By Pankaj Sekhsaria
Two years down the line Andaman and Nicobar islands have once again gone back to being a blip on the radar that they always were
It's a question that is in many minds, a question that is being repeatedly asked. What is the situation in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands on the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami of December 2004. Not surprisingly there is no one answer. The voices are diverse and so are the answers; it would all depend on where you are located and whom you are listening too. Here are a few snatches, snapshots.
Tourism boom
This is considered one of the best years ever in the history of the island's tourism. Eight flights are flying into the capital Port Blair daily from the mainland. Tourism, in fact, was one sector in the post tsunami scenario that the island administration supported and promoted as if its life depended on it.
All the tourism in the islands is concentrated in the Andamans which were far less affected by the tsunami than the southern group of the Nicobars. Tourism certainly suffered in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, but that was less due to infrastructure damage than to the feeling of fear and uncertainty that was created. A huge exercise of promoting the islands as a tourism destination has been undertaken by the local administration and the Central Government and results are more than evident in places like Port Blair and Havelock Island that have maximum tourist footfalls.
Tourism is being offered as the panacea for many of the problems faced by the islands and there is no limit to the interest and hype being generated. The idea of twinning Port Blair with Phuket in Thailand that was announced with much fanfare seems to have now been abandoned quietly. More recently a Congress delegation from the islands met party president Sonia Gandhi with a host of issues and demands. A prominent one was for the granting of 'international' status to the Veer Savarkar Airport in Port Blair to boost tourism in the islands.
Meanwhile, people protest in Hut Bay
Even as the tourism scene has been booming, Little Andaman, a few hours ship journey south of Port Blair witnessed what is believed to be the first ever case of arson in the history of the islands associated with a public agitation.
On November 16, nearly 1500 tsunami affected people in Hut Bay were protesting about the status of permanent shelters being proposed for those affected. They were seeking answers to basic questions about what they were to get and had fundamental concerns about the design, costs and layouts of what is being offered to them. What followed was police lathi charge resulting in injury to many and even hospitalization.
Two years down the line, little, if anything has started on the ground. Most of the work for the permanent reconstruction has been allotted to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and concerns have been raised about related matters by NGOs and other experts.
The people's protest was indicative also of the lacunae in the process that has been followed so far; where people have not felt part of the happenings and even do not have the basic information that they should have about their future.
And the Nicobars remain in the shadow
Remoteness and inaccessibility continue to shroud the happenings in the Nicobars. Large scale subsidence of land due to the earthquake of December 26, 2004 has created a very difficult situation here after loss of lives and livelihoods after destruction of agricultural and horticultural land. Large parts of the low-lying coastal areas that had human settlements have been permanently submerged. The location, design and structure of the permanent housing continues to be an unresolved issue.
The Nicobari adivasi community is an extremely resilient one and it is quite possible that they will set their lives back on track with the right kind of support and input. It had been argued in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami that they should be provided a basic set of important tools and they would have themselves rebuilt their lives and settlements. This had been their demand too but even this basic and simple need of the people and the situation could not be fulfilled then.
Large parts of the community have now reached a state that they do not want to discuss permanent housing anymore. They are willing to take whatever is being offered and articulate confidently that they will build their own houses in the way they want in due course.
Many people, like those from Chowra in the Central Nicobars and Little Nicobar in the Southern Nicobars have already made their move back to their islands from their temporary shelters. They could not wait any longer.
Whistle blower
An interesting report coming out of the islands is an assessment of NGO activity here in the post-tsunami context. Written by Mohammed Abid, the former social welfare director of the A&N Administration, it is a hard-hitting and unflattering account of what the large numbers of NGOs did and did not do. An estimated 230 NGOs are believed to have come and set up shop in the islands after the tsunami. Less than 40 continue here today.
Lack of accountability and transparency, non sharing of information, and not delivering on promises by the NGOs are some of the key problems that Abid has highlighted in the report. There are many examples of good work too, but in the balance the report card seems to come out negative. This is a grim snapshot. Possibly the big picture is rather depressing.
An ecological upheaval
One of the least understood or discussed aspects is the huge geological and ecological upheaval that has been caused in the islands. The earthquake that caused the tsunami has changed the shape of the islands for ever. The northern Andamans have seen an uplift of nearly five feet whereas parts of the Nicobars like Katchal and Great Nicobar Island experienced permanent subsidence of upto 15 feet.
The impact on the coastal ecology has been huge and unprecedented. Large areas of coral reefs along the Middle and North Andaman coasts have been pushed above the high tide line permanently leading to their destruction. Large areas of mangrove forests too have died in the Andamans because of uplift and in the Nicobars because of permanent submergence caused by the subsidence. It's a situation little can be done about and experts have suggested that no intervention would be the best form of intervention; that this is a natural event and natural systems will respond in a manner that is best observed without interference.
In conclusion
The one word that that perhaps best explains the A&N islands is diversity - social, cultural, topographical, ecological diversity. Every island is different from the other, people are different, the situations are different and so are the challenges. 'One shoe fits all' prescriptions will simply not work, and this is the perhaps the biggest learning from the attempts of the administration (even without a person at the top) to start the permanent reconstruction process.
Standard, standardized buildings are being suggested that will be built at a huge cost with materials brought in from the outside. They are not only out of context but will also create serious problems for their maintenance and future up keep. The restiveness of the tsunami affected in Hut Bay and the restlessness large sections of the Nicobari community is indicative of precisely this.
For those directly affected by the tsunami, the milestones that they are looking at cannot be far down the road. They are seeking some quick resolutions of their most immediate and pressing problems. Little else could be more important for the moment.
(Pankaj Sekhsaria is National Foundation for India Media Fellow, writing on issues concerning Andaman & Nicobar Islands)