The press relaease is a serious plea for help in the
matters outlined therin. For many years the dept of
forests were trying to make inroads into the already
'reserved' forests, that are otherwise categorised as
a tribal protected area, in the name of conservation
of coastal forest and other regions in the interior.
It even had an outpost on Tillanchong island along
with a police guard post- both of these suffered the
ills of malaria and boredom without adequate
infrastructure toward effective protection.Wild boar
formed a easy source of protien for these camps. they
seem to forget that the nicobarese have traditional
rights that have been in vogue for long with certain
families/villages (eg from Trinket/pilpillo/kakana in
the central group with regard to tillanchong, and
Kondul and Pulomilo for islets further north such as
Treis Trak and Meroe)regarded as custodians of the
plantations and forest. Even though the nicobarese do
not hunt and gather, it is pertinent to build on the
strengths of traditional mores and effect conservation
goals with the islanders rather than isolate them from
the process by posting people from the Andamans to
look after forests in the Nicobars- which have
remained relatively intact all these years due to
their form of management.
more serious offences have been in the
form of the navy usurping and claiming legal
entitlement in the aftermath of the tsunami- a slight
that can never be righted if a high handed attitude
continues- past records(im not sure if they exist now-
rashid will be able to throw some light) will show the
kind of obeisence that naval forces and other
dignitaries in the past have paid to those families in
power, catering toward an atmosphere of stewardship in
co-managing the islands with the indigenous groups. it
is increasingly being seen that post tsunami,
administrative officers, NGO's and dignitaries are
using the aftermath to carry out agendas of
transforming centres of indigenous administration
toward the inappropriate models of corruption and
bureaucracy conducive to their growth rather than the
intended beneficiaries that plagues the rest of the
country. the nicobars can do very well without such
interference and can teach more than a lesson or two
toward island ecology and management of disasters
within their forms of social organisation.

--- Madhu Sarin <msarin@...> wrote:

> I wonder if the recently passed forest rights act
> could support the Tribal Council of Nancowrie and
> the Nicobarese in their struggle. Could someone pass
> on a copy of the Act to them? Reservation of
> customary Nicobarese ancestral lands as state
> forests is in direct opposition to the Act's primary
> objective of recognising tribal rights. To begin
> with, a copy of the Act should be shown to the
> forest department and the islands' Administration.
> If that doesn't work, maybe a legal challenge could
> be considered? I think Pankaj has a copy of the Act
> - if not, I can send a verified soft copy (although
> I don't think it has yet been signed by the
> President but that should get done as a matter of
> course soon).
> Madhu
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Pankaj
> To: andamanicobar@...
> Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 3:43 PM
> Subject: [andamanicobar] Press Release on 2nd
> Anniversary of the Tsunami by the Tribal Council of
> Nancowrie
>
>
> PRESS RELEASE
> on the occasion of the 2nd Anniversary of the
> Tsunami, 26th December 2006
>
> by
> Tribal Council of Nancowrie, Central Nicobar
> Islands
> Email: tribalcouncil.nancowrie@...
> Tel: 09434284444
>
> Two years after the tsunami, it is still a long
> way to go for the
> Nicobarese, indigenous inhabitants of the Nicobar
> archipelago in the Bay of
> Bengal. Even as we have grappled with tremendous
> losses directly caused by
> the tsunami - of lives, of materials, our means of
> subsistence and way of
> life and culture - the post-tsunami period has
> only brought added misery. In
> part this is due to internal conflict and a sudden
> change in lifestyle. But
> it is also due to fresh threats to our very
> existence due to certain moves
> made by various agencies of the government and
> non-government organizations.
> Despite the rehabilitation measures initiated by
> the administration
> (government) - for which we remain grateful - we
> continue to live in an
> atmosphere of great fear and uncertainty over our
> future. For us, the
> present situation is marked by the following:
>
> Threat from the Forest Department: Through a
> recent proclamation of the
> Forest Settlement Officer it has been announced
> that the entire land area of
> our islands excluding the village area, is being
> constituted as Reserved
> Forest under the ownership of the Forest
> Department. This means that the
> Nicobarese will henceforth be treated as
> trespassers in their own forests
> and punished for the same. This development is a
> deathblow for us. We have
> lived on these islands for centuries together. All
> land has been divided
> amongst ourselves by our forefathers and the
> demarcations made by them are
> observed by us to this day. As a primarily
> hunting-gathering tribe we depend
> upon the forest for our very sustenance. We attach
> great cultural and
> economic significance to them and it is impossible
> for us to live in
> separation for them. We love our forests and care
> for them - their very
> existence over the centuries is testimony to this
> fact. On the contrary, the
> damage inflicted to our forests has begun only
> after the Forest Department
> established its presence in our islands. It is
> therefore, not acceptable to
> us in the least that our forests should be
> declared Reserve Forests.
>
> Occupation and Encroachment upon Tribal Land: For
> many years now, we have
> time and again raised the matter of our lands
> being encroached upon by
> non-tribals running variety of trade illegally,
> whose very presence in our
> islands is illegal according to the Andaman &
> Nicobar (Protection of
> Aboriginal Tribes) Regulations, 1956. After the
> tsunami, this situation has
> been compounded by some departments of the
> administration who are occupying
> tribal land without permission for constructing
> their offices. Further
> adding to our agony, INS Kardip, the naval base on
> Kamorta Island, is
> objecting to the construction of permanent
> shelters in several villages
> claiming these sites to be under its ownership.
> Work in these villages has
> come to a standstill and the people continue to
> languish in temporary
> shelters on the verge of collapse. It is
> impossible for the figure to be
> 208 acres since there are large villages outside
> this extent and these have
> been in existence for at least a few hundred
> years. Unfortunately, all our
> records have been washed away by the tsunami and
> we are unable to provide
> documentary evidence from our end. However, our
> predicament is not being
> understood. Consequently, the Nicobarese people
> are under siege from all
> sides and we do not know where to look.
>
> Location of Permanent Shelters: Even as the
> construction of permanent
> shelters is going on slowly, fresh difficulties
> are arising for us and
> causing further delay. Despite assurances from
> senior government officers as
> well as the Hon'ble Lieutenant Governor that our
> requirements will be
> honoured, the building contractor and the Central
> Public Works Department
> (CPWD), the government agency responsible for
> permanent housing, want to
> construct the permanent shelters very close to
> each other to suit their own
> convenience. This condition is too difficult for
> us to accept. The location
> and layout of the village and of the houses are
> central to the Nicobarese
> way of life. The space around our houses is
> essential for carrying out
> traditional rituals and ceremonies; for
> maintaining livestock as well as
> small plantations of fruit trees. Our life style
> is different from that of
> mainlanders and we very much hope that the
> administration can appreciate and
> respect this difference as it has been doing
> before.
>
> Boats: Boats are the very lifeline of our island
> existence but are yet to be
> distributed to all the deserving families. In
> their absence, these families
> are unable to develop a source of livelihood.
> Further, 18 boats given by an
> NGO which were in community use across the islands
> have all broken down
> since they were made of fibre-glass. These need to
> be replaced with wooden
> boats.
>
> Insensitivity of local administrative officer: The
> Nicobarese are suffering
> at the hands of of Shri.S.C.Tyagi, the Assistant
> Commissioner, Nancowrie,
> senior-most administrative officer in these
> islands. He is authoritarian and
> high-handed, and does not seem to believe in the
> participation of the
> Nicobarese people in decision-making. He is also
> highly insensitive to our
> traditional ways of life. His continued presence
> in office is highly
> detrimental to the ongoing process of
> rehabilitation.
>
> Impact of Aid Agencies: We are thankful to the
> various aid agencies/NGOs
> that came forward to help us soon after the
> tsunami. Yet we feel that their
> overall impact has not been a positive one. First,
> some NGOs tend to operate
> with a lack of transparency. For example, we came
> to know that an NGO called
> Butterflies was carrying out activities in our
> island without the knowledge
> of the Tribal Council. Second, NGOs sometimes seek
> only token participation
> of the village captains/Tribal Council to lend
> legitimacy to their own
> agenda, which often do not address our real
> requirements. Third, many of the
> training programmes being carried out are
> meaningless
=== message truncated ===


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