Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Is A&N I slands onl y about E nvironment, F orests, W ildlife, and T ribes? If the answer is NO , then how come there are 31 G ovt settled revenue villages under B uffer Z one? Andaman and N icobar I slands used to be a place appreciated for peaceful coexistence, untill a cat named B uffer Z one ( BZ ) was let out of the bag on 08/12/2010 , ie the day Buffer Zone was implemented in select areas of A ndaman I slands. Since then islanders, especially settlers from N orth and M iddle A ndamans are having sleepless nights for the reason - the controversial B uffer Z one N otification ex post facto brought 31 historically settled revenue villages into its ambit, that too without public discussion. A look into the background reveals the issue could be traced to S ept 2004 notification ( N o 159/2004/F No 1-752/2002-TW (PF) dated 15/09/2004 ) wherein a bunch of GPS points ( L atitude and L ongitude) relating to some parts of S outh and M iddle A ndaman were released and the...

The islanders, especially those from N&M Andaman were surprised by heightened presence of Govt Officials fortified with Police in their area, on Dec 8th 2010. The jinx soon broke when the officials zeroed into individual shops serving GO informing that since their shop falls within the Buffer Zone , they need to close their shops in compliance with Hon’ble Supreme Court Order dated 03/12/2010. It is really a nightmare for them because the GO says they need to close their shops by tomorrow ie., 9th or face action. Everybody is shell shocked. None of the affected parties has been given time, not even to seek redress in the court of law; Anger started brewing, there is large scale dissent among the islanders who were settled in this part of the country by Govt of India under various colonization schemes. Being a democratic country, its citizens are free to exercise their right to life and livelihood. But the GO served upon them violated such legitimate right guaranteed by Constituti...

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...