precious ancient know-how to save themselves from the catastrophic Tsunami.

 

Like the Jarawa, the Sentinelese hunt and gather in the forest, and fish in the coastal waters. They live in long communal huts with several hearths, and use outrigger canoes to travel the seas around their island.

 

The Government of India has made several unsuccessful attempts to establish ‘friendly’ contact with the Sentinelese. According to the NGOs, contacting the tribe would almost certainly have tragic consequences, as their isolation makes them very vulnerable to diseases to which they have no immunity. The government now says it will make no further attempt to contact them.

 

Since the coastal waters around the Jarawa reserve have been so heavily used by poachers, these illegal fishermen are now turning their attention to the waters surrounding North Sentinel. In 2006, members of the Sentinelese tribe killed two fishermen who had illegally approached their island.

 

 

The Sentinelese are a real inspiration - Heroes not only of the Andaman Islands, but of the entire Indigenous world. They even seem to be heroes to the mainstream. The amazing photographs in the media of the warriors firing upon a helicopter were meant to elicit pity for the Sentinelese, "left behind" by the modern world.

 

The articles backfired. Fervent responses from indigenous and non-indigenous readers alike indicated more envy than pity. One reader, claiming to be sick of ‘civilization’ with nothing but work and bills and sex and worry, said, "I wish I was on the beach with my bow and arrow."

 

Stats courtesy: Survival International/ Woorama (Suite101)

THE INHUMAN HUMAN-SAFARI IN ANDAMAN

The Human Safari!!!

 

 

The survival of the very rare stone-age Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands is again being threatened by human safaris run by insensitive tour operators.

 

Survival International announced last week that it has written to eight travel companies that promote visits to, or sightings of, the Jarawa people, urging them to put an immediate stop to their tours. The trips put the tribe, who are likely to have little immunity to common illnesses, at serious risk of disease.

 

The promotion of tourism to the Jarawa is illegal. Four of the companies stopped promoting Jarawa tourism on their websites after Survival wrote to them. The Indian government also issued a public warning to companies after Survival alerted it to the safaris. Four companies, however, are continuing to promote the tours.

 

 

“An illegal highway runs through the Jarawa reserve, bringing in tourists, poachers and settlers. Survival is urging the Government of India to close the road immediately, and to stop intruders trespassing on the Jarawa’s land,” said Stephen Corry, Survival’s director.

 

“The Jarawa people lived successfully on their island without contact with outsiders for probably about 55,000 years, until 1998. Today, a road runs right through their forest home, and they risk decimation by disease. They call themselves the Ang, which means ‘human being’, yet they are being ogled at like animals in a game reserve.”

 

“The very last member of the neighboring Bo tribe died in January. We must not allow the same fate to befall the Jarawa, or the world will lose yet another vibrant, knowledgeable and complex part of humankind.”

 

As per Survival International, the companies that are still advertising tours with sightings of the Jarawa include:

 

1. Andaman Island Adventure [June 17 update: The page now appears to have been taken down. The company have written to Survival today saying that they will remove the references to the Jarawa from their website];

2. Explore Andaman with Kariappa;

3. Rhino Jungle Adventures;

4. Offbeat Andaman Vacations

 

The following companies have stopped promoting tours to the Jarawa on their websites since Survival wrote to them:

 

1. Andaman and Nicobar Islands Tours and Travels, owned by Barefoot India. Barefoot says it bought the company and website from another tour operator, and did not run the tours that were advertised as the website was ‘“dead” for all practical purposes’. “Barefoot’s Director has explained that they did not have the necessary password to enable them to change the website. Since Survival wrote to the company, the website has been removed.”

2. Sky-Sketch (India)

3. Andaman Island Travels

4. Vicky Tours and Travels

 

In 2002, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the highway that runs through the Jarawa reserve should be closed, but the government has kept the road open yet. Nevertheless, the Government of India has issued a public warning to tour operators after Survival alerted it to the safaris.

 

Facts about the Jarawa and Bo Tribes:

 

The Jarawas number about 320 and live in the thick forests of South and Middle Andaman. They hunt pig and monitor lizard, fish with bows and arrows, and gather seeds, berries and honey. They are nomadic, living in bands of 40-50 people.

 

 

In 1998, some Jarawas started coming out of their forest to visit nearby towns and settlements for the first time. The Andaman tribes’ ancestors are thought to have been amongst the first people to migrate successfully from Africa to Asia.

 

Most of the Bo tribe died of diseases brought by the British in the 19th century. The death of “Boa Sr” in January 2010 meant that what may have been one of the world’s oldest languages, ‘Bo’, also came to an end.

LEGAL BLOW FOR ANDAMAN CELEBRITY RESORT

Justice for Jarawas…

 

 

Weeks after the last member of the “Bo” tribe died on the Andaman Islands, the Supreme Court of India has moved to protect the neighboring Jarawa tribe by suspending the operation of a controversial tourist resort about which I had written last year - "High Court Allows Resort Threatening Andaman Tribe".

 

The Supreme Court ordered last Monday that the company, Barefoot India, must close its ‘Celebrity Resort’ near the Jarawa’s reserve area, pending further deliberation by the court.

 

Despite concerns for the future of the vulnerable tribe, Barefoot had challenged the legality of a ‘Buffer Zone’ around the reserve. The buffer zone was designed to protect the Jarawas by preventing tourism and other commercial activity near their land. The resort lies within the disputed zone.

 

But concerns remain over the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) running through the tribal reserve connecting North and Middle Andaman with South Andaman, and the poachers, tourists and other outsiders it brings into daily contact with the Jarawas. “The government of India is yet to act upon a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that the road must be closed”, says Survival International.

 

 

“Most of the “Bo” tribe, whose last member Boa Sr died in January this year, died of diseases brought by British colonists in the nineteenth century. The Jarawas, who resisted contact with outsiders until 1998, are expected to have little immunity to many outside infections and could be wiped out by an epidemic.”

 

“Many of Barefoot’s visitors will have recently stepped off long-haul flights. Research indicates that about 20% of airline passengers develop colds or other viral infections within a few days of their flight.”

 

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said, ‘Nobody wants to see the Jarawa go the same way as Boa Sr’s people. This week’s court decision to suspend the Barefoot resort is a positive sign. But if the Indian government is serious about protecting the Jarawa it must close the road and keep intruders off their land.’

 

 

Is this, at least, justice in sight, finally, for these vulnerable and callously neglected aboriginal tribes of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands? Well, time will tell…

 

Read More: "Celebrity Resort Threatens Aboriginal Tribes in Andaman"

 

Stats courtesy: Survival International

A TRIBE & LANGUAGE GO EXTINCT IN ANDAMAN

Alas!

A Tribe is Wiped-Out!!!

The last member of a unique aboriginal tribe has died on the Andaman Islands…

Boa Sr, who died last week aged around 85, was the last speaker of ‘Bo’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages. The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman Islands for as much as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on Earth.

Boa Sr was the oldest of the Great Andamanese, who now number just 52. Originally ten distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000 strong when the British colonized the Andaman Islands in 1858. Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers.

Having failed to ‘pacify’ the tribes through violence, the British tried to ‘civilize’ them by capturing many of them and keeping them in an ‘Andaman Home’. Of the 150 children born in the home, none lived beyond the age of two. The surviving Great Andamanese depend largely on the government for food and shelter, and abuse of alcohol is rife.

Boa Sr survived the Asian tsunami of 26, December 2004, and told linguists, “We were all there when the earthquake came. The eldest told us ‘the Earth would part, don’t run away or move’. The elders told us, that’s how we know.”

Linguist Prof. Anvita Abbi, who knew Boa Sr for many years, said in an interview to the Hindu, “Since she was the only speaker of ‘Bo’, she was very lonely as she had no one to converse with… Boa Sr had a very good sense of humor and her smile and full throated laughter were infectious.”

“You cannot imagine the pain and anguish that I spend each day in being a mute witness to the loss of a remarkable culture and unique language.”

Boa Sr told Abbi she felt the neighboring Jarawa tribe, who have not been decimated, were lucky to live in their forest away from the settlers who now occupy much of the Islands.

Stephen Corry, Director of ‘Survival International’, an organization that supports tribes worldwide, said, “The Great Andamanese were first massacred and then all but wiped out by paternalistic policies which left them ravaged by epidemics of diseases, and robbed of their land and independence.”

“With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory. Boa’s loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands.”

“One of the world's oldest dialects, which trace its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.”

She died last week in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Great Andamanese had the biggest population of all the island tribes until the early 20th century.

As I’ve written in my earlier posts, too, the cluster of more than 572 islands, of which only about three dozen are inhabited, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are home to six tribes of Mongoloid and African origin, who have lived here for thousands of years.

The current home of the Great Andamanese is Strait Island, a small island in the Middle Andaman Region.

It indeed is very distressing to see that such rich heritage has been lost and we could not preserve it. We have not just lost a person in Boa, but also many unknown ancient facts and hidden secrets of environment which we will never be able to know, now. I hope I’m wrong.

Indigenous people the world over have received a raw deal at the hands of the colonizers. The death of languages in the Andamans is a huge setback for the common human heritage. Languages do not only help one to communicate but are also are a loaded repository of knowledge. A great deal can be learnt from the fast vanishing languages.

Haplessly, preservation of languages also is not a priority in the governmental policies apart from the scores of other such grossly neglected issues. It is unfortunate that we are brazenly failing in our efforts to conserve these unique languages.

It’s indeed a very gloomy day when a language dies because with that a unique culture, society and value systems also die. The menace is very real and due to happen to the languages in the mainland India too. All our languages are in danger of dying out if the onslaught of English is not reversed.

It can be lucidly deciphered that in the cities all over India, the Indian languages are already dying amongst the English educated families. Most of these families speak a very pidgin variety of the language with English words predominating. The younger generation is getting further out of touch with the 'mother tongue'. When the mother herself cannot speak that language, what happens to the 'Mother Tongue'! The generations to come would get further aloof from their mother tongue.

If you look around, the entire public space is dominated by English. Indian languages are restricted now to just being 'spoken'. None of the so called elite write or read their mother tongue. Since they are the role models for the others lower down the ladder, this trend will only go burgeoning. This is the common state of affairs even in the rural areas and mofussil towns in the country.

My rueful guess is that in 50 years from now, all Indian Languages will be near extinction unless something far-reaching is done to reverse this trend, on a war-footing. Is anyone listening…?

Stats & figures courtesy: http://www.msnbc.msn.com

A FASCINATING CHRONICLE OF A RESEARCHER AT ANDAMANS

Hi, chums! In November 1991, a Crocodile Bank researcher Ms. Manjula Tiwari embarked on a six-month survey of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The study and survey was a pilot project to accumulate baseline data for initiating a longer term (five year) study program for the conservation and management of Sea Turtles that use these islands for nesting. The project was supported by the non-profit, Madras Crocodile Bank.

Here’s sharing with you all a fascinating first-hand chronicle of the experiences that Manjula narrates on seaturtle.org…

“As the ship pulled into the port at Campbell Bay, on the Great Nicobar Island on the fourth evening of the journey, I sat up on deck watching the large crowd on the dock. An overwhelming sense of loneliness filled me - I didn’t know a single face in the crowd, no one was expecting me, I had no idea where I would spend the night, or how I would survey the southern group of Islands in the Nicobars… But I underestimated the people of the islands… I found friends, and surrogate family that worried every time I left Campbell Bay on another survey, and I found Ratnam, my very first field assistant.

Ratnam – the field assistant holding a sea turtle in his hands

Ratnam agreed to help me survey the beaches for any amount of money that I thought was suitable for his help - he didn’t really seem to care about how much he would get paid. He was not a local tribal. He originated from the Indian mainland. Apparently, he had wanted to attend school, but his father had insisted he work in the fields belonging to the family. So, the angry Ratnam caught the first ship leaving the mainland coast and ended up in the Nicobars! I couldn’t have found a better assistant - he knew the islands and he knew many of the Nicobarese who lived along the coast, making it very easy to find floor space in some Nicobari hut to cook and sleep every evening.

I would describe Ratnam as “petite” but very strong. He called me “Madam” from the beginning and insisted on carrying my backpack even when we waded across deep creeks and most of him was underwater - I remember seeing just the top of his head and two arms straight up in the air holding my backpack above the water as he crossed the creek ahead of me. Even though we lived in very primitive conditions during these surveys, he always insisted on giving me the best of what was available.

One night, our only choices for sleeping were the forest floor and a 50-cm wide plank about 2 m off the ground. “Madam” was graciously offered the plank while Ratnam slept below. I got little sleep not because I had to lie still and flat on my back all night, but because I worried I might roll over and fall from 2 m on my kind and “petite” field assistant who slept below…

I have no idea where he is now, but I always remember him fondly…

Prologue: I had read somewhere that many early travelers avoided the Andaman and Nicobar Islands because they believed the inhabitants were cannibals. Surely, I said to myself as I hurriedly packed to catch the ship leaving for the Islands, this is an outdated view…

I had been told to hire Pau Aong, a Karen (tribe of Burmese origin) and a fine boatman, who would help survey the many islands of the Andaman archipelago. It was a long bus-boat-bus trip from Port Blair to his settlement in the North Andaman. Soon the bus arrived at the start of the Jarawa reserve - one of the very primitive tribes in the Andamans feared for their hostility. Two armed policemen boarded the bus and we were asked to shut our windows because the Jarawas may throw spears at us. The Jarawa reserve is sandwiched between two modern towns and locals in the bus told me stories about how the Jarawas had recently dragged someone off into the forest and probably eaten him.

Apparently, the Jarawas occasionally wandered into town and abducted people - the locals suspected that these abducted people were eaten because they were never seen again. After these extraordinary stories, I eagerly looked out of the bus, hoping to catch a glimpse of these people, but no such luck.... others have had more interesting encounters, and issues associated with the tribe continue…

Moving south from the Andamans to survey beaches in the Nicobar archipelago, I often stayed the night at some Nicobari tribal hut on the beach. This provided an opportunity to learn about the lives and world of this peaceful, coastal-dwelling tribe. One time after walking all day on the beach, we arrived at a little Nicobarese tribal village towards early evening. Immediately we were invited into one of the huts and offered hot, refreshing tea.

A lot of people were sitting around the hut looking very glum. On inquiring why everyone was so uncharacteristically gloomy, I was informed that earlier that morning, a boat with strangers had stopped at their beach and one of the village men had accompanied them to a settlement further down the coast. He had still not returned and everyone was very anxious. I was surprised that they had let him go with strangers because in my experience, the Nicobarese would often abandon their huts and run off into the forest when an unknown boat arrived at any of these small, remote, coastal villages.

Finally, as the gloom deepened, one of his despairing relatives asked me in great earnestness, "Do you think the men in the boat have eaten him?" (We later encountered the missing man at another village quite alive and intact. He was just enjoying a few extra days away from home…)

Certainly, this was a very different world from the one I had grown up in...”

A Social Development Network in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Facebook Shrinath Vashishtha: "Hi, pals! In fact, currently, I'm head over heels into building a network of like-minded concerned people in the A & N Islands and elsewhere for the purpose of establishing a social development organisation. Please, feel free to add your ideas and opinions for the enrichment and strengthening of the objective. Let's do some positive result-oriented networking in a bid to bring about the necessary changes around ourselves, friends! Give me a hand...plz"

The Nicobarese Tribe Wakes up to Sustainable DRR - A Case Study

Dawn of responsive attitude amongst the frivolous Nicobarese tribe is the harbinger of indispensable sustainability in DRR initiatives in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands… 

James Reuben, a 12 years old boy, who stayed beside the Senior Secondary School near the seashore at the village of Malacca, Car Nicobar when the ferocious Tsunami struck the island of peace on 26th December, 2004, scampered away with his father and the rest of his family towards the jungle in the interior of the island, immediately after the islanders heard the bloodcurdling sound of the tsunami waves approaching the island that reminded some of them of the earsplitting hoot of a gargantuan anaconda.

 

Now, four odd years after one of the most devastating catastrophes that humankind has ever been witness to, James Reuben, a 16 years old maturing teenager has been selected by WBVHA’s Child Led Disaster Risk Reduction (CLDRR) team as a promising member of the Search & Rescue wing of the Task Force Group (TFG) of the village of Malacca.  

 

While attending the comprehensive training for “Strengthening of the TFGs” at New Malacca, where he, now, stays with his family in the permanent shelter provided to them by the A & N Administration, James says ruefully in his Nicobarese tongue, “If, at all, we had the requisite fundamental knowledge and expertise and the Rescue & First Aid kits and the other essential equipments that WBVHA & Save the Children - BRB have now provided to us, at the time tsunami had struck, quite a lot of lives would have been saved”. 

 

James, now, makes sure that he doesn’t miss a single training session, awareness program and other participatory learning and action (PLA) exercises organized by WBVHA under the purview of the visionary CLDRR project.

 

 

He is a regular learner and a partaker who motivates the other members of the community to practice the techniques and methods taught by WBVHA’s proficient trainers and instructors. 

 

 

The Nicobarese community was busy head over heels during the month of March, 2009, observing the holy fasting of 40 days which lasts up to Easter. Hence, all the Village Headmen had denied WBVHA the permission to conduct any activities during the months of March & April. 

Nevertheless, with the Program Coordinator meeting the Bishop of Diocese, A & N Islands, Rt. Rev. Christopher Paul and convincing him of the inevitable need of carrying out the necessary training and awareness programs without a hitch with the imperative participation of the community for the far-reaching welfare of the entire Nicobarese community, all the village Headmen were directed by the Bishop to permit the WBVHA project team to conduct the same, who saw reason and the significance of the CLDRR initiatives of WBVHA. 

 Bishop of Diocese, A & N Islands in the pink shirt with the Deputy Commissioner, Nicobars, Mr. Srikanth being garlanded by WBVHA staff.

Shrinath Vashishtha, Program Coordinator of WBVHA handing over the Health & Rescue Kits to Mr. Lionel Nicomede, the First Headman of the village of Chukchucha, Car Nicobar Island,  accompanied by Mr. Peterson Job, the mercurial Second Headman.

In a nutshell, this proved to be the very dawn of a much-needed responsive attitude amongst the frivolous Nicobarese tribe and can be fittingly comprehended as the harbinger of the indispensable sustainability in the CLDRR initiatives amongst the community.

 

Case Study prepared by -

SHRINATH VASHISHTHA

Car Nicobar.

LATEST SITUATION IN ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS AT CAR NICOBAR

Hi! I’m back with you all, my dear friends, after a long month of Sundays, from Car Nicobar. In fact, it’s been a mighty wide-ranging state of affairs at the Child Led Disaster Risk Reduction (CLDRR) project that I’ve been coordinating for over past 8 months, now at one of the toughest territories to work in the entire Indian sub-continent. Anyways, the rigorously comprehensive project continues towards materializing the sustainability ambitions in the Disaster Risk Reduction endeavors for the far-reaching welfare of the Nicobarese tribal community.

For now, my dear friends, here’s presenting you all with some fascinating pictures that satiate the nature-lovers’ cravings and also the curiosity of the aware citizens of the world…

Enjoy these latest pictures of Car Nicobar…

The lighthouse near Mus Jetty, Car Nicobar behind the breakwater amongst the aesthetically lined up coconut trees

The dense coconut plantations on both sides of the main road that has been rebuilt after Tsunami, stretching from the Mus Jetty to the Headquarter area, the administrative hub of Car Nicobar at Perka village

The cute cove alongside the Mus Jetty sculpted by the Tsunami, whose brunt is still evidently noticeable on the landmass

A cargo vessel & M V Sentinel, one of the oldest passenger ships run on the inter-island routes by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration, berthed at the Mus Jetty, Car Nicobar

Disaster Risk Reduction at Nicobar- A Case Study

Metamorphosed Nicobarese: From skeptic restraint to candid participation……

Sabrina Jack, a ten years old school student from Small Lapathy village was attending a participatory learning and action (PLA) program on Disaster Risk Reduction for the first time in her life. She stays in the permanent shelter provided to her tsunami-affected family of 7 members by the A & N Administration in her village at Car Nicobar, one of the worst affected islands during the catastrophe of 26^th December, 2004 in the archipelago of A & N Islands.

Sabrina Jack, Small Lapathy, Car Nicobar

When asked by Miss Anita Rebecca, the Village Level Animator (VLA) of WBVHA, who was anchoring the presentation program for Vulnerability Risk mapping and Resource Planning at Small Lapathy village during the month of December, 2008, “Which are the risky and safe zones in your village?”, Sabrina was one of the first amongst the participants to raise her hand. She answered, “The desolate area among the woods in the interiors where I’m not allowed to go to play is the risky area because a couple of people had committed suicide there.”

Miss Anita Rebecca, VLA, WBVHA, Car Nicobar

Sabrina was only six years old when the tsunami had struck her panam (world) and since then she has heard of umpteen number of similar DRR programs being organized by multifarious organizations in her village, but was never before allowed by her parents to partake in them. They told her it was all for the grown ups and not for the young kids like her.

Children participating in CLDRR activities at Small Lapathy

In fact, despite a surfeit of relief, rehabilitation and disaster preparedness initiatives taken up by various government and non government organizations during the past four years post tsunami, due to lack of sustenance for the DRR initiatives, the Nicobarese community was ignorant of the fact that children can and have to play a protagonist role in disaster risk reduction and preparedness initiatives for the sake of factual sustainability. WBVHA’s Child Led Disaster Risk Reduction (CLDRR) project, supported by Save the Children-BRB, has succeeded in bringing the children out of the closet and has provided a unique platform for them to participate, learn and lead the community in the DRR initiatives for the far-reaching good of the entire archipelago. And their vivacious response has been overwhelmingly constructive.

Nicobarese playing Volleyball at Perka, Car Nicobar

The people of the buoyant Nicobarese tribe from the Nicobar group of islands are renowned for their uncomplicated civilization, unequalled hospitality, their swarming passion for sports and cultural activities. Christmas is the major festival celebrated with impeccable groundwork throughout the Nicobarese tribal area and Car Nicobar happens to be the hub of it all. The preparations begin as early as one and a half months before 25^th December every year, with the mighty Tribal Council overseeing all the activities to a T. Consequently, no externally initiated activity is entertained by anyone in the whole island during the period. Nevertheless, with the escalating awareness and the mounting gusto among the community, owing to the WBVHA’s CLDRR field team’s comprehensively participatory methodology, the community paid due heed to the urgency and the significance of DRR for themselves and their generations to come and, hence, cooperated with the team in carrying out the activities despite the stringent schedule of the Christmas Day preparations and also the alarmingly high rate of mortality in the island.

As the First Captain of Small Lapathy, Ms. Irena Mark said, “We can celebrate the holy festival of Christmas befittingly and rightfully, only when we secure ourselves and our future generations against the probable disasters and hence going hand in hand with the activities of WBVHA’s CLDRR team has to be an integral part of our Christmas Day preparations, as well. We will celebrate the holy Christmas with thanks to them.”

Dear friends, I’m leaving for Car Nicobar, again, this morning at 10 am for a fortnight to coordinate the program further. See you all when I’m back by 25^th January, 2009 or so. Until then, your Islander’s signing off, here. But, the Blog is very much there with you to devour it. Take care! All the best… Cheers!!!