अंडमान में यॉट मरीना के विरोध में धरने पर बैठे प्रेस क्लब का तम्बू ग़ायब

Hi, friends! Here's sharing my recent news story published in the "Info India", the islands' first colour Hindi Daily, with you all. Enjoy the read and do let me know of your views on the same, as well. Cheers! 

पोर्ट ब्लेयर, 26 सितम्बर/- आज विश्व पर्यटन दिवस है! द्वीपसमू,ह में प्रति वर्ष इस दिन को विशेष कार्यक्रमों के आयोजन के साथ राज्य स्तर पर मनाया जाता है! द्वीप प्रशासन की ओर से इस अवसर पर हर वर्ष द्वीपों में पर्यटन के क्षेत्र में प्रशासन द्वारा चलाई जा रही विभिन्न विकासात्मक गतिविधियों एवं कार्यक्रमों के सम्बन्ध में सूचनाएँ जारी की जाती हैं! इस वर्ष, इस अवसर पर प्रशासन द्वारा द्वीपों में पर्यटन के क्षेत्र में तेज़ी से विकास करने के उद्देश्य से 10 जून को मलेशियन कंपनी, रीकॉंन  पी.एम्.एम्. प्राइवेट लिमिटेड के साथ समझौते के रूप मेंऐतिहासिक वाइपर द्वीप में शुरू की गयी 50 बर्थों वाली यॉट मरीना और 30 बिस्तरवाले थ्री स्टार होटल वाली परियोजना एक अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण कदम के रूप में सामने आई है! विरोध की पुरज़ोर आवाज़ें उठने के बावजूद, द्वीपों में पर्यटन के विकास को विशाल स्तर पर और तेज़ करने को प्रतिबद्ध प्रशासन ने वाइपर द्वीप पर इस महत्वाकाँक्षी परियोजना को हरी झंडी देने में देर नहीं की! 

तम्बू के ग़ायब होने के बाद के ताज़े दृश्य में सुभाष चन्द्र प्रेस क्लब के महासचिव, श्री श्याम सिंह यादव

इस अहम् परियोजना का विरोध करने वाली विभिन्न संस्थाओं में से एक दल है पोर्ट ब्लेयर का सुभाष चन्द्र प्रेस क्लब, जिसके कार्यकर्ता और सदस्य पिछले क़रीब आठ महीनों से नियमित रूप से इस परियोजना का घोर विरोध करते हुए सचिवालय के मुख्य द्वार के पास बने मैदान पर लगातार धरना प्रदर्शन किये जा रहे हैं! इस वर्ष 5 मार्च को शुरू किये गए इस धरने के पाँच दिन के भीतर ही प्रशासन की ओर से कुछ बड़े अधिकारियों ने उनसे इस सम्बन्ध में बातचीत की थी, परन्तु अपनी माँगें न माने जाने के कारण, ये लोग तब से लेकर आज तकछुट्टी के दिनों को छोड़, रोज़ाना सुबह से शाम तक यहाँ धरना प्रदर्शन करते आ रहे हैं!

इस बीच, अचानक हुए एक घटनाक्रम में, रोज़ की ही तरह, जब इस मंगलवार को ये लोग धरना-स्थल पर पहुँचे, तो इन्होंने वहाँ लगे अपने तम्बू को ग़ायब पाया! ताज्जुब एवं रोष से भरे सुभाष चन्द्र प्रेस क्लब के महासचिव, श्री श्याम सिंह यादव ने तुरंत अबरडीन थाने में इस मामले की शिक़ायत दर्ज़ कराई! पुलिस ने मौक़े पर पहुँच सचिवालय के मुख्य द्वार पर तैनात सुरक्षा गार्डों से पूछताछ की तो गार्डों ने 24 सितम्बर को शाम क़रीब छः बजे से रात नौ बजे के बीच तम्बू के ग़ायब होने की घटना घटी होने की आशंका ज़ाहिर की, जब रोज़ाना की ही तरह, शाम छः बजे अपना तम्बू वहीं छोड़कर ये प्रदर्शनकारी वहाँ से जा चुके थे!

तम्बू ग़ायब होने से पहले धरने के दृश्य में सांसद

प्रेस क्लब के महासचिव श्री यादव ने इस अप्रत्याशित घटना के पीछे प्रशासन पर आरोप लगाते हुए सवाल खड़ा किया है कि पिछले आठ महीनों से जिस तम्बू को कोई आँच नहीं आई, उसे अचानक से सचिवालय जैसे सुरक्षित इलाक़े से आसमान खा गया या ज़मीन निगल गयी! उनका कहना है कि उनका यह विरोध-प्रदर्शन सीधे प्रशासन के ख़िलाफ़ है, इसलिए प्रशासन ने ही तम्बू पर हाथ साफ़ किया है! इस पर, पुलिस का कहना है कि सचिवालय के सुरक्षाकर्मी वहाँ उनके तम्बू की सुरक्षा के लिए नहीं, बल्कि सचिवालय की सुरक्षा के लिए तैनात रहते हैं! अपने साज़-ओ-सामान की रखवाली करना उनका स्वयं का काम है!

फ़िलहाल, आज बिना तम्बू के ही उनका धरना-प्रदर्शन बाकायदे जारी रहा! गौरतलब है कि इस मामले में इस प्रेस क्लब को द्वीपों के सांसद का भी पूरा समर्थन प्राप्त है! अतः अब देखना यह है कि इस सारे प्रकरण के बारे में सांसद की क्या प्रतिक्रिया रहती है और आखिरकार, अचानक ग़ायब हुए इस तम्बू की गुत्थी कब और कैसे सुलझती है!

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…!!!

SEAPLANES READY TO TAKE OFF IN ANDAMAN

Sea Plane Starts October 1

 

 

These historic coral islands are poised to be connected by a faster and innovative mode of transport in the form of amphibian aircraft connectivity, popularly known as ‘Sea Plane’, as the Central Planning Commission has cleared its operation here from October 1, 2010 i.e. barely a month from today.

 

Instead of procurement of helicopters, the Planning Commission has given its nod for Sea Plane operation as Pilot Project on 50:50 partnership basis, the Director (Tourism), Andaman & Nicobar Administration, Shri Binay Bhushan informed at Port Blair a couple of days ago.

 

According to him, the A & N Administration has signed a MoU with Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd., which will run the Pilot Project initially; as I had written in a post of mine about a month ago. As per the MoU, PHHL will operate Sea Plane from October 1, 2010, for island hopping by tourists in the breathtaking archipelago. The A & N Administration has provided an amount of Rs 146.40 Lakhs as advance to effect the operation, Binay Buhushan told the media.

 

 

Meanwhile, as per The Daily Telegrams, tenders for inducting sea planes on wet lease bases were invited and the successful bidder M/s Maritime Energy Heli Air Service Pvt. Ltd. will source the aircraft. The PHHL is currently operating chopper services connecting all the major islands in the archipelago.

 

To start with, Seaplanes will be available in the range of eight to 18 seaters. Operating the seaplane will cost about Rs 1 crore a month, including lease rental and operational expenses, that will be equally shared by the two government agencies.

 

 

This promising project, when materializes, is certainly to be greeted with warmth by the islanders and the tourists alike and the proposed operation of Sea Plane here also augurs well for the ensuing tourism and festive season.

 

As I had written earlier too, the Andaman & Nicobar Administration has chosen some of the most beautiful islands for being linked by the seaplane with the capital Port Blair. These include the happening Havelock Island (rated among the best beaches globally), Barren Island (an active volcano that most recently came to life five years ago), Neil Island and Diglipur (North Andaman).

 

 

All this would mean that there’s going to be an alluring bonus for the tourists visiting the tropical paradise of Andaman & Nicobar, henceforth and that’s the enchanting, spanking new Seaplane service for matchless island hopping, which is going to be India’s very first Sea Plane service.

 

The bottom-line – ‘Air Andaman’ is gonna be livelier, come October 1^st… Hurray…!!! :-)

ANDAMAN ISLANDS TOURISM FESTIVAL

Islands Tourism Festival

Staying far away from the Indian mainland deep in the Bay of Bengal, farther from the country and at a stone’s throw away from Indonesia and Myanmar, the local Islanders of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands had no mode of social/public entertainment, other than the enormously gorgeous natural surroundings and a few under-developed tourists’/picnic spots around Port Blair, the capital.

With the advent of the nineties in the last century, the handful of below-par cinema theaters that ever existed closed down as they couldn’t sustain with the exorbitant operational costs as against the feeble turn out of viewers owing to a petite population in the Islands. Satellite television or ‘cable TV’, as we know it, had already made way into the Islands around the late eighties making the matters worse for their survival.

The Andaman & Nicobar administration, under the visionary leadership of Lt. Gen. (Rtrd.) Tirath Singh Oberoi, the then Lieutenant Governor of the Islands, began organizing an annual exhibition in the historic Gymkhana Ground at Port Blair with the name – “Islands on the March” during the late eighties. The intention was to showcase the development activities of various departments under the Administration and also the future projects to be taken up for the benefit of the Islanders with notable emphasis on promotion of tourism in these Islands.

A number of cultural and entertainment programs were organized during the annual exhibition in which the local Islanders including the high-spirited tribal population of Nicobar were encouraged to participate with immense fervor. The tourists visiting the Islands used to have the phenomenal benefit of enjoying the ambiance as well as exploring a great deal about the unique history, cosmopolitan culture and remarkable tradition of these exemplary Islands.

Under the most competent headship of Vakkom Purushotthaman, the subsequent Lt. Governor, one of the best administrators that these Islands have ever seen, the exhibition underwent a conspicuous metamorphosis in the early nineties, with the venue shifted to the police ground near the Veer Savarkar airport and the nomenclature also was shuffled and the event renamed from the erstwhile “Islands on the March” to “Islands Tourism Festival”.

Thanks to the glossy influential leadership of Vakkom, who had earlier been the Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly for years together, more and more funds began to be allocated for the annual gala and the Islanders were treated for the very first time, with the best of talents & celebrity performers from Bollywood and other high class cultural troupes from multifarious corners of the country, right here in the Bay of Bengal.

It was made sure that the culture, art and tradition of these Islands were promoted by way of the annual gala and that tourism, Islanders’ welfare and development received the premium impetus. The festival was to be used as a potent innovative medium to highlight these attributes of the Islands before the visiting tourists, primarily, and the media at large.

Come the 21st century and the only annual state-level festival in these Islands underwent another transformation, and this time it was for worse, thanks to the change of hands and heads at the administrative leadership, which made sure that the best golden era of development in the history of the Islands came to a screeching halt after Vakkom was replaced by his successors.

The ITF has now been left to nothing but the theater of the absurd fabricated by the infamously inert Andaman & Nicobar Administration... A categorical farce and nothing else...!!! It has, in fact, been reduced to a brazen exhibition of the A & N Administration's paucity of brain and utter indifference towards the local residents of the Islands.

There’s almost nothing to do with the display of development of tourism or the current tourism related activities and initiatives in the grossly neglected pristine Islands, which if potentially utilized could give a gung-ho competition to the neighboring countries like Thailand & Malaysia, which have been doing a tremendously commendable job of promoting their tourism potential in the name of the “Andaman Sea”.

The very first attribute of the only annual exhibition or “Tourism Festival” as the administration relishes calling it, which haunts me, is the very name. Why is it called the “Islands Tourism Festival”, at all, when most of the participants in the various cultural programs/performances & exhibition stalls are invited from the mainland India? I think it’s an absolute thoughtless misnomer!

I mean, if it was truly meant to be an Islands' Tourism Festival; which it is supposed to be at least in the name of organizing something entertaining yet meaningful for the sake of the luckless Islanders of these vulnerable and disaster-prone Islands and the welfare thereof; then most obviously and befittingly, most of the participants/performers ought to be from amongst the Islanders and about the Islanders.

On the contrary, the administration, now invites mostly substandard performers from the mainland India not to present anything related to the Islands’ tourism or the amazing cosmopolitan culture, but to present various other cultural arts and acts that are not related to the Islands’ tourism development in any manner, at all.

Gone are the days, when the Islanders used to be treated with the likes of the famous Bollywood singers Kumar Sanu, Abhijit, Suresh Wadkar, Meenakshi Seshadri, Johny Lever, and Baba Sehgal and so on.

Artistes from South Zone Cultural Centre, East Zone Cultural Centre, Song and Drama Division, Kolkata and many other troupes are invited to take part in the Islands Tourism Festival every year and paid handsomely to the tune of 2.5 to 3 lakh rupees per troupe apart from the free up and down travel fares and accommodation at Port Blair, whereas the Islanders’ troupes are paid to the tune of a measly defamatory sum of 3000 rupees per troupe only.

And on top of it all, the participation of the local indigenous tribes is drastically thinning, year after year, despite the fact that the buoyant Nicobarese tribe is immensely talented and their cultural performances are a real treat to watch for anyone from anywhere in the world. The proud fact that Full Birth, one of the Nicobarese tribal youth has been India’s National Cycling Champion, seconds my contention.

The only silver lining in the cloud in this year’s ITF, which began on January 7, 2010 and wound up on January 15, 2010, was that the “Andaman and Nicobar Administration, after a long hiatus, have come out with a comprehensive tourism policy document, which seems promising, but the distrust that it has created for decades may be the toughest stumbling block in its implementation”, as reported by the Light of Andamans.

“The Tourism Trade, as the press statement claims to have been involved in its preparation, seems to be totally indifferent towards the approach of the tourism department. Their univocal feeling further shows how the whole system runs and also the people behind it. Without a total change in mindset, nothing drastic can be done by the policy.” - (LoA)

“The Tourism Policy is not going to bring about any miracle overnight. Small steps that one takes towards the goal define how the projects and dreams are going to come true within the timeframe. The website of tourism department is in shambles. It was last updated a decade ago. The information it contains are obsolete. The Island Tourism Festival it features was held in 2002. Do you really need a policy to update the information on a website? At the same time, hundreds of small and amateurish websites developed and hosted by small tour operators and auto rickshaw drivers is the face of Brand Andaman on the internet. As Vivek Rae, CS mentioned in his speech at the inaugural function of Island Tourism Festival, the media campaigns are all spontaneous reactions without any strategy.” - (LoA)

In a nutshell, the fact that these serene historic coral Islands have an encouraging coastline of 1912 sq km and umpteen number of striking virgin beaches to complement it with, there are stupendous prospects of development in the field of tourism and other related sectors, but the issues, nevertheless, remain unaddressed, plainly because there's a supreme lack of intent on the part of the doers - the brazenly sluggish administration.

And to add to the long-standing misery of us Islanders, the political leadership whom the Islanders themselves elect, are either squarely incompetent or too busy trying to make sure that they don't miss out on their chunk of fortune. And that has been the customary response, of their glorious predecessors throughout the entire country, to coming to power for a full five years a term.

Well, where are we heading…?

TRAGEDY IN INDIA'S LAST ISLAND– THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Tragedy of the Shompen

The Shompen are as precariously poised on the brink of extinction as the four other hunter-gatherer tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are the home to four Negrito and two Indo-Mongoloid tribes. Those belonging to the Negrito racial reserve – the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawas and the Sentinelese - are still at hunting-gathering stage of economy. Small in number, sensitive and isolated, they have been under severe stress. The Indo-Mongoloid clan of the Nicobarese, relatively sturdy and resilient, has accepted the challenge of change and have prospered and multiplied. The members of the other Mongoloid community, the Shompen, semi nomadic and living in small, scattered settlements, still shy away from outsiders. They are somewhat better off than the Great Andamanese and the Onge, whose numbers have sharply dwindled. However they are not as isolated as the Sentinelese and the Jarawas.

Ancient tribe, The Shompen: Their self-sufficiency is slowly being undermined.

It is India’s last island and its largest. Beyond it stretches the mighty Indian Ocean. One of the historic archipelago of over 572 islands & islets in the Bay of Bengal, known as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Great Nicobar first entered the wider public consciousness in December, 2004, when the catastrophic Tsunami wreaked havoc on the island. Great Nicobar, with its rather large habitation, of settlers from the mainland India at Campbell Bay suffered colossal damage, both in terms of human lives and in terms of property and infrastructure. The scars are still hauntingly vivid, about five years later.

The lighthouse at Indira Point, Campbell Bay, left submerged by Tsunami

Its Tsunami connection apart, “Great Nicobar is also known as the land of the Shompen, one of the last surviving stone-age tribes in the world. Not as well known as the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands, the Shompen are as precariously poised on the brink of extinction as the four other hunter-gatherer tribes (the Jarawa, the Andamanese, the Onge and the Sentinelese),” wrote an astounded Meena Gupta in The Hindu about three years ago, which stimulated me to write this post, today.

Classified as a Primitive Tribal Group (PTG), the Shompen have light yellow-brown skins, straight hair, narrow eyes and stocky build, giving them a strong resemblance to the people of Myanmar (the erstwhile Burma) and Indonesia.

“Like the Jarawas, they are skilled hunter-gatherers but, unlike them, also raise plantations of various crops such as pandanus and lemon and colocasia. They subsist primarily on these plants, wild boar, wild fruits, honey and fish. And like the Jarawas, they are, by and large, disease-free.”

“The tragedy of the Shompen — indeed, of all the primitive tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — is that until a few decades ago, they were monarchs of all they surveyed. Only 50 years down the line, their lands have been occupied, their forests chopped down, their animals hunted and they themselves outnumbered by people from an alien culture.”

History has it that unlike the major islands of the Andamans and some Nicobar Islands, Great Nicobar was, by and large, undisturbed by incursions of outsiders until the late 1960s. The Shompen lived in the interior of the island, inside the forest and along the rivers; the Nicobarese lived along the coast, to the north of the island. The two tribes lived in a kind of armed truce after intermittent skirmishes.

A major influx of population started in 1969 with the settlement of several hundred ex-servicemen from the mainland India on the south-eastern coast of Great Nicobar, and a proposal to settle several hundred more on the western coast. Even more damaging, the East-West road (measuring 43 km in length) was constructed through the pristine Shompen territory. Thus, a tribal reserve area under the Andaman and Nicobar (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956, was opened to outsiders.

The area of the reserve has also shrunk over the years. The ‘reserved area’ in Great Nicobar, which initially covered the whole island (1044.54 sq km as per the notification dated 2 April, 1957, issued by the Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar islands), has been reduced to 853.19 sq km. The population of outsiders has been growing steadily since 1969, while the number of the Shompen, which is alarmingly low, has remained stagnant or is shrinking.

According to the Census, the population of the Shompen was 212 in 1971, 223 in 1981, 131 in1991, and 398 in 2001. These figures are, of course, estimations and the discrepancies, particularly in the last figure, are quite obvious, as the Shompen, being forest-dwelling, nomadic hunter-gatherers and averse to the entry of others into their settlements, do not lend themselves to easy or accurate counting.

Several development activities are currently being carried on in Great Nicobar, all with an inevitable deleterious impact on the Shompen. Some are security-related given the strategic location of Great Nicobar almost at the southern end of India and its proximity to many international shipping routes. Such activities cannot, perhaps, be avoided.

A Shompen family (1980s)

But the three major issues that pose the greatest danger to the Shompen are not defence or security-related: the burgeoning population of outsiders, the renovation and construction of the East-West road through the heart of the Shompen reserve, and the free food and other items being given to the Shompen by the government.

Despite the fact that Great Nicobar was severely affected by the 2004 Tsunami, it does not seem to have had any permanent impact on the number of people who wish to live there; the population today has grown considerably from that in 2001. Apart from the impact on the Shompen, the numbers need to be controlled and reduced from the point of view of the island’s carrying capacity.

The island’s ecology will indisputably be destroyed by such large numbers and so will the people who live in harmony with it. And this, my dear friends, is not an alarming issue that is confined to the Great Nicobar Island only, but is rather a very burning issue in the larger interest of the entire delicate coral islands of Andaman & Nicobar that have been rendered even more vulnerable after the massive earthquake & Tsunami of 26^th December, 2004.

Permanent shelters constructed in Great Nicobar after Tsunami

The construction and repair of the East-West road is an even greater threat to the Shompen. This road, which had been constructed long ago and abandoned, fell into disrepair and was not used for several decades. Indeed, there was no real need to maintain it since the settlement on the western coast which the road was supposed to link, never came up. Since the Tsunami, however, repair work on a lot of structures was taken up, including on the East-West road.

Thus the Shompen are faced with the renewed danger of incursions into their territory. Moreover, the laborers from the mainland bring with them a totally different culture. Even more worrisome, they bring diseases to which the Shompen have little or no immunity. Such diseases can spread like an epidemic, as happened some years ago when diarrhoea killed a large number of the tribe.

But, by far, the most damaging activity is the administration’s new-found practice of doling out free rations. This has been in operation for some years, but increased after the tsunami, in the mistaken belief that the Shompen were being protected from hunger and starvation. The Shompen, who are a totally self-sufficient hunter-gatherer-grower people living on wild animals, fruit, tubers, fish and honey, are being given rice and biscuits and alien food products. They are also being given cloth, though the Shompen have an ancient tradition of making cloth out of tree bark, which they wear swathed around their waists.

Thus an insidious culture of dependency is being created, undermining the self-sufficiency of these people so closely attached to Mother Nature, precisely on the lines of what is being done with the originally self-reliant Nicobarese. And all this is irrefutably thanks to the worsening culture of vote-bank politics in India.

As a matter of fact, the issues of the aboriginal tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar islands are so different from that of the other tribes elsewhere in the world that it calls for an extremely sensitive, prudent and specialized administration. Unfortunately, most senior officials in the Andaman and Nicobar come to the islands from the mainland India, for a brief period and do not have a clue about the adept approach required for these rare heritage tribes. Such officials also end up resisting any kind of sensitization, invariably.

Unless the administration wakes up to the fact that they have a very uncommon and precious commodity in the form of these heritage primitive tribes, one that needs extremely delicate and sensitive handling, it is more than likely that these few hundred people will, in due course, disappear, leaving an indelible scar in history about the thoughtlessness of the so-called caretakers of humanity, something which would trigger a state of emergency vis-à-vis the very existence of our habitat, at large.

Excerpts courtesy: Meena Gupta, the Hindu; Stats: world's oldest tribes

JOURNALISM & THE LIGHT OF ANDAMANS

Last week, I came across a copy of a supposedly leading national newspaper, named… well; naming it here would be unethical; which carried some utterly slanderous & uncouth remarks about a well-known spotless personality and I found myself musing over as to what ‘Journalism’ is actually, all about and what are the salient standards and ethics that journalists are supposed to follow and maintain. A bit of an online research revealed the following:

One of the leading voices in the U.S. on the subject of Journalistic Standards and Ethics is the Society of Professional Journalists. The Preamble to its Code of Ethics states:

...public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility.

Well, that more or less, sums it up for the standing of the daily I was talking about and establishes the standards and ethics that ought to be maintained by objective journalists catering to all media the world over.

Professional journalism, in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, I would say has been in a nascent stage ever since the establishment of the penal settlement. Throughout this circumstantially protracted period of infancy, there’ve been umpteen instances of aspiring individuals venturing to establish newspapers and magazines from time to time, but none succeeded in totality, except ‘The Daily Telegrams’, the daily paper run by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration, which has irrefutably established itself as nothing but the raw, undisguised mouthpiece of the A & N Administration.

Although there have been quite a good number of individual freelance writers catering to the most reputed of national newspapers in the mainland India, some of whom rose to national and international fame beyond the territorial limits of the Islands as well. Their magnificent works on multifarious subjects were recognized highly and widely. But there has, constantly, been an inscrutable dearth of standard professional newspapers in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands all the while, which is a matter that inspires further research and analysis. 

“‘The Light of Andamans’ was born out of the zeal and determination of one man; Paras Ram, to fight against the suffocating Kafkaesque atmosphere on the society that existed even after 30 years of Independence under bureaucratic rule. It was a hangover of the ‘Raj’ that extended much too long in the Islands,” writes Govinda Raju, the seasoned & proficient present editor of the weekly, who basks in his lyrical sobriquet – ‘Raz Andamani’.

He, further, writes in the ‘about us’ section of the online edition of the weekly, “He started ‘The Light of Andamans’ in 1975. But it was not a smooth sailing. It was printed in letter press and there were only three such presses in Port Blair.”

Paras Ram, the founder of ‘The Light of Andamans’

“After a few issues, the bureaucrats found it too unpalatable for their refined taste. Words went out to ensure that the paper was not printed. He took the next logical step and set up a press of his own after pledging his house to the bank.”

“‘The Light of Andamans’ had always been a crusader, taking up the causes that no other newspaper would touch. In doing so, it very often stepped on the toes of the authorities and had to face persecution in the form of denial of advertisements and numerous court cases against Mr. Paras Ram. He was arrested and prosecuted for his free and fearless reporting. But he continued in the same vein till ill health caught up with him. He had to give up and the publication came to a halt in 2003.”

Basudev Dass and Govinda Raju of ‘Gezira Publications Private Limited’ contacted Mr. Paras Ram in the year 2005 for transfer of the title in a bid to revive the second oldest newsmagazine from extinction and also to carry forward the mission that Mr. Paras Ram had started. He willingly agreed to transfer the title without any financial consideration.

“The Newsmagazine, under the new management, has undergone a sea change both in form and content. It turned into a full-fledged tabloid with 12 pages with plenty of photographs making both pleasing to the eyes and soothing for the mind. The quality of printing, the layout everything is unique as compared to other journals of the same genre. The contents are both refreshing, and thought provoking as well.”

“It has acquired a position where it influences the policies of the Administration and the Government of India in vital matters concerning the development of the islands, protection of aboriginal tribes and addressing the problems of the disadvantaged groups. The newsmagazine is known and appreciated for its bold, free, fair and balanced reporting.”

Govinda Raju

Govinda Raju and his team have worked very hard to rebuild the reputation, goodwill and a healthy new image of the newsmagazine brick by brick and I personally feel that the established codes of standards and ethics would always be upheld and maintained by ‘The Light of Andamans’ as long as the fervent ‘Raz Andamani’ is in charge.

Now, with the impressive, professionally done online edition at http://www.lightofandaman.com the weekly is more easily accessible to readers from all over. I wish the exceptional newsmagazine all the very best and look forward to gorge on every issue every week!!!

"A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself" - Arthur Miller

HIGH COURT ALLOWS RESORT THREATENING ANDAMAN TRIBES

Gluttony of the “Civilized” Renders Jarawas Jeopardized 

Eventually, my dear friends, the misfortune of the aboriginal Jarawas stays… The Calcutta High Court has allowed the construction of a holiday resort near the forest area reserved for the vulnerable Jarawa tribe in South Andaman, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The Andaman & Nicobar Administration had appealed against building the celebrity resort being built by the travel company, Barefoot, saying it was within the five-kilometer buffer zone of the Jarawa forest reserve and would jeopardize the aboriginal tribe which has barely 300 odd members surviving.

But the Port Blair bench of the high court upheld the claim of the Chennai-based hospitality group, Barefoot Resorts. The company claimed the buffer zone was never notified by the administration and that it was being targeted pointlessly.

As per the A & N Administration officials, the court’s decision would pave the way for other such tourism ventures near the 700 sq km reserve, as well. “How are we to protect the indigenous community if hotels are allowed right next to the tribal reserve?” asked S K P Sodhi, the Secretary, Tribal Affairs in the Andaman & Nicobar Administration.

The company spokesperson countered Sodhi, “The aerial distance between the resort and the tribal habitat is 3.2 km; by road it is longer,” he said while adding that there are other establishments too near tribal reserves in the islands, something that I would, personally say, is debatable.

The Barefoot Resorts had acquired the land for the hotel in Collinpur, South Andaman from the villagers. The administration had stayed the construction of the resort in October 2007. A single judge bench of the high court had ruled in favour of the company against which the Administration had filed an appeal before the division bench at Port Blair.

As a matter of fact, the interaction between the Jarawas and the settlers of the villages near the reserve has been going on for over a decade and a half, now, not only in Collinpur, but also in the other stretches of the reserve at Kadamtala (Middle Andaman) & Chainpur (North Andaman). But the permeation of tourists so close to the tribal reserve could pose a serious crisis.

 

The Jarawas, so far have been alien to alcohol, but after the recent mishap with the Onge tribe of Little Andaman Island, wherein 8 members of the tribe died after consuming alcohol from a container that came ashore floating on the sea, things can be unnerving once the resort comes alive.

A UK-based non-profit, Survival International, meanwhile, had issued a press release condemning Barefoot Resorts for endangering the Jarawas. The hospitality group retaliated by questioning the non-profit’s ethics in using photographs of Jarawas to encourage donations and asked if, “prior informed consent of the Jarawas was taken before publishing the photographs.”

Well, where do we go from here…?

What direction is the human “RACE” heading in…?? Any ideas…???

SWINE FLU SUSPECTS IN ANDAMAN & NICOBAR...

 

Carmel School Closed Till Monday 

Following the cases of two suspects of swine flu who were admitted in the GB Pant Hospital’s isolation ward, the management of Carmel Sr. Sec. School has decided to close the school upto Monday 17th August 2009. 

The decision was taken after it was known that one of the suspects was a 14 year girl studying in IX standard of Carmel School. The news had created a panic among the parents who have been watching the cases of swine flu over TV for the past few days. Parents flocked together to the Principal of the school requesting for closing the school at least till the results of the samples are received from National Institute of Virology, Pune.

Meanwhile the Directorate of Health Services has already issued the necessary guidelines to all the schools functioning in the islands. In an interview with the Door Darshan Kendra, Port Blair Dr. Avijit Roy, Nodal officer of H1N1 virus in the islands said, that there is no need to panic and people need not rush to purchase masks. If the people feel they are in an insecure zone they may use their handkerchief as mask. The nodal officer further informed that the samples have been sent to Pune and the results can be expected by tomorrow. He also said that the student suspect was responding well and chances are less that she may turn positive. 

Consequent on detection of about four cases of Swine Flu including a school student in these Islands, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has also taken up the issue with Director of Health Services to ensure that arrangements such as separate isolation wards, ventilator, sufficient medicines protection mask, testing facility, checking of passenger at entry/exit points are made on war footing. The Director of Education has also been requested to declare holiday for schools for one week. But, so far all the schools are functioning normally without any plans to shut down temporarily. And there is an obvious disquiet among the parents of the school students as the reports of the school authorities sending some of the children to the hospital, who showed the symptoms of flu, goes around in the territory. (courtesy: Andaman Chronicle)  

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegrams carried the following report in issue dated - 12th August, 2009--- No Swine Flu case reported in isles: DHS

"No case of Swine Flu has been reported in A&N Islands till date and there is no need to panic, said the Director of Health Services, Dr. N Sadashivan while addressing the media persons in his chamber at a press conference here today. However, the DHS clarified that two suspected cases have been admitted in the Quarantine ward of the GB Pant complex as precautionary measures and the blood and swab samples have been sent to Pune for investigation, the result, for which is expected by tomorrow.
The DHS further said that every effort is being made to restrict the entry of the Swine Influenza virus (H1N1) in these islands. He said, doctors have been posted at the two entry points i.e at Airport and Wharf. A 13 bed isolation ward has already been set up at GB Pant Complex and services of a full time doctor have been made available.  

About one thousand (Tami flu) tablets are already available with the GB Pant hospital for treating the patients, if found, affected with (H1N1) virus, the DHS said, adding that a helpline number “03192 230622” is functioning at GB Pant Hospital for the benefit of the general public.
Dr. Sadasivan further informed that the Govt. has assured to send further about ten thousand (Tami flu) tablets for these islands territory soon. The DHS further advised that if anyone found swine flu symptoms which include fever, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting and uneasy breathing should immediately report to the GB Pant Hospital.
Responding to queries, the DHS said that the ICMR here has the testing kits for (H1N1) virus. The Directorate has sent a proposal to the Health Ministry for its approval to allow the ICMR to carry out tests here itself, he added."

Lazy Faced Andaman & Nicobar Administration

Dear friends! I've just come across a highly thought-provoking piece written by Ms. Tanaz K Noble, one of my fellow residents of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Yahoo Groups and I could'nt abstain from sharing the beautifully articulated piece with you all, here. So, read on and post your comments below...

andamanicobar : Message: Lazy faced Andamans: "What are we doing?
The following is an article published in Kashmir. Kashmir is talking
about watersports, promoting it, making Kashmir a destination for
national and international level watersports...

India's top kayakers in Both the male and female divisions are from
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but i don't hear any Chief
Secretaries or ministers talking about promoting Andamans for
Watersports. We have probably India's best waterbodies for race
conditions, but Kashmir is doing a better job. We are not war-torn or
insurgency-riddled, we're just blind. We don't know what we have here
do we? There is sea-kayaking, ocean kayaking, flatwater kayaking
canoeing, rowing, hobbie-sailing, wind-sailing, parasailing etc that
we are capable of. Foreigners come halfway or more across the world
with their surfboards and equipment to enjoy our waters but our
government is not interested in promoting it.

Every tribe of these islands have their own forms of canoes and styles
which would be so beautifully unique and interesting for anyone and
everyone, if only promoted.

I'm very proud of what Kashmir is doing but this is definitely a solid
slap across Andamans' lazy face.

tanaz"

---
[Aquatic sports: Omar calls for tapping, grooming raw talent in J & K. Asks associations to formulate plans for kayaking, canoeing tourneys. News Agency of Kashmir 6/19/2009 9:51:55 PMSRINAGAR, JUNE 19(NAK): Outlining the vast potential of J & K in aquatic sports, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has called for tapping raw talent of our youth and properly grooming it so that we produce sportspersons of national and international standard.

He said, "nature has bestowed us with great water-bodies, which are ideal for hosting water sports on a bigger scale.The Chief Minister said this while chairing a meeting held today to discuss various issues pertaining to development of water-sports in the State. Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats, Ali Mohammad Sagar, President, Kayaking and Canoeing Association, Dr. Mustafa Kamal,Legislators, Ch. Mohammad Ramzan, Abdul Gani Vakil, Mubarak Gul, Saifullah Mir, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi and Nasir Sogami, representing various water-sports associations of J & K and President, Hockey India, Treasurer, IOA and Organizing Committee, Commonwealth Games, NewDelhi, 2010, Ashok Mattoo participated in the meeting.

Promising full support to water-sports bodies in nurturing talent inaquatic sports, Abdullah said, "avenues have to be created to maximize potential for which a coordinated effort is required." He said, "besides conventional sports like hockey and soccer, State must focus on promoting adventure and water-sports in a big way." The Chief Minister said, "kayaking, canoeing, water-rafting, water-skiing and dragon-boat racing can easily be held in Dal and other lakes of the State." He asked the associations to formulate plans in this regard. Later, Dr. Kamal gave a resume of water-sports activities that have been held in Jammu & Kashmir since 1986. He said, "the Kayaking and Canoeing Association intends to hold dragon-boat race and water-skiing championships in near future." The meeting also discussed issues related to infrastructure facilities for aquatic sports and hosting of tourneys. President, Hockey India, apprised the Committee of the schemes under which sports associations can seek Central assistance for promotion of water sports in the State.]