Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Are we waiting for the Jarawas to re-invent the wheel? Debkumar Bhadra   |          Musings of an Islander                   |          South Andaman The Andaman & Nicobar Islands which made headlines after the 2004 Great Sumatra Andaman Earthquake is once again featured in the national as well as international media following release of a video clip featuring Andaman’s Jarawa tribe by a section of British media. Immediately other y other NGO’s, media houses, activists and their likes switched to campaign mode releasing reports, reviews, comments, commentaries and updates almost on a day-to-day basis, many of which are drifted miles away from truth. What it emerges out of the campaign launched by some NGO’s at the internat...

Convoy system in the stretch of A ndaman T runk R oad (ATR) passing through J arawa reserve between J irkarang and  M iddle   S trait , now a day is being used as a means to harass the common public. Rules are implemented tactfully to curtail free movement of common public whereas rules are flouted or relaxed to extend freedom and liberty to the elite few! A s per the system in force, plying of two wheelers is not allowed in the stretch of ATR between J irkatang and M iddle S trait . But the enforcer themselves ride two wheelers; one in front of the convoy and another in the middle of the convoy; every day, every trip, in broad day light. With the prescribed speed limit of 40 km/hour the distance of 47 K m between J irkatang and  M iddle   S trait  should take about 1 hr 10 min. But the convoy lead by two wheeler pilot, surprisingly takes about two hours. This means the enforcers themselves causes the convoy to proceed slowly at speeds less tha...

The recent revision of convoy timings for travel between J irkatang - M iddle S trait and vice versa through which the number of convoys had been cut short to half of what it exists at present (ie., the existing 8 convoys stands reduced to 4 ) is going to create more problems than any good. Let us first take a comparative look at the revised as well as the existing timings. It appears that the existing 630 am, 7 am and 730 am convoy from J irkatang practically stands merged. Hence a large number of intending vehicles would make it to the first convoy. Which means the first convoy is expected to have around 8-10 buses, 60-70 passenger car and 15 - 20 goods vehicle which when lined up one behind the other, would reach a kilometer in length! Further the revised convoy intends to do away with the existing separate convoy for passenger and goods vehicles. This means the first convoy from J irkatang of around 100 vehicles comprising of bus, cars, tourist cabs, goods vehicles etc, whil...

Vast separation of the A ndaman and N icobar group of islands from mainland India by sea, its unique biological wealth, strategic location and the fact that these islands are home for six Primitive Aboriginal Tribes, instilled awe from all quarters of the world. The islands ecosystem is unique, fragile, biodiversity is rich and endemism is high, hence utilization of the islands natural resources are restricted by various regulatory mechanisms. Owing to limited resources, environmental constraints and obvious compulsions, the islands are depending on mainland India for almost anything to everything from essential commodities such as food, clothing and shelter material to health care facilities and services. Large ships facilitate movement of these essential commodities between mainland and P ort B lair ports. Once the bulk cargo meant for the entire population of A&N I sland lands at Port Blair, small to medium capacity boats ferry these essential commodities by sea rout...

Some of our islander friends are having a nightmare of their life after the cat namely Buffer Zone had been set out of the bag, which besides prohibiting free movement could append their landholdings for increasing the resource base of Jarawas! The issue could be traced back to Sept 2004, wherein the A&N Administration notified certain areas as tribal reserve under PAT regulation 1956. The highly cryptic notification proved bouncer for the Islanders with mediocre understanding of the language. Life went on as usual. After 3 years, in Oct 2007 the administration issued another notification declaring area upto 5 km radius around Jarawa tribal reserve from Constance Bay in South Andaman to Lewis inlet bay in Middle Andaman as Buffer Zone (BZ). This notification did create some unrest but soon life became normal once again. The real shocker came on Dec 8 th 2010, when few officials zeroed into individual shops (at M Andaman) and handed over a Govt order mentioning their...