TSUNAMI IMPACT: Rehabilitation on Andamans Unsustainable, Activists

By Keya Acharya Reprint | | Print |

Keya Acharya

PORT BLAIR, India, Aug 10 2005 (IPS) - Rehabilitation work in India’s remote Andaman islands, close to the epicenter of the undersea quake which triggered the devastating Dec.26, 2004 tsunami is both unsustainable and ecologically harmful, say experts.

Leading the criticism against government-controlled rehabilitation is the Society for Andaman and Nicobar’s Ecology (SANE), a voluntary group based in this port town which serves as capital for the 572 islands of this remote and picturesque Indian Ocean archipelago, 1200 kms from mainland India.

”Any development model used on the mainland is a no-no here,” SANE’s secretary Samir Acharya told IPS, adding that so far, the administration has shown no understanding of the islands’ unique and fragile ecology in rebuilding homes, schools and livelihoods.

Acharya’s main argument is that the islands’ ancient aboriginal tribes, said to be Asia’s original stone-age people, are familiar with the Andamans’ frequent earthquakes and have built their hamlets with light local materials like bamboo which can withstand temblors and tsunamis.

While the Dec. 26 tsunami caused extensive damage and over 7,500 known deaths among the settler population from the mainland, there were surprisingly few casualties among the Shompen and other tribes that inhabit the islands.

One old Nicobari tribal told Acharya of a ‘wall of water’ hitting the islands in 1942 and of lands becoming fallow for seven years thereafter, while another Jarawa tribesman spoke of ‘knowing’ that ‘big water’ was coming in the recent tsunami and moved to higher ground.

”Even the British, who used these islands as a penal colony, knew better and built non-concrete structures,” says Acharya.

A countrywide network of concerned scientists, authors and civil-society groups have now written to Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress-led coalition that runs the government, requesting implementation of a development plan set out as early as in 1987.

The plan was reinforced in 2002, by a series of Supreme Court orders pertaining to the islands and entails development work designed to protect the fragile environment and vulnerable indigenous communities on these islands.

In the letter, the group complained that the administration has done little to enforce ”aspects of the Supreme Court orders dealing with appropriate construction technology for the islands and reduction in mining of sand from the island’s beaches”.

The group has argued that had the court’s orders been followed ”earthquake damage to buildings and tsunami damage to farmers’ fields would have been far less”.

Signatories to the letter included well-known expert on the islands’ anthropology, Madhushree Mukherjee, the Nicobari Youth Association, Pankaj Sekhsaria of well-known environmental NGO Kalpavriksh and writer on environmental issues, Bittu Sahgal.

The letter says the administration’s failure in implementing ecological development has resulted in severe water scarcity, soil erosion, destruction of corals from silt runoff from denuded hillsides, poaching and encroachment in the only remaining pristine forest inside the Jarawa Reserve.

”To make matters worse, the administration has used the tsunami as an excuse to unleash the most extraordinarily ill-conceived projects on the Andaman Islands, such as construction of mud walls to keep off tsunamis,” the signatories said.

Several of the islands are off-limits for NGOs because of military bases which includes an air-force station and naval facilities for frigates and also because the administration discourages contacts between the stone-age tribes and mainlanders.

Among the ecologically-unsound activities listed by the signatories is the ”lining of beds of perennial streams in south Andaman with concrete”.

In May 2005, the villagers from Prothapur in south Andaman, protested against the concrete lining of small streams, pointing out that this prevented percolation into the water-table, which they felt would aggravate drinking water scarcity.

”We also fear that during the forthcoming monsoons the entire water would be drained out at a speed that would cause flooding in many parts of our village”, the villagers said in an open letter to Ram Kapse, the governor of the islands.

The chief secretary of the territory, D. S. Negi, however, denied that any concrete was being used as rehabilitation tool, saying he was unaware of the concretisation of ‘nullahs’ or water-drains.

” We need to have an open debate on how best to serve tribal interests,” said Negi of the grievances aired in the letter,” told IPS. ” We have instances of Jarawa children wanting to attend regular mainstream schools. Does protecting them mean we stop this happening?”

SANE meanwhile is also critical of current agricultural models being pursued on the islands as part of post-tsunami rehabilitation.

The islands receive 3500mm of rainfall annually, resulting in soils turning quickly fallow from leaching and from top soil being washed away, making it unfeasible to promote rice and other crop cultivations.

”This agricultural method has actually aggravated damage from the tsunami,” says Acharya.

According to official estimates 11,000 hectares of agricultural land, including coconut plantations, suffered damage from of the tsunami with about 1,700 of it having been declared unretrievable.

Negi denies that ecological considerations are being ignored. ”We have to remember that some parts of the islands have sunk nearly a metre and a half underwater. We need mud banks to prevent saline ingress, and we need crops for livelihood sustenance,” he said.

At Chennai, the nearest mainland city 1200 km from Port Blair, the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), set up by India’s well-known agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan, has put forward a low external input, organic-agricultural plan to ‘develop a new Andamans after the tsunami’.

The plan, being heeded by the island’s administration, advocates crop husbandry, sylviculture (pandanus, coconut, spices, vegetables and fruits), and aquaculture (mainly tiger prawns and mud crab).

It also recommends involving the islands’ ancient tribes in participatory planning.

Experts like Mukherjee have however expressed apprehension about the plan drawn up by the influential MSSRF which, for example, envisages the islands as being ‘suitable for tiger prawn culture’.

”The fundamental misreading of the actual situation makes me wonder if the plan can have much value”, said Mukherjee.

The islands have so far received nearly 25 million US dollars in post-tsunami development aid from the central government in Delhi out of a promised package exceeding half-a-billion dollars.

But amidst a wide list of rehabilitation of utilities and constructions, reports persist of poor relief implementation with poorly-constructed interim shelters using prefabricated metal that heat up unbearably and a lack of fishing boats.

The administration’s latest rehabilitation policy, coupling the city of Port Blair with the Thai counterpart of Phuket, through an agreement to actively promote tourism has caused further apprehension regarding the ‘carrying capacity’ of the islands to handle a tourist influx.