Mangroves of Wright Myo Creek, Seeing is Believing

Mangroves of Wright Myo Creek, South Andaman: Seeing is believing

By
Debkumar Bhadra

Forty-eight kilometres from Port Blair (now Sri Vijaya Puram), where the road to Shoal Bay begins to narrow and the forest closes in on either side, lies Wright Myo, a village seldom visited, and its creek even less so. Its mangroves are dense, its forests largely intact, and its coastline unmarked by footfall that undoes wild places. Yet for all its stillness, Wright Myo holds more than what meets the eye. Scientists have found here a botanical trace so rare that it points not merely to an undiscovered species, but to a time when these islands were part of a single landmass that has since broken apart and drifted away.

Wright Myo sits on the western flank of South Andaman Island. When the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004 sent a wall of tsunami waves across the Bay of Bengal, the eastern shores of South Andaman bore the brunt of it along with the rest of the country. Mangrove along the eastern coast were uprooted, submerged under debris, the creeks of Wright Myo, being on the western side survived the catastrophe. That geographical fortune spared the creeks, and time did the rest. Wright Myo today holds what many consider the finest mangrove stands remaining in South Andaman.

Why Mangroves Matter

Mangroves — called mangal in botanical literature — are not trees in the way most people picture them. They are a congregation of species, drawn from unrelated plant families, that have independently found the improbable solution: how to live rooted in saltwater, anchored in airless mud that is flooded twice daily by the tide. Their roots are among the most architecturally complex structures in any forest. Prop roots arc down from trunks and branches, forming interlocking lattices that trap sediment and slowly build new land. Pneumatophores — pencil-thin aerial roots — spike upward from the mud, pulling oxygen directly from the air when the soil below offers none.

This root architecture is what makes mangroves the first line of defence against storms and coastal erosion. The entangled mass absorbs wave energy, slows surge, and binds coastlines. For this reason they are also called bio-shields. They also serve as nurseries for an enormous range of marine life. Fish, crabs, prawns, and molluscs use the submerged root networks as refuge during their juvenile stages.

Researchers have drawn attention to another function that mangrove forests perform quietly on a vast scale — carbon storage. Studies suggest mangroves sequester carbon at rates exceeding most terrestrial forests, including tropical rainforests. The carbon is locked not just in the trees but deep in the waterlogged, oxygen-poor soils, where organic matter decomposes slowly or not at all. Their role in climate mitigation is recognised worldwide.

According to the India State of ForestReport 2021, published by the Forest Survey of India under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands hold a total mangrove cover of 616 square kilometres — placing the territory third among twelve mangrove regions across the country. Within the islands, North and Middle Andaman account for the largest share at 424.66 sq km, followed by South Andaman at 189.76 sq km. Nicobar contributes just 2.03 sq km. A significant portion of South Andaman's mangrove wealth is concentrated in the creeks of Wright Myo.

More than Mangroves: The Forests and a Rare Botanical Find

The mangroves tell only part of Wright Myo's natural story. On the eastern side of the Wright Myo–Shoal Bay road, the landscape transitions to semi-evergreen forest belonging to the Manipur Parvat National Park range — earlier known as Mount Harriet. These forests constitute some of Andaman's most intact wilderness. The road itself passes through a grove of Padauk (Pterocarpus dalbergioides) trees said to be over a hundred years old.

In 2013, researchers from the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute identified the species — Eugenia mooniana Wight, belonging to the family Myrtaceae — recording it for the first time in the Andaman Islands. Until then, it had been documented only from five Indian states — Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu — and from Sri Lanka. Just one population of around twelve mature trees, with a handful of seedlings, was found near a small rivulet at Wright Myo. The significance of the discovery runs deeper than a botanical curiosity. The Andaman Islands share a disjunct distribution of certain plant species with Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats — species that appear at both ends but not in the geographic spaces between. Biogeographers read this as a signature of ancient land connection. When Gondwanaland fragmented and the Indian subcontinent drifted northward, island chains like the Andamans retained fragments of a flora that was once continuous. Each species carrying this pattern is, in effect, a living record of a world that no longer exists.

Livelihood and Destruction Meant the Same Thing

 The forests that carry traces of Gondwanaland were, not long ago, being cut and fed into industrial boilers as fuel. The plywood manufacturing industry that operated across the Andaman Islands ran on firewood, and the mangroves of Wright Myo were easy to cut. Every morning, hundreds of labours arrived at Wright Myo jetty with machetes in hand and axes over their shoulders. For many families, felling and hauling mangroves was their primary employment. The community did not watch the destruction from a distance — they participated in it, because they had no other choice. Though no official record captures the full scale of what was lost during those decades. What remains is the memory of those who lived through it.

Shri O. Bashir, former Pradhan of Mannar Ghat Gram Panchayat recalls those mornings from childhood. The routine that continued for years. The forests thinned. Creek banks, stripped of their root systems, became unstable. Fishermen noticed changes in the catch. But the logging went on, until the Supreme Court placed a ban on the felling of naturally grown trees and the wood-based manufacturing industries shut down permanently. With that, the axes fell silent. The mangroves, given time began to come back — slowly, as mangroves always do.

What set Bashir apart is that as Pradhan, he had both the standing and the persistence to take the case for Wright Myo's revival directly to the administration. He recognised that the backwaters that had been stripped for fuel held something of enduring value — not in the timber, but in the landscape. He invited the then Chief Secretary, the Divisional Forest Officer, and the Deputy Commissioner to Wright Myo. He arranged a boat ride through the creek's interior, under the arching canopy, past the aerial root systems, and through the quiet that settles over a mangrove forest when the tide is in. By the time the boat returned to the jetty, the officials had seen what Bashir had long argued — that these creeks could sustain livelihoods for local youth through ecotourism far longer than any plywood boiler ever would.

Ecotourism at Wright Myo: What Exists and What is Planned

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration's Department of Environment and Forests has since developed Wright Myo into a functioning ecotourism site. At the jetty, a mangrove interpretation centre equipped with audio-visual aids can seat around fifteen to twenty visitors. A mini park and exhibition hut present the components of the mangrove ecosystem and the ecological services they provide. A watchtower near the remains of the old jetty gives visitors a wide view across the creek, canopy, and open water. Eco-friendly rest areas made from locally gathered minor forest produce, a wooden jetty, a dhaba, and toilet facilities have been added under various development schemes. A 200-metre mangrove walkway is also planned.

The central government has also taken notice. NITI Aayog, under Package VI of its island development initiative, shortlisted eight sites in Andaman and Nicobar for holistic development. Wright Myo Creek, in Ferrar Gunj Tehsil of South Andaman, made it to that list alongside Karmatang Beach, Rutland Island, Little Andaman, and four other sites in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Planning a Visit: What Wright Myo Offers Beyond the Creek

A creek ride service called SS Creek Rider operated by two local youths — O. Mohd Haneefa (9434279552) and E.M. Rafeeque (9476079320) is available for hire. One package offers a ninety-minute journey into the creek aboard a twelve-seater FRP boat fitted with a Yamaha outboard motor. The boat navigates through a mangrove-lined channel, giving visitors an opportunity to see the Mangrove root systems from close quarters, birds calling across the water, the occasional mudskipper hauling itself up a prop root and whatnot. The service can be extended to Green Island near Shoal Bay-8, or up to the beach at Shoal Bay-19, which is drawing increasing numbers as a full-day destination. 

The creek ride is the centrepiece, but the surrounding area gives a visitor reason to stay longer. Parachattan waterfall is accessible on foot from the main road and remains largely unvisited. Kalatang is one of the more productive birding sites in South Andaman, with documented avian diversity that makes the area worthwhile for any serious bird watcher. The century-old Padauk bagicha along the Wright Myo–Shoal Bay road is worth stopping at, not merely as scenery but as a marker of the forest's age and resilience. The beach at Shoal Bay-19 rounds out the options for those planning a full day in the area.

The groundwork for what visitors find at Wright Myo today was laid in 2012, when a study group from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) visited the site along with several other locations across South Andaman that showed potential for nature-based tourism. The visit was part of the preparatory phase for an eco-development plan covering the Manipur Parvat National Park, including Hope Town, Wright Myo Creek, and Shoal Bay. The report — co-authored by this writer along with Dr Pramod P. and Dr Rajan P. both from SACON formally proposed the development of Wright Myo Creek as an ecotourism destination and recommended opening of the creek and a mangrove walkway as key element. The development that visitors see at Wright Myo today — the interpretation centre, the watchtower, the wooden jetty, the creek tourism service — flows directly from the recommendations made in that plan, which was subsequently taken up by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration.

Wright Myo rewards the visitor who arrives without a fixed itinerary. The Parachattan waterfall, the birding at Kalatang, the century-old Padauk bagicha along the road, the beach at Shoal Bay-19 — each is worth the detour on its own. But when it comes to the mangroves of Wright Myo creek, no description quite covers it. The smell of salt, the tidal mud, root system close enough to touch from the boat, water so still in the channel that the canopy above is reflected without distortion below. This is a place that arrives fully only when you are inside it.

Seeing it firsthand is the only way to believe it.

Related Reading:

👉 Mt Harriet, now Mount Manipur National Park, the most sought after wilderness in Andamans

👉 An Officer, in the thick of Mt Harriet

👉 Aqueduct at Panighat, tale of an ancient wisdom turning from ruins to rubble