A fading beauty

A fading beauty
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Highlights

Going to Kala Pani is always an emotional experience. I went there 18 years ago, on a family trip and the islanders were intriguing as I was from mainland India. The one place where the legacy of the freedom movement still lingers on as the nation forgets its genesis. It made me feel that there is still hope for India. 18 years later, today, I felt refreshed seeing the innocence of the people and

Going to Kala Pani is always an emotional experience. I went there 18 years ago, on a family trip and the islanders were intriguing as I was from mainland India. The one place where the legacy of the freedom movement still lingers on as the nation forgets its genesis. It made me feel that there is still hope for India. 18 years later, today, I felt refreshed seeing the innocence of the people and their honesty once again.

Influx of people from mainland India, land encroachment, pollution, etc, are some of the problems due to which the ecology of Andaman and Nicobar islands is facing a slow death that is robbing the splendour of the historical islands

However, the increased influx of people from mainland is showing its impact. There is the trouble of encroachers. The whole discussion started when I was interacting with the island farmers at a seminar on ‘Organic Farming’. I didn’t understand what they meant when I first heard a lady of Punjabi descent mention: “These are the people who come from the mainland and encroach upon the land. We are settlers here; we were brought from our State and were given land to cultivate.

” True there are no real local farming practices in the islands, since the original inhabitants were the Adivasi people who are mostly hunters and gatherers and depend more on fishing and hunting than agriculture per se. Post Independence, since the 70’s, a lot of ex-servicemen settled in these islands by receiving land for tilling and they are called the “Settlers”.

Then there are the locals – the people who came out of the penal settlement – after the British left, stayed on the islands, intermarried – creating a casteless, and to a certain extent a religion-less society. But the current influx of people coming from the mainland in recent times is wreaking havoc on the islanders. “They have grabbed land in our areas and are paying money to the Sarpanch, Panchayats and they are getting pattas.” “Earlier we could bring up issues with the authorities directly, now since the encroachers have come – they call the shots with the Panchayat – and they don’t allow us to meet the officers anymore.”

I was surprised that even after there being 80 per cent forest cover in the islands, monkeys are attacking our farm lands. One of the farmers said, “Earlier there were no monkeys on the islands; some were brought in a ship from the mainland to rehabilitate them here. And thus, they multiplied and have now become a menace. Our forest department asks us to adjust with them! Now how do we adjust when they uproot everything that we grow?”

“It could be that there is not much food inside the forest that is why they must be attacking your fields? So why don’t you plant some fruit trees in the forest?” I asked. “That is true, what we have is mostly timber and therefore the monkeys were not originally meant to be here, and as for planting fruit trees, that can be taken up only by the forest department,” one of the farmers replied.

One thing that will strike us immediately on reaching the islands is the cleanliness that is maintained. However, the plastic menace has caught up with the islands as well as increased urbanisation and the signs of strain can be seen especially in places like Port Blair. The “autowallahs” are mostly honest and have fixed prices but that is changing as well as some of them overcharge.

I was discussing this aspect with one of the workers at the Circuit House, and he said, “What you say is true, the culture is changing and now these outsiders are slowly outnumbering us. I felt that like in Himachal and in Kashmir, outsiders should not be allowed to own land or property in the islands.” “I feel we should have something like a permit system whether to allow people or not,” he added.

The concept of converting agricultural land into plots has caught up, and people want to sell their land. As for agriculture, most of the young people like elsewhere in India, don’t want to continue in agriculture. They find it tough and non-lucrative. That could be a challenge for the islands because with great difficulty some kind of self sufficiency has been achieved in food production, and if the trend continues, then once again there will be a dependency on the mainland for food! Now, that is again an anti-climax.

Mainland India itself is suffering from an overdose of drought and food shortage. The island administration has a big agenda to convert the entire island agriculture, which is about 50,000 hectares, completely into organic farming. “Fortunately for us, the entire supply of fertilisers and pesticides are given to farmers directly from the government departments. We are creating awareness about the hazards of chemical agriculture, but we are also stopping the supply of fertilisers and chemical pesticides, so the farmers will have no choice but to switch to organic practices,” Menaka, Chief Secretary for Department of Agriculture, said.

During my presentation we discussed the impacts of global warming and the current paradigm of development which is destroying the mainland’s ecology. There are many initiatives to protect the island’s ecology, but unfortunately, they are unable to stop the impacts of the mainland’s activity. The increase in chemical pollution into the seas from coastal India, and the increasing temperatures in the sea waters due to global warming have destroyed most of the coral life.

At Neil Island when we went in a Glass Bottomed Boat, I could see mostly dead corals. My fellow passenger said, “It looks like a graveyard… sad!” I said: “People say it’s because of the tsunami.” “No, tsunami can’t be the only reason, it’s the increasing temperatures in the sea that must be killing them” he said, and turned to his son, “I wonder if there will be anything left for your generation?”

One of the Port employees said, “Since we don’t have much industry, at least we don’t have that pollution.” True, that is one factor that must have kept the waters still clear and blue. But who will stop the dumping of pollutants into the seas from the mainland? Who cares what happens to small islanders cut away from their motherland for which their forefathers sacrificed their lives?”

I wondered at the beautiful rock formations that have disappeared in Ross Island, and one of the local lady remarked, “They have to build a wall along the island, since most of the beaches were washed out by the tsunami.” Then she said, “But the impact in Car Nicobar was extreme. Many people were lost. My brother-in-law went to work there, and till date we don’t know if he is alive or dead.

Another sister of mine and her husband were washed away and they were rescued three days later! But those of us, who pitch for the “so called” modern comforts, which is adding to the existing global warming phenomenon, do we care what happens to our fellow human beings?

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