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Denis Giles

15 June 2018

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By Ambika Pradhan S

Marine ecosystems throughout the world are under severe pressures, with threats like trawling, pollution, and ocean acidification looming large. These ecosystems house a diverse range of species ranging from complex coral reef communities and coral dependant fish to sea turtles. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly becoming a conservation strategy for countries worldwide to protect the ecosystems from anthropogenic pressures. As of 2017, MPAs cover 1.17 per cent of the world’s ocean. (Wikipedia)

India too has contributed its own share to conserving coral reefs and marine landscapes by setting up MPAs in different geographic locations. Based on their design and conservation priority, MPAs can either be no-take zones, where fishing and other extraction is completely prohibited or can be allowed partially. So far, 31 MPAs including 4 Marine National Parks have been established. Gulf of Kutch was the first Marine National Park that was established in 1982. Following which, Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park (MGMNP) was established in Wandoor, South Andaman in 1983; Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park and Rani Jhansi Marine National Park were established in Gulf of Mannar and South Andaman respectively.

There are 15 islands falling under MGMNP, covering an area of 281.5 sq. km. Of the 15 islands, only 2 islands, Red Skin and Jolly Buoy are open for tourists. While the forest department has been managing the park, and has been responsible for conserving the coral reefs for over 2 decades, it is also important to identify the other stakeholders of the park like the fisher community dependent on the coral reef fishes and the tour and boat operators, who benefit from the park.

In a recent report submitted to Andaman Nicobar Environmental Team and Dakshin foundation, Madhuri Mondal of Tata Institute of Social Sciences recorded the perception of the locals towards the park. Titled ‘Factors influencing the perception of the communities towards Mahatma Gandhi National Park’, the study also identifies the direct and indirect dependence of the community, on the park, for livelihood. The survey was conducted along the villages bordering the national park, which includes Wandoor, Guptapara, Manjery, Indira Nagar and Rutland. Through the study, Madhuri came across various perceptions with regarding MGMNP.

Resource dependence is the most important factor which influences the perception of the community towards the park. There was a huge contrast in the views of respondents who were directly benefiting from the park and the respondents whose livelihoods got impacted due to the creation of the park. The study states that people from the community at Wandoor are more directly dependant on the park for their livelihood than the other villages bordering it. Direct dependants like tourist boats, souvenir shops and hotels near the park, which cater to the tourists have a positive perception of the park. It also includes Daily Rate Mazdoors, who are employed in jobs like monitoring the turtle nests during the nesting season, mangrove plantations and patrolling.

People who depend on the park’s resources, but do not earn livelihood from it were categorized under indirect dependency. These respondents, who were either historically dependent on the park or dependent for navigation like the fishers, complained about the park.

The communities living on the fringes of the park rely extensively on fishing for livelihood. The export market dictates the fishing pattern in most of the villages around MGMNP. The fishers have had a long history of fishing and harvesting patterns ranging from shell and sea cucumber harvesting to fishing for groupers. Since the MGMNP is a no-take zone, fishers travel 4 to 6 hours a day to get to their fishing grounds.

Unlike terrestrial Protected Areas, the boundaries of marine protected areas can be very ambiguous in nature. Many fishers mentioned about the friction with the management of the park, since the boundaries are not clearly demarcated. The forest department placed buoys to mark the boundaries of the park. But, few fishers from Guptapada and Manjery mentioned that there was confusion prevailing in the community about the boundaries of the park. During the study, few fishers also highlighted the improper construction of the New Wandoor jetty, which cannot be used during low tide. The findings of the study state that due to increasing restrictions, the fishermen cannot park their boats in the park in case of extreme cases like cyclone or breakdown of the engine. All these reasons have contributed to a perception that the local community is alienated from the park.  The crocodile attack that took place at New Wandoor beach in December 2017, despite of safety nets being installed by the forest department further adds to the discontent among the community.

Coral Reefs And Communities

Coral reefs are complex ecosystems that house several reef associated fish, which are very important to community’s livelihood and food security (Garcia and Rosenberg, 2010). Globally, 25 per cent of the marine fish catch comes from corals reefs (UNEP 2006). But the health of corals in Andaman Islands has been declining noticeably. “The main cause for reef degradation inside MGMNP is a series of natural catastrophes, including the infamous tsunami and bleaching events. In addition, the excess sedimentation has also affected the health of coral reefs inside the park, says Vardhan Patankar, a marine biologist working with Andaman Nicobar Environmental Team (ANET). To reduce this stress, it is important that the community living near the park is aware of the importance of the corals. 

“During the course of my study, I noticed that the people employed in tourism and the fishers who have been fishing for over a decade value corals more than others and they acknowledge that the corals are degrading. The others who do not depend on corals for their livelihood are indifferent to its degradation, Madhuri says.

“The forest department is very active in the park and has been conducting awareness programmes about coral reefs and their importance for communities around the park. At the same time, they need to scale up their efforts in order to make the communities aware of the different species of corals” Vardhan adds.

Since MGMNP has been set up with a top-down approach, where the decision making of the park does not involve the community, they feel alienated from the park. “Communities living around the park see it as a hurdle, as it restricts their resource use as well as their free movement to the sea. This impacts their livelihood. In order to meet the long term conservation objectives of MGMNP, the park authorities need to understand the issues faced by the communities and involve them in the management of the park. Only by including people and sharing benefits of conservation can we ensure the long term security of the corals and marine eco systems, Madhuri opines.

The study also mentions the detailed Eco-Development Committee (EDC) plan created by scientists from Salim Ali Institute of Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in 2013, which was submitted to the forest department. Few meetings were held for the creation of EDC in Loha Barrack Sanctuary, but they were not successful. The Eco Development Committee was formed on paper, but nothing has been done on ground to involve the community. To ensure the maximum benefits from the MPA, it is important that consultations are held with the communities and initiatives like sustainable fishing practices and alternate livelihood generation are taken into consideration.

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Denis Giles

08 June 2018

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- Jonathan Lawley PhD

With my daughter Juliet I was visiting the Andaman Islands where 100 years ago my grandfather Reginald Lowis had risen to Deputy Commissioner and Acting Commissioner in what was then an Indian penal colony.  He had met and married Bessie Coldstream the young niece of the head of the British Military there George Anson and my mother and both her sisters and a brother had been born on Ross Island where the senior British administrators and military lived across the bay from the capital Port Blair.

The visit was part of my researches for a book on my family’s role in India during the days of the Raj.  My mother told me about an extraordinary childhood on the islands and I still had a series of articles written by her mother about life there. I was particularly interested in their stories of occasional contact with the aboriginal Andaman islanders who for centures had avoided all contact with outsiders and had even killed the survivors of shipwrecks with their tribal arrows. Yet mother’s memories were of the warmest embraces from negrito tribes people and my aunt remembered races with small Andaman children on the backs of turtles.

From the start of British involvement in the islands, the tribes had all been particularly vulnerable to imported diseases such as measles, so often followed as I learned in Africa by deadly pneumonia, against which they had no immunity and their numbers had fallen steadily and in the case of some, dramatically.  At that time nobody knew whence these tribes had come.  Their appearance was clearly African and their stature suggested pygmy origins.  Quite clearly there was no trace of the blood of races inhabiting neighbouring landmasses in their appearance.  So how and when had they got to the islands? Though grandfather’s generation speculated on African origins there was no evidence. Now DNA from hair collected in the 1920s confirms the direct African link going back 40 – 60,000 years to the very oldest human beings who set off eastwards across what is now Arabia.

In Grandfather’s day British policy was broadly to leave the tribes alone though relationships of a sort had been established with the Great Andamanese the so called friendly tribes inhabiting the main landmasses of Middle Andaman and North Andaman for trade in local products such as tortoise shell and trepang. There was no contact at all with the two so called unfriendly tribes, the Jarawa and the Onge.  Living in the area bordering the convict settlement the Jarawa from earliest times had regularly killed convicts and their guards.  Punitive expeditions had been organised but these were largely ineffective and as the tribesmen merely melted into the uniformly thick forest on the approach of soldiers or police.

Meanwhile far sighted British policy to help convicts to fulfil themselves through the development of skills of all sorts and allowing them to marry female convicts helped develop the economy and the population grew.  In WW2 the islands were occupied by the Japanese who though they executed many local settlers did not attempt to interfere with the tribes. After the war and Indian independence Indian ex-service personnel settled in the islands and there were settlers from places like Burma and Bangladesh.  From less than 20,000 in grandfather’s day (including the military and convicts) the population has grown to about 150,000.  Two thirds are Hindus and the rest divided evenly between Christians and Muslims.  It is a diverse and vibrant population happy with its diversity and according to our faithful Muslim taxi driver proud to be Indian.

We enjoyed the diversity and the friendliness and ourspotless modern hotel in Port Blair with superb views of the sea and of neighbouring islands.  After four days of meetings including with the governor, a modern air-conditioned passenger catamaran took us on a two hour voyage to Havelock Island where for the last two days of our visit we had a taste of the real wild Andamans.  Our hotel was set in virtually impenetrable forest with a path leading us 200 yards under the biggest trees I have ever seen down to a beach of coral sand famed worldwide for its beauty.

What brings in the tourists?  I got the impression that the government and local authorities would like the main attractions to be the sea, sand and local beauty combined with the island’s history of supposed suppression under the Raj?  Sadly on Ross Island the old government house, the Anglian Church and the little hospital where mother was born were destroyed by the earthquake in 1941 and are unattractive ruins. Part of the Cellular Jail built first to accommodate mutineers after the Indian Mutiny after the establishment of the penal colony in 1858 has been well preserved. It was evidently a very tough place and in the early days 150 men with no hope of release escaped and all perished at the hands of the tribes.  By the 1900 the convicts were of a different type, mostly murderers and others male and female convicted on the mainland of serious crimes , most of whom went on to build the new Andamans. Their descendants, many of whom we met, are justifiably proud of their ancestors.

The main attraction for the tourists overwhelmingly mainland Indians, is the tribes.  They have been given the chance of seeing tribes people thanks to the Andaman Trunk Road part of which runs through tribal territory. It was built in the 1990’s when several construction workers were killed by tribal arrows. The Indian Supreme court ordered its closure in 2002.  However thanks no doubt to promises that the welfare of the tribes through whose territory the north south road passes would be top priority, the road remains open and daily up to a hundred or more, government buses filled with tourists leave Port Blair and race north to the border with tribal territory to lead the queue.  There are many informed and influential Andamanese who see these journeys as offensive and humiliating for the tribes and liken them to wildlife safaris.  Some international organisations don’t like them either.  The authorities are understandably sensitive about what is happening.  It tries to prevent malign influences through strict policing of the convoys by banning photography.

The tribe affected is the erstwhile ‘unfriendly’ Jarawa some of whom are, according to a couple of tourists we met on Ross Island, to be seen on the road looking for handouts if not from passengers, from bus drivers. Such contact is leading to increased dependency and to possible extinction.

Meanwhile the principal future pressures are likely to involve the so called settler community which wants more land, the tourist industry which is becoming aware of the Andamans for its world class tourist potential and the Andamanese aboriginals and those who speak up for them.

Though the Indian Supreme order on the closure of the Andaman Trunk Road has not been complied with the government remains committed to protecting the tribes and is backed by local administrators and by influential settlers including members of the influential Locally Born Society who remain determined to be positive. This gives some hope for the future but is there sufficient awareness of what the tribes have always been aware of – the deadly danger of which my grandfather warned over a century ago, so called “civilization”? So, real determination will be needed to safeguard the tribal reserve areas from further outside incursions and contacts.

Meanwhile it seems to me that the Indian government should try to put aside its understandable sensitivity over what it sees as outside interference and recognise legitimate deep worldwide interest in our earliest forebears and seek international cooperation in protecting them. We flew from Chennai to Port Blair over remote North Sentinel Island inhabited by untouched and still very hostile tribespeople. In my opinion it should be given immediate top level world heritage site status and all international help and support given to the Indian government to keep people away.

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Denis Giles

15 June 2018

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It was a gathering in a mammoth hall, of a billion and a quarter,

There were murmurs and sharp words, but no smiles, chuckles or laughter.

“What did you do for us,” they asked the people who’d gathered there,

“What did you do?” they asked to the those who sat on the chair.

“We gave you our vote, and hoped that you, would do something for us,

We were impressed by dreams you sold and all the other fuss.

You said there would be jobs and perks, for all of us today!

But looks like all we see,is unhappiness come our way!”

The representatives elected, looked their voters in the eye,

“We cannot understand,” they said, “why you weep and why you cry,

We have done so much for you, if you’d only look round and see,

The roads we have renamed, in city and country!

We have looked long and hard and seen, what people loved to eat,

And banned that item from your menu, in one memorable feat.

We’ve given space in your wallets, of the cash you once carried

And to the plastic credit card, we’ve seen you’re now married!”

But the people, they were not convinced and started to shout again,

“You’ve given us pain, not too much gain and filled us with disdain.

What happened to the fifteen lakhs, you promised in our banks?

Now we don’t even have the money, to fill petrol in our tanks!

What happened to the Ache Din, you went on saying we’d get.

Now even how t’wasa normal day, we’re beginning to forget.

Instead of bringing peace, in a country like ours today

You’ve let hate and disharmony, in people’s mindshold sway.

The representatives elected, looked their voters in the eye,

We cannot understand they said, why you weep and why you cry,

We have done so much for you, if you’d only look and see,

The roads we have renamed, incity and country!

We have looked long and hard and seen, what people loved to eat,

And banned that item from your menu, in one swift stupid feat.

We’ve given space in your wallets, of the cash you once carried

And to the plastic credit card we’ve seen, you are nowduly married!

The people sighed, some of them cried, some turned their faces all aside.

All of them knew, all countrywide, a man had stood and to them lied,

And fooled them into thinking, that rosy days would come,

When all he’d ever planned was giveroses to his chosen some.

But as they hold their voting finger up, the billion and a quarter,

Suddenly from their representatives, there’s no grins, no smiles, no laughter..!

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Denis Giles

08 June 2018

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It was sad seeing my huge German-Shepherd dog, whimpering in pain. His ear had got infected, so with cotton swab, antiseptic cream and warm water inplastic mug, I slowly and laboriously started cleaning it, holding his head lovingly against me, before putting soothing medication, and adding a few drops of a pain killer! My dog looked up at me, he usually allows me to touch his wounds, and I imagined what he was asking me with those brown pleading eyes, “What are you doing master, what are you thinking off? Just cleaning my ear? Treating my wound, or what?”

I touched his beautiful, handsome head and whispered, “I’m thinking of a healed ear!”

Did I see a smile on my dog’s face as I gently caressed his huge head? Whatever it was, he stopped whimpering and allowed me to minister to him, as I gently applied the anesthetic balm and he continued to rest his head happily on my shoulder.

As I looked up from himthis morning I pondered on the imaginary conversation I’d just had. I thought of doctors or surgeons looking down in the operating theatre at their patients. What did they see themselves doing? Were they thinking of themselves, only cutting, slicing and surgically removing some infected part inside? Were they so fixed on the task, they’d forgotten why they were fixing?

Or the patient; did he or she as she was wheeled in, think fearfully of the surgery or happily of being fit and whole again?

What do you think of your morning workout?As a tiresome exertion, or do you see a physically fit future you in the mirror?

And as I pondered on such, and put my crude implements, I’d used for my dog, away, I thought of leaders of nations, as they started doing dramatic and drastic things; did they see a nation in turmoil or a people happily living with each other in peace? Does our Modi, see his policies of Hindutva, of one nation, one religion, really leaving the whole of India happy? Is his concentration too much on the surgery; his silences, his slicing election speeches,and less on the healing?

And then there’s Trump; isolating America, not with a surgical scalpel but with butcher’s knife, as he, leader of the most powerful country on earth,with the power to bring peace to the whole world,instead, with furrowed head, bends over his repulsive, revolting, rotten tweets!

My dog, walked away from me, and in his eyes, I saw gratefulness for what I’d done. He knew he was on his way to healing.Are we also sure of that as we look at all we and our leaders are doing?It’s time you and I raised our eyes and help raise theirs too, from surgical slicing and segmenting and separating, to simple,soothing healing..!

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