SANE Newsletter

December 2002

Pygmy Negritos of Andaman Islands

The recent Supreme Court order to close down those parts of the Andaman Trunk Road that pass through the Jarawa Reserve and the order to evict all forest encroachers have generated much interest in the Andaman Tribes.

We quote below a dialogue between Mr. George H.J. Weber, the founder of the Andaman Association and the creator of the encyclopedic Andaman.org website, which is, perhaps the best and most elaborate source of information on the subject with UPI Correspondent Steve Sailer.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- In an era when we are routinely encouraged to celebrate diversity, perhaps no group of humans on Earth is more diverse yet less celebrated than the tiny but fierce Pygmy Negritos of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. They provide some of the best examples of what modern humans were like when they first emerged out of Africa dozens of millennia ago.

Wildlife biodiversity conservation is a hugely popular cause today, but little thought is given to preservation of human biodiversity, nor to protection of the few remaining Stone Age cultures. Yet, the Andamanese Negrito tribes have been decimated by contact with the modern world and its germs. Fortunately, one remaining tribe on isolated North Sentinel Island continues to drive off outsiders with swarms of arrows.

George H. J. Weber, a Swiss businessman and independent scholar, is the founder of the Andaman Association and creator of the encyclopedic andaman.org Web site, which is the leading source for information on these almost unknown but fascinating people.

Weber took time out to answer United Press International's questions.

UPI: Who are the Pygmy Negritos of the Andaman Islands?

Weber: They are a group living since deep prehistoric times on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Although politically part of India, the islands are geographically closer to Thailand than to India. Until less than 200 years ago, the islands' sole inhabitants were several tribes of Negritos. They had a fearsome and fully deserved reputation for killing any outsiders they found trying to land on their islands, from would-be traders to shipwrecked sailors. Their islands lie right across ancient sea trading routes, but no outside group has succeeded in establishing a foothold there until in 1858, the British established a penal colony and introduced convicts, jailers and diseases. Genetic evidence hints at a Negrito residence in the islands going back more than 30,000 years, and possibly reaching as far back as 60,000 years. It is thought that the surviving Negritos are a remnant population representing an early -- perhaps the earliest -- migration out of Africa of modern Homo sapiens. That such an early population could have survived into our days is a major miracle, made possible only by the Andamanese ferocity toward outsiders and their geographical isolation over tens of thousands of years.

Q: What are they like?

A: Although living in the middle of Asia, they are totally unlike what we today think of as "Asian." They look more like Africans or aboriginal Australians. Most are small to tiny (that is why they are often called "Pygmies"), and of slim and elegant appearance. The average height for adult men is just under 150 cm (4'-10.5") and for adult women 137 cm (4'-6").
Their traditional technology is the simplest and most ancient still in use in today's world. It is a technology of a sort that was in use in tropical areas around the world 40,000 or more years ago. In spite of its surface simplicity, their tools are in fact quite sophisticated and perfectly adapted to an uncompromisingly hunter-gatherer way of life. Bow and arrows and canoes are known, as are simple stone tools and basketry of high esthetic value. Most remarkably for a people with a Paleolithic technology and living as hunter-gatherers, they do have pottery -- very simple pottery, but pottery all the same.

Q: Are there other Pygmy Negritos in the world?

A: In the final analysis all humans are related -- we all originated in Africa.
Most specialists would agree that some tiny remnant groups surviving in remote areas in the Philippines, peninsular Malaysia, and Thailand are indeed Negrito and closely related to the Andamanese. None of these groups has preserved its original language, so in this respect the Andamanese remain unique. Just how closely these groups are related to each other and to other groups elsewhere in Asia and outside, only future DNA analyses can tell. DNA samples have been taken from Andamanese by Indian scientists -- they have exclusive access -- but whether, when, where, or how their results will be published is anybody's guess.
A relationship with Australian aborigines and Papuan New Guinean/Melanesian groups is likely. There is some evidence of a more distant relationship with the Khoisan (the Bushmen/Hottentot peoples of Southern Africa; they have the oldest DNA haplotype known), and perhaps some other African people such as the Mbuti pygmies of Central Africa. All these connections will need to await DNA analysis.
Physical anatomy and archaeology cannot definitively answer these questions. However, the fact that Khoisan and Andamanese are today the only living people with the genetic trait of steatopygia ("fat bottom") gives both a potential link of some kind to Ice Age Europe. Many Ice Age "Venus figurines" show the trait.
The same goes for the highly controversial possibility that Australoid/Negritoid people were in the Americas in small numbers before the modern Amerindians. The "Luzia" skull found in Brazil and the Tierra del Fuegians of the southern tip of South America perhaps give a hint, but hard evidence has yet to be produced.
Just what surprises can pop up in the search for possible Negrito relatives is shown by the very recent confirmation that there are indeed Negritoid people in the Arab peninsula. They are at the bottom of the social hierarchy in Yemen and seem to have been missed by the few genetic sample takers that have ever been there. If the Yemeni Negritos are confirmed, it would show that modern Homo sapiens may have left Africa not only through the Egypt/Sinai route but also through the Somali/Yemen route.
We have recently started a section called "Relatives?" on Andaman.Org, and even though not complete yet (we are working hard at it), a visit there for those interested in these questions is recommended.

Q: What's been happening to the Jarawa tribe in the Andamans?

A: In the last few years ago, the Jarawa tribe has largely given up its old hostility toward all outsiders. The result was predictable: a large number of diseases have struck and violent crime is on the rise. The latest reports received privately speak of 50 percent infection rate with Hepatitis B among Jarawas (only a few months ago it was said to be 30 percent). Other diseases are rampant and one official has carelessly let slip that there is AIDS among the Jarawa. Officially, of course, all is well.
You had better heed local advice when meeting with Jarawa. Thanks to grossly incompetent government policies in the past, you are likely to meet them on the Andaman trunk road where they will hijack your bus and not be satisfied with a handshake, but instead will demand goodies -- or else. Such is progress in the Andamans.

Q: Why are Andamanese so vulnerable to the outside world?

A: They have been isolated from other people for a long time and have never had a chance to develop resistance against outside diseases. The Andamanese do have a limited immunity against malaria (a very ancient human scourge), but the common cold or an ordinary flu, let alone pneumonia, measles or venereal diseases, can be deadly to them.

Q: What's special about the North Sentinel Islanders?

A: They are the only Andamanese group that is today still as isolated as all the Andamanese were in the past. That they live on a coral-fringed island in stormy waters has protected them until now from those do-gooders who would "bring them into the mainstream of Indian society," as the nationalist phrase has it. For just what this expression means in reality, the Jarawa situation provides an all too clear illustration.

Q: Is their future safe?

A: "Missions of friendship" to the Sentineli have started only a few years ago. Just as with the Jarawa, most were junkets for visiting VIPs, camouflaged by being called "scientific." They were hurriedly aborted after the Jarawa catastrophe burst over the guilty administrators at Port Blair, the main city of the Andamans. At the moment, the Sentineli are left alone again and all development plans have been put on ice. May they long remain there.

Q: Have you ever met an Andamanese?

A: Not met to shake hands, no; to watch from afar, yes. When my wife and I were in the Andamans in 1995, we were offered the opportunity to visit a Jarawa camp in the jungle and shake hands with them for $200. The offer came from a ranking bush police officer and tribal welfare administrator. After much agonizing, we decided not to have anything to do with it. Still, ever since we have been in two minds about it: we know we did the right thing, morally, but still wish we had met the Jarawa.

Q: The protection of animal and plant biodiversity has become very popular in recent years. Should that be extended to human biodiversity?

A: That is a hard one. Human biodiversity hardly exists since genetic differences among all of us are minute (but still sufficient to trace ancient wanderings and group relationships). What set us apart are cultural differences and I do not think these can be preserved artificially except in the most unusual circumstances. As it happens, the Sentineli Islanders are in just such a highly unusual situation. They could be preserved ... provided they are left alone.
The only solution to the dilemma of "leaving alone while doing research" that I can see is to introduce a husband-and-wife team to the Sentineli. They would have to be brave indeed since their chances of surviving introduction will not be overwhelming. Once successfully introduced, they would have to live with the Sentineli exactly as the Sentineli do for some time (ideally, years) without outside contact. It would be just as hard to find anyone willing to do this as it would be to introduce them safely to the Sentineli - but it is the only way I can see of finding out more about the Sentineli without destroying them. The only alternative is to REALLY leave them alone.

Q: Why do you find the Andamanese so interesting?

A: Originally, I stumbled over the Andamanese Negrito more than a decade ago when I wanted to write an article on the most obscure, least researched but still living language family (note: family, not individual language).
With the Andamanese, I certainly got what I was looking for -- in spades. First, I hit a brick wall. Nobody seemed to do research. Little had been published and that a hundred years ago. Access to the Andamanese was limited to Indian citizens, and Indian scientists did not deign to respond to my inquiries nor had they published much. My head and brick walls are well suited for each other -- and so I charged.
I am pleased to say that in the end the wall lost. What I discovered was so unexpected and fascinating that I have kept at it ever since. The planned article has now appeared and forms the foundation of our linguistics chapters on www.andaman.Org. I then started to write up my material for a book, but (perhaps understandably) no sane publisher was interested. A few of us then started the Andaman Association with a Web site to interest a wider public in our subject and to publish some of our material.

Q: Why do you keep working so hard on Andaman issues?

A: Boredom is not a problem at the Andaman Association. We all now enjoy the chance of meeting or corresponding with highly interesting people from an enormous variety of sciences and other walks of life, people that none of us here would ever have met or corresponded with if our website and interest did not exist. Every week there are e-mails with new and surprising data, advance notice of forthcoming publications, rumors, hints, suggestions, questions.
That we are not researchers ourselves and not involved in the academic rat race makes us a trusted and neutral hub for anyone. We have also found that as non-specialists, we can contribute a wider perspective to many specialists' work. So, we have a lot of fun doing what we want to do, and at the same time, we do something that nobody else seems to be doing.

CEC Hearing

The Interlocutory Applications pertaining to the A & N Islands under WP 202 regarding implementation of the Hon'ble Supreme Court's order of 7th May, 2002 came up for hearing before the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the SC on the 25th Nov. 2002.

Advocates on behalf of certain sawmills and SSI units moved the committee for extension of the date of closure beyond the 31st March, 2003 as they would not be able to exhaust their stock of raw materials by that date. Request was already made by some units for allocation of fresh logs as the units do not have enough raw material to work upto the 31st March, 2003.

The CEC turned down both requests with the observation that the SC permitted them to operate till their stock of raw material are exhausted or the 31.3.2003, whichever is earlier.

The Member-Secretary of the CEC advised the Administration to departmentalise collection of sea sand. Mr. B.P. Ray, MP, ANI, vigorously protested and said that the Sand Dinghi operators would lose heavily and these would be loss of jobs. The Member-Secretary assured that even if sand collection is done departmentally workers would have to be engaged and as such, there would be no loss of jobs.

The MP also requested for a generous rehabilitation package for the post-78 encroachers. The Member-Secretary stated that the encroachers are law breakers and the CEC can give them no relief beyond what the SC has ordered. He advised the MP to move the SC for relief. The MP requested the CEC to recommend his case to the SC but the CEC declined.

A & N Administration expressed their reservation about implementation of some of the recommendations of the Shekhar Singh Commission including the closure of the Andaman Trunk Road. The Chairman told the Chief Secretary, A & N Administration that the recommendations of SS Commission are now orders of the SC and therefore, much be implemented. In case the Administration has any problem, they should approach the SC for suitable reliefs, immediately to avoid being in contempt.

SC Order: Encroachment Removal

ON RECORD

The Congress party chief whip, Shri Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, MP (LS) on 28/11/2002:

On the Floor of the Parliament

Sir, on behalf of the Congress Party, I would like to bring, through you, a very important matter to the notice of the Government. I am not bringing forward this issue on my own. I have been advised by my party to do so. This history of India knows how the Britishers used Andamans, as a centre for cruel punishment to our freedom fighters. The Cellular Jail is the witness. Andaman is a sacred place where Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose hoisted the Tricolour. When we witnessed the partition of India followed by several Indo-Pak conflicts, millions of refugees came from the then Pakistan or East Pakistan and settled in this country at various places. A bulk of them settled in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A public interest case to evict the people went to the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Kripal gave a direction in this regard following which a disastrous situation took place. The people from Tamil Nadu, Chhatisgarh, West Bengal and the east while Bangladesh had settled there for the last so many years. Now they are being evicted in such a manner that in the name of evicting the encroachers, staying for the last 20 -25 years on government land, the Andaman and Nicobar Administration has destroyed thousands and thousands fruit bearing trees and have also destroyed the standing paddy crops by deploying the elephants. As a result about 50,000 people are going to be homeless. There is no scheme yet known for their rehabilitation or for compensation. Livelihood of one lakh people, which constitutes 25 per cent of total population, is badly affected.

Andaman and Nicobar Forest Development Corporation having direct and indirect employment of more than 10,000 people is proposed to be closed down. Sir, the entire situation is so critical that the people who are there from various parts of India are now suffocated.

I would like to submit to you that our distinguished colleague, who had been in this house seven times returned from A&N Islands, Shri Manoranjan Bhakta, made a petition to the President of India. My appeal to the Govt. is that let the Government make an appeal to the Supreme Court for a review of the direction, otherwise the entire Andaman & Nicobar Islands will be destroyed and the people who are homeless, we will not able to provide them home elsewhere.

Reply to the question put forward by Shri Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, MP (LS) by the Hon'ble Minister of Environment & Forest: On the Floor of the Parliament

"The Supreme Court by its order dated 07.05.2002, in Interlocutory Application No. 502 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202/1995 has accepted the report given by Shri Shekhar Singh, pursuant to the Court's Order dated 23.11.2001 and issued direction regarding felling of trees, preparation of revised working plan, working of Adaman & Nicobar Islands Forest and Plantation Development Corporation Limited and mining of sand. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Administration had been directed to file monthly affidavits regarding progress on removal of encroachment. All efforts have been made to implement these orders including regular review of the progress of implementation. The Ministry had appointed a Committee consisting of Shri. N.K. Joshi, Addl. Director General of Forests and Shri Y.S. Bhave, Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor to go into the working of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Forest and Plantation Development Corporation Limited keeping in view the orders of the Supreme Court as also the report submitted by the Commissioner of enquiry set up by the Supreme Court."

Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, MP A&N Islands: On the Floor of the Parliament

"I would like that Govt. of India should give attention for relief package to these people. In A&N Islands, the population is 3.5 lakhs. After the Hon'ble Supreme Court's Judgment, about 25,000 affected people will have to come out from the Forest land, which is about 10% of the total population. They have no food & shelter. I would request that the Honorable Finance Minister should think for giving relief package to these affected people".

Local Borns' Association, an association of Pre- 1942 inhabitants, has lodged strong protests against the "rehabilitation packages" proposed by politicians. Mr. John Lobo, President, LBA, has sent letters of protest to the Home Minister and Ministry of Environment and Forest apart from filing an affidavit before the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

On 7th May 2002 the SC has ordered that all families who have been identified as having encroached on forest land prior to 1978 should be settled by allotting them 1 hectare of land each family. The Honorable Supreme Court had further ordered that all post 1978 encroachments shall be completely removed within three months. In compliance to the above said order the Union Territory Administration of A&N Islands has initiated the process of settlement of all pre 1978 forest encroachers in de-reserved blocks and also eviction of post 1978 encroachment. But while the plantations of the encroachers have been cut, the homesteads have not been removed and the families are still residing in the forest.

The LBA stated that the Rehabilitation Package proposed as an additional relief to the encroachers by the respondents, circumventing the orders of the Honorable Apex Court is not only an action of rewarding the law-violators, but is also unjust and illegal." Mr. John further stated that such an illegal Re-habilitation Package for the encroachers will be at the cost of the permanent inhabitants, most of whom belong to the descendents of penal settlers.

After independence the first Survey operation was conducted in 1960-61 when it was found that in about 850 cases the allottees were in possession of some excess area of land. A decision was taken in the Home Minister's Advisory Committee in 1966 and guidelines were also issued by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration for regularization of the excess area in the name of the concerned allottees. But, even after the lapse of 3 _ decades such excess area, which although fully utilized by the concerned allottees or their dependant members for home stead purpose have not yet been regularized.

More than 32,000 applications were received by the Administration from local inhabitants for allotment of house sites and Panchayati Raj Institutions have also given their recommendations. But, all such cases are still pending in the Revenue Department of the Administration.

As such any sympathetic consideration for post 1978 encroachers is not only against the interest of permanent inhabitants but is also unethical and illegal, stated the President, LBA.

He said that the Rehabilitation package are being proposed as relief to the encroachers who have caused huge loss to the State through destruction of forests, grabbing of public land and causing environmental degradation is absolutely illegal and will definately encourage encroachment.

For that a vast majority of the encroachers are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and this fact is borne by records available with Estate Officers (Divisional Forest Officers).

A large number of encroachers are dependant members of clonisation settlers to whom 10 acres of land per family has been allotted during colonization settlement. Allotment of further land to such dependant member of colonization settlers who have encroached Govt. land damaging valuable timber worth crores of Rupees is absolutely illegal and also violation of principle of natural justice and equality before law as enshrined in our Constitution.

The Andaman & Nicobar Administration is carrying out on war footing the work of issuance of Islanders Identity Cards, which is a scheme not only approved by the GoI but also ordered by the SC in the afore sited order. The President felt that, "Any rehabilitation package or sympathetic consideration to post 1978 encroachers is absolutely contradictory to the very objective of Islanders Identity Cards.

Since, the matter regarding encroachments, be it pre or post 1978 has been specifically dealt with by Honorable Supreme Court, any rehabilitation package or compensation beyond the directions given by Honorable Supreme Court is an act of circumventing the orders of Honorable Supreme Court and also amounts to contempt of Court."

About 4500 post 1978 encroachments on forest land presently exists in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Apart from them there are about 15,000 post 1978 encroachments on Revenue land. If any rehabilitation package is given to post 1978 Forest land encroachers, the post 1978 Revenue land encroachers will also demand for the same and there will be a chaotic situation as about 84% of the total geographical area of Andaman and Nicobar Islands being forest land, there is already acute shortage of Revenue land for allotment to permanent inhabitants to meet their requirement of Home Stead as well as for various other development purposes.

On behalf of the Local Borns' Association Shri John Lobo requested the Ministers that the said re-habilitation package as proposed and approval sought by the A&N Administration may kindly be evaluated in the light of the fact that the persons for whom re-habilitation package has been proposed are law breakers and have caused invaluable loss to the government besides posing serious threat of environmental degradation. As such Shri Lobo stressed that the package may not be approved.

Tourism and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands

The Andaman and Nicobar Island are a group of picturesque Islands big and small, inhabited and uninhabited lying in the south-eastern part of Bay of Bengal. These islands form an arch within a parallelogram located between 6 and 14 degrees of the North Latitudes and 92 and 94 degrees of East Longitudes. The total area of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as per Survey General is 8,249 sq Km. the area of Andaman district is 6, 408 sq. Km, while that of Nicobar district is 1,841 sq. Km. There are 24 inhabited islands in the Andaman district.

Being close to the equator and surrounded by sea, the Andaman Islands have tropical climate. Precipitation is heavy with both north-east and south-west monsoons affecting the islands, it rains almost seven months in a year.

The capital town of these islands is Port Blair and is at a distance of 1255 km from Calcutta, 1190 km from Chennai and 1200 km from Vishakapatnam. Nearly one third of the population of the islands resides in Port Blair.

The famous Radhanagar Beach at Havelock island has now become Adhanagar, the other "Adha" is covered with plastic bags (poly-bags).
It is not Coca Cola but Khokla, do not say Pepsi, it is "Paap Si".
Friends of Kalapani should boycott both Kaala Paani (cola drinks) and Kala Panni (recycled poly-bags).

UNDP Sponsored Study on Implementation of Tourism Master Plan in A&N Islands

A project with UNDP funding was undertaken by Ministry of Tourism (MOT) supported by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) for developing strategy for Environmentally Sustainable Tourism in the Andaman Islands and to prepare a long term strategic Master Plan to enable environmentally sustainable tourism in the Islands. This Master Plan was prepared in close collaboration with the World Tourism Organisation, the Ministry of Tourism and the Andaman and Nicobar Administration.

Implicit in the development of any strategy for an environmentally important island-group is to mitigate adverse impacts on the environment by avoiding excessive concentrations of visitors or development in any one place and to ensure that, as far as is practible, the tourism product is environmentally sustainable by making it compatible with the environment and curbing its demands on natural resources.

Concerns have been expressed as to whether an increase in tourism as envisaged in the Master Plan would cause adverse impacts on the ecology of the island and the lifestyle of the indigenous tribal people of the island. As a result, on the advice of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, UNDP requested NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) to undertake carrying capacity study i.e. an assessment of the island, before implementing any of the recommendations of the Master Plan.

The report is based on extensive literature search, interaction with officials of Andaman and Nicobar Administration / individual researchers and secondary data from government and non government organizations.

NEERI Says:

Tourism industry presently shares 2.03% in the total turnover of the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Providing a favourable environment for tourism can further increase the turnover. Tourism development is one of the sectors, other than fishery and agriculture which will increase the employment potential and economic status of the union. It can also be observed that number of tourist risen to 82376 in 1999 from 9596 in 1990.

International tourism market in the Andaman Islands have two assets of the prime importance namely, excellent beaches sustainable for high quality resort development, and excellent opportunities for scuba diving on the offshore reefs and shoals. Coupled with the unspoiled, natural rainforest environment of an archipelago of the great scenic beauty, these assets provide the basis for the development of high value, low volume internationally competitive tourism sector as envisaged in the National Action Plan for Tourism.

The Development of International tourism in the Andamans is currently inhibited by a number of constraints on entry and movement and the restrictions on development within 200 meter of the high tide line.

The standards of accommodation and service are generally inadequate. The hotels, with one or two exceptions, are badly located for the type of beach for which the islands are most suited. The best locations for this purpose can be found on the offshore islands and along the littoral of the East Coast, which are poorly served by a very slow utilitarian ferry service.

The solution?

If the undoubted attractions of the islands are to be developed to their full potential a new market must be exploited and there must be radical changes in the standards, form and location of development to meet the expectations of that market. The existing product must be upgraded and improvements to air communications and other infrastructure effected. The innumerable restrictions on entry, movement and development must be relaxed or completely removed.

Bringing about all these changes and improvements will take time. In the short term, therefore, the marketing and attraction of international tourists should be subdued and approached with caution. A more aggressive campaign could be initiated when the main constraints have been overcome and beach resort accommodation of the right standard becomes available.

Apart from the existing accommodation for the tourists, NEERI has suggested to concentrate on Beach Resort Holiday Makers. This will be the most important segment, especially in the medium to long term. Visitors will mainly be drawn from middle income group of all ages from South- East Asia staying on average from three to seven days, and middle to upper income older age group of European origin with lengths of stay averaging ten to fourteen days.

NEERI feels that because of high costs, beach resorts will not appeal to the same extent to domestic tourists but will probably be a significant but minority number from middle income family groups and couples.

Another group of tourists that can be attracted is General Interest Tourists. These will be predominantly domestic tourists staying as at present mainly in Port Blair and making excursion to places of interest in the vicinity but probably with an occasional short trip to a beach resort. They will comprise both families and couples from a wide range of middle income age groups with lengths of stay from three to ten days.

In addition, backpackers consisting of younger people traveling singly or in pairs mainly from Europe and Australia, will continue to come in ever decreasing proportions for three to fourteen days.

Andaman can become a magnet for those interested in various sea-related activities with rich marine environment and multitude of forest-clad islands. One particular importance in these fields is scuba diving. Initially divers will come from mainly Europe (particularly Germany, Italy and UK) and to some extent North America and from middle / upper income groups of all ages except the elderly. The diving market is growing rapidly in South &endash; East Asia and, increasingly, divers with a more youthful age structure from middle income groups will be drawn from this region, especially from Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Yachting and sport fishing are indulged mainly by affluent, upper income Europeans (Germany, Italy and UK) and Americans in the middle age groups. Again, like diving, these activities are increasing in popularity in South-East Asia markets such as Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong will probably become more important in the medium term Socio-economic grouping will be similar.

The most striking feature of the Andaman is the ubiquity and overwhelming presence of the equatorial rainforest. This fine natural assets has been and continues to be systematically eroded by widespread logging operations, which despite selective cutting and replanting programmes are seriously injurious to the forest ecology and general environment. The commercial extraction of timber, apart from local needs, should be phased out by the economic activities, which are more conductive or more accommodating to environmental objectives substituted. Meeting the known demands and interests of tourists in the future of the natural environment can provide an important positive role in this process, provided that tourism development and tourist activities are properly limited, controlled and managed.

The general approach adopted in developing the tourism spatial strategy of dispersing visitors over a number of low density resorts will go a long way in helping to reduce any adverse impacts on the environment and is considered to be an acceptable basis for the general distribution of the modest programme of tourist accommodation to the zones. More definite measures must be applied when considering specific locations and their permissible levels of development by establishing regulatory systems or other applicable standards to deal with the numerous ways in which the environment can be deleteriously affected ecologically, physically and visually. The recommended measures are intended as minimum targets or guidelines. In practice they may not be practical in respect of particular development sites which should always be the subject of specific capacity analysis.

 *****************

The famous Radhanagar Beach in Havelock has now become Adhanagar, the other 'Adha' is covered with plastic (poly-bags).

It is not Coca Cola but Khokla, do not say Pepsi, it is 'Paap Si'.

Friends of Kalapani should boycott both Kaala Paani (cola drinks) and Kala panni (Recycled poly-bags).

Cdr. Bhat

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