Islands In Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story

By Pankaj Sekhsaria

Pankaj Sekhsaria is the most consistent chronicler of contemporary issues in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and one of the best known. His writings on the environment, wildlife conservation, development and indigenous communities have provided insights and perspective on the life of the islands for over two decades. Islands in Flux is a compilation of Sekhsaria's writings on key issues in the Islands over this period and provides an important, consolidated account that is relevant both for the present and the future of this beautiful but also very fragile and volatile island chain. The book is both a map of the region as well as a framework for the way forward, and essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of our world.

In this updated edition, the author provides further insights into recent events regarding the islands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperLitmus
• Release date: Mar 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9789352643998

Pankaj Sekhsaria

Pankaj Sekhsaria is a researcher, writer, photographer, campaigner and academic. He has worked extensively in the field of environment and wildlife conservation with a focus on the Andaman and Nicobar islands. His debut novel, The Last Wave (HarperCollins, 2014), too was based in the Andamans.

Book preview

ISLANDS IN

FLUX

The Andaman and Nicobar Story

PANKAJ SEKHSARIA

Foreword by Bittu Sahgal

Introduction by Harsh Mander

To my colleagues in Kalpavriksh, whose support and interest has been the foundation on which my work in the islands is based

Map 1: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands

CONTENTS

List of Tables, Boxes and Maps

Foreword

Preface

Introduction: Contested Imaginations

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A Profile

SETTING THE CONTEXT

1.   Ahistory of alienation

2.   Abrief history of logging

3.   Forgotten islands

IN THE SUPREME COURT

4.   Logging off, for now

5.   To save an archipelago

6.   Andaman’s last chance

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES THE ONGE

7.   A people in peril

THE JARAWA

8.   Jarawa excursions

9.   Embracing disease

10. Delivering the Jarawas

11. Failing the Jarawas

12. Because Andaman’s forests are Jarawa-infested…

13. A road still runs through it

ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY and DEVELOPMENT

14. Turtle tales

15. Ecological treasures … unlimited

16. An exotic problem

17. Extinction by protection

18. The new millennium tamasha

DECEMBER 2004 AND ITS AFTERMATH

19. Tilt and turmoil in the Andamans

20. Picking up the threads

21. Ignited minds on wings of desire

22. Subsidized tourism worsens Andaman’s woes

23. A visit and an aftermath

NITI AAYOG AND TOURISM IN THE ISLANDS

24. Islands on the seam

25. Story of a leaking ship

26. Crossing the line

IN MEMORY

27. A departure too soon – Ravi Sankaran

28. The man with the baseball cap – Harry Andrews

ACADEMIC PAPERS

29. Disaster as a catalyst for military expansionism – the case of the Nicobar Islands

30. Tribal reserves, IBAs and bird conservation: The unique case of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

APPENDICES

Appendix I: Recommendations of the Shekhar Singh Commission, January 2002

Appendix II: Supreme Court Order, 7 May 2002

Appendix III: Policy on the Jarawa Tribe of Andaman Islands

Appendix IV: Power to the native

Appendix V: US missionary drew ire for trying to271 meet Sentinelese – but Indian researchers posed similar threat

Appendix VI: Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A historical timeline

Notes

Index

Photographic Inserts

About the Book

About the Author

Praise for Islands in Flux

Praise for The Last Wave

Copyright

LIST OF TABLES, BOXES AND MAPS

List of tables

List of boxes

List of Maps

FOREWORD

NO PLACE IN INDIA even begins to compare with the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. One moment you are scuba-diving or snorkelling in a coral wonderland and the next you find yourself walking across a narrow strip of silver beach to enter a damp, emerald rainforest complete with birdsong, multicoloured reptiles and insects of all descriptions. Unfortunately, like the mainland, the main threat to these fabled isles today comes from the mismanagement of land and the ever-lurking danger of climate change that threatens to wipe out many islands completely.

Over the years, settlers unthinkingly mined corals and beach sand for construction. They hacked mangroves for fuelwood and to reclaim land. Huge tracts of forests were taken by the timber industry until the Supreme Court of India stepped in. The tsunami caused a disproportionately high loss of human life and property at precisely such places.

Nothing could have actually prevented the killer tsunami that struck on 26 December 2004. The earthquake that caused it was so powerful that GPS readings confirm that some islands have had their geography changed. Trinket was split into three. The southern tip of Great Nicobar was lost permanently to the sea and the land-based lighthouse at Indira Point there is now under water. Grub Island has lost most of its beach and Jolly Buoy now tilts to the south. In many places, however, the loss of life and property would have been dramatically lower had nature not been defied and if human laws had not been so casually broken.

Whenever I have wanted any information on the islands, my ‘go to’ reference has been Pankaj Sekhsaria who has closely followed the happenings here. His meticulous and consolidated historical record of events reflect his true understanding of the local dynamics. The new articles in Islands in Flux provide an update on the developments on the islands over the last decade and also includes most of the articles published in Troubled Islands, his 2003 collection of writings on the islands. The articles build on his intuitive understanding of conservation issues unique to this part of the world, particularly the changing nature of tribal communities on account of the disruption of their way of life by mainlanders.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have seen upheavals over millions of years that have ‘rearranged the furniture’ of the natural world time and again. We can only hope that human-induced factors do not push such natural upheavals beyond their ability to survive our inexperienced meddling.

Bittu Sahgal

Editor, Sanctuary Asia

PREFACE

THE LAST TWO MONTHS of 2018 saw the spotlight on the Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands like never before. The interest generated in these islands following the death of American missionary John Allen Chau on North Sentinel Island was unprecedented and matched only by the attention received in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004. Such episodic attention and scrutiny always has its ups and downs – it created the opportunity to address some fundamental concerns and raise questions about the islands, but also led to the trivialization of issues in several cases. Anyhow, the interest died down and the return to status quo was quick.

The second event was of national significance, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the islands on the 75th anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s visit to Port Blair. The main takeaway was the renaming of Ross, Havelock and Neil Islands respectively as the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep, Swaraj Dweep and Shaheed Dweep.

I mention these here, in the preface of this new edition of Islands in Flux, because they re-emphasize Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s evergreen truism: the more things change, the more they stay the same. The islands deserve attention, but these recent occurrences might not be the most effective ways to go about it. I had written in the preface of Troubled Islands, the 2003 precursor to this book, and then again in the original preface of Islands in Flux itself, that the islands have a very limited representation in the national media and that this was a good indicator of their marginality in the nation’s consciousness. Very little about the relevant specifics of the local context and local needs of the islands is seen or reflected in the larger discourse and development planning that is directed from far away on mainland India. One can argue that this continues to be the case even today. Chau’s unfortunate death and PM Modi’s renaming of the islands saw much discussion and debate, but anyone who knows about these islands will immediately agree that these are only marginal to the story of these islands. As my friend and Port Blair based journalist and researcher Zubair Ahmed pointed out, the indigenous peoples of these islands were not mentioned even once in the PM’s ‘historic’ trip.

This represents a huge gap in our historical timeline, which, if anything, is only getting bigger with every passing day. We cannot afford to lose track of the significance of these islands and a continuous and consistent effort is needed to ensure that. Islands in Flux is my small contribution in that direction. This book is a collection of my journalistic writings on the islands over the last two decades and an important record, even if an incomplete one, of what has transpired here in recent times. The first edition of the book was published exactly two years ago and I’m very glad to be able to now offer an updated and expanded second edition of the book.

Two new sections have been added. The first comprises three articles on the NITI Aayog proposals and initiatives for massive tourism promotion in the islands. The second and smaller one has two short notes in memory of friends and island stalwarts who are not with us anymore – Ravi Sankaran who passed away a decade ago (how time flies!) in 2009, and Harry Andrews who passed away in late 2018. It is sobering to realise that with their passing, and also that of Rauf Ali, a generation of pioneering researchers of the islands is gone.

The other significant addition to this edition is Appendix V – Janaki Lenin’s extensive, insightful and hard-hitting piece about John Allen Chau’s death and the many past and present developments related to North Sentinel. Janaki is one of our finest contemporary environment and nature writers and I am grateful that she immediately agreed to my request to include this piece by her.

December 2004

One of the most important aspects of my two-year journey with Islands in Flux is the role December 2004 played in my understanding of these islands. It is an event that will remain unsurpassed for its magnitude and impact. The earthquake that caused that gigantic tsunami also caused a significant shift in the lay of these islands – parts of the Andamans in the north experienced a permanent uplift of up to four feet and islands in the Nicobars experienced, in some cases, a permanent submergence of 12–15 feet. The damage caused was unprecedented – acres after acres of horticultural and agricultural land lost, buildings and property washed away, casualties of tens of thousands of livestock and nearly five-thousand people dead or missing.

That the islands are located in one of the most seismically active zones of the world has always been known. 26 December 2004 hammered in that reality and the vulnerability of the islands came up centre stage like never before. It was a stark reminder that these islands are unpredictable and unstable; that they will forever be in flux.

What has been scary is how easily and quickly we seem to have forgotten the scale and the magnitude of what nature’s forces can inflict upon us. The entire development, policy and planning machinery in the islands has been trudging along as if December 2004 never happened and will never happen again. The complacency, the ignorance and the arrogance are monumental and the consequences will be severe if course correction is not made immediately. If Islands in Flux is able to establish even a part of this concern, I would consider it a success.

New developments, old relevances

The relevance of putting together old writings became evident to me in early 2016, just as I began working on the first edition of this compilation. The latest events of 2018—first the tsunami in Indonesia in December 2018 following the eruption of the volcano Anak Krakatoa, and second, the renaming of the islands by PM Modi—have only confirmed this.

Let me go back to 2016 when the then environment minister, Prakash Javadekar, while on a visit to the islands made promises and raised long-standing issues as if they were new and had never been discussed. His statements revealed a striking ignorance towards the recent history of the islands, of the various developments here and the debates that were already taking place.

He made out the 2002 Supreme Court order (Annexures I & II) to be a big impediment in the development of the islands without providing any evidence or justification. He was, in fact, completely incorrect in placing the responsibility for a shortage of timber on the Shekhar Singh Commission and the court’s orders. He proposed next that the number of tourist arrivals on the islands be pushed to thirty-lakhs from three-lakhs – another idea that showed a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the situation in the islands. He was completely overlooking the existing infrastructural bottlenecks, the challenges of providing drinking water, the exponentially growing problem of waste disposal and management, and the impacts these could have on the fragile ecology and the vulnerable indigenous communities.

Early 2016 also saw a flurry of proposals for the development of the islands. One came from the Ministry of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping for port construction and the development of light house tourism, which included places that are inside protected areas and tribal reserves. There was another plan outlining development options for the islands that was prepared by the Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence and sent by the NITI Aayog to the A&N administration for consideration and comments. It included, among others, plans for port construction, an integrated tourism complex, construction of a trans-shipment terminal and the creation of a special economic zone (SEZ) in areas that are ecologically fragile and legally protected in the name of the indigenous communities. This was all taking place alongside the proposals and ongoing projects for the augmentation and expansion of the military infrastructure in the area.

These issues had already been the subject of my writings in prominent publications and had even been discussed by several others, so it was frustrating to see that none of it was reflected in this discourse. The projects were being discussed and proposed as if a new, clean slate had been handed over to a little child who was unaware of a huge world and vast history that existed before him.

At about the same time, there was also a call by Baba Ramdev to rename the islands after icons of a certain political ideology and narrative of the nation. An article that I had written in 2007 (which appears in this collection) seemed relevant once again, but had to be resurrected and re-circulated to raise points and questions about the need of such a proposal. It became clear that even if something may have been written more than a decade ago, it remained pertinent. The present government has indeed gone ahead with the renaming, but one mustn’t forget about the past. In some senses, the past is even more relevant now than it was before, and it is important for those stories and points of view to resurface and be sent back into circulation.

The value of this, even if it comes across as self-congratulatory, became evident to me in an email I received as I was writing this very preface. It speaks directly to the central agenda of this book and it seemed fitting to share it here, with permission from the author, of course. This is what Oliver Bancroft, a UK based artist and film-maker, wrote to me on 4 January 2019:

‘I acquired copies of your books ‘Islands in Flux’ and ‘The Last Wave’ while staying with Dinaz at the Captain’s House Homestay in Port Blair. I started reading ‘Islands in Flux’ on the first night there. It was a startling read for me - my journey to the islands had been sold to me as a relaxing time on an idyllic beach with amazing snorkeling and bird watching - an island paradise! Your book brought home the realization that the islands were in fact at the centre of the global storm of environmental issues, the survival of tribal life and the preservation of uncontacted tribes …’

My gratitude

There are many individuals and institutions that I need to thank for being part of my more than two-decade-long journey in the islands. Firstly, I would like to thank all my colleagues at Kalpavriksh, a remarkable organization that I am distinctly lucky to be part of. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Bombay Natural History Society, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Environment Team and the Human Rights Law Network for their support and collaboration at different points of time and on different issues. In particular, I would like to thank Samir Acharya and his organization, the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE), that has led the campaign on tribal rights and the environment in the islands ever since I started working there.

My sincere thanks to the various publications where articles in this compilation first appeared – namely the Frontline, the Hindu, Sanctuary Asia, Tehelka, Down to Earth, the Times of India, Inter Press Service, the Indian Express, Economic and Political Weekly and Indian Birds. What appears in Islands in Flux is primarily reprints of the originals as they were published, with only some nominal editing changes to remove inconsistencies and repetitions. Footnotes have also been introduced in some places either to provide clarifications, context or, where relevant, an update on the latest situation. I am grateful to these and other publications that have given me space to write over the years.

Special thanks to Zubair Ahmed, one of the islands’ finest researchers and journalists, for granting me permission to use his article on the Jarawa that appears as Appendix IV. My deep gratitude to Bittu Sahgal for the Foreword and Harsh Mander for the Introduction to the book, both of which have been retained from the first edition. I would also like to thank my publishers, HarperCollins India – Ananth Padmanabhan and Udayan Mitra, as well as my editors for the first edition, Ajitha G.S. and Antony Thomas, for helping me make Islands in Flux happen and helping me keep the islands in focus!

Pankaj Sekhsaria

06 January 2019

INTRODUCTION: CONTESTED IMAGINATIONS

Harsh Mander

THE IDYLLIC ISLANDS IN the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea – the 500-odd-island archipelago of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands stretching from the south of Myanmar to the north of Sumatra in Indonesia – are today at an emblematic crossroads. The many predicaments of this island chain represent some of the classic dilemmas of modernization and of contested notions of development.

Pankaj Sekhsaria, scholar, journalist, environmentalist and occasional novelist, has developed a close kinship with the islands, and has written insightfully and sensitively about its environment and people for over two decades. This updated collection of his many writings as a chronicler of the islands are a welcome and valuable resource to those who seek to make sense of the many contestations that surround these islands.

The modernist imagination of the current Central government for the islands include, according to the recent statement of Union minister Prakash Javadekar, a tenfold increase in tourist traffic to the islands, from the current three lakh annual arrivals to thirty lakhs, relaxation in environmental and coastal protection norms for tourism and other economic activities, jetty and port development and greater thrust to military infrastructure in the islands. This imagination is impatient with concerns about the impact all of this would have on the environment and indigenous populations of the islands, and regard these as antiquated and dogmatic impediments to the healthy economic growth of the islands. Sekhsaria’s painstakingly researched and argued articles attempt to answer these critiques.

Sekhsaria reminds us that the original residents of the islands – the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese – have a history that dates back at least 40,000 years. For perspective and a context, he says, if the real history of the islands is ever written, the British would be no more than a page and India could be only a paragraph. Yet in just the last 150 years, their population has been reduced from