Has a comparative study been made between the Andaman and
Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation of 1956 and Article
244, particularly the V Schedule in the context of PESA 1996? If so what
do they indicate? Would a demand for inclusion as Scheduled Areas be
appropriate?

Bijoy

> Dear Friends,
>
> Based on the discussions (which have been very interesting) and some of
> the suggestions, I am attempting here to put down in brief some of issues
> that are extremely important and alive at this point of time.
>
> For the purpose of this mail, I will restrict myself to elaborating on
> what is happening in the courts.
>
> There are three ongoing cases, one in the Supreme Court and two in the
> Port Blair Circuit Bench of the Calcutta High Court that are related to
> the environment and particularly the indigenous peoples on these islands.
>
> I) Supreme Court: In 1999, the Society for Andaman & Nicobar Ecology
> (SANE), Kalpavriksh, and the Bombay Natural History Society had filed an
> intervention in the Godavarman (forest) case in the Supreme Court. There
> have major developments that have occured since, particularly Oct. 2001
> onwards. After a lot of discussions and the report of the Shekhar Singh
> Commission appointed by the Supreme Court, the court passed a
> comprehensive set of orders in May 2002. There is lot of detail in the
> recos of the Commission report and also in the orders of the SC itself.
> The orders were wide ranging and included among others: a complete ban on
> the commercial timber extraction of the forests of the islands; the
> shutting down of the Andaman Trunk Road in those parts where it runs
> through or along the forests of the Jarawa Tribal Reserve; the closing
> down of the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Development and Plantation
> Development Corporation; declaring the islands as an Inner Line Area to
> deal with the very critical issue of the continued migration of people
> from mainland India to the islands; measures to phase out plantations of
> exotics plants here like teak, read oil palm and rubber; steps to deal
> with the encroachment issues; phasing out of sand mining from the beaches
> of the islands; appropriate materials for construction etc. etc.
>
> The latest on this is that some of the orders like the stoppage of timber
> extraction were implemented pretty promptly. Two key orders, the one to
> close down the ATR and declaration of the Inner Line have still not been
> implemented, though more than a year has passed since the deadlines
> imposed by the SC have expired, and the administration is clearly in
> contempt of the SC. This matter is now once again before court and is
> likely to come up in a hearing on the 27th of Nov. The administration has
> filed asking for a review of these orders and the petitioners too have
> filed explaining that there are no grounds for the review.
>
> The report of the Shekhar Singh Commission has been put up on a website
> that has been developed recently by us with the help of a couple of
> volunteers from Chennai. The website address is as follows
>
> http://protect_jarawas.tripod.com/
>
>
> II) Parallel to the above process, there has been an ongoing case in the
> Port Blair Circuit Bench of the Cal HC, that is related exclusively to the
> Jarawa Community. I will not go into the history and background of the
> case at this point of time, except to say the following.
> In July,earlier this year an expert committee that had been appointed by
> the court to look into matters related to the Jarawa submitted its final
> report. This report has also been put up on the above mentioned website.
> There are some very interesting parts in this report and perhaps the most
> interesting are the dissent notes by Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. KB Saxena,
> two of the independant members on this committee.
> The important thing is that based on this report the A&N Administration
> has been asked by the Court to call a meeting of all those interested
> before a final policy for the Jarawa is drafted. The court has also asked
> the administration to invite people to send in their comments, suggestions
> and reactions to the report, which will be considered in the final
> drafting of the policy. It would therefore be very useful if as many
> people who are interested looked at this report (Its large - about 450
> pages) and made suggestions. If you need any specific help or further
> information please write to me at pankajs@... or Samir Acharya at
> sane@...
>
> Would also like to add here, that the background and the issues of the
> above two cases have been dealth in some detail in 'Troubled Islands', a
> compilation of my own articles that has been recently published as a book.
>
> III) The 3rd and the least known of legal interventions in the islands, is
> by the Nicobari Tribals of the Nancowry group themselves. The entire group
> of the Nicobars has been declared a tribal area under the Andaman and
> Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation of 1956. However there
> are in the Nicobars large encroachments on land by outside settlers, who
> have lived here, illegally for more than a decade and are in league with
> the police, bureaucrats and the politicians. The Nicobaris have asked for
> their removal and some action has been initiated on this front as well.
>
> In conclusion, just want to add, that the regulation mentioned above has
> been a key player in all these three cases.
>
> There are a number of other issues in the islands that are related to
> tourism, the larger tribal policy in the islands, conservation of the
> biological diversity here, etc. etc.
>
> I am sure many of these will also come up in due course and that in fact
> is the main purpose of having started this discussion group in the 1st
> place.
>
> Thanks
> Pankaj Sekhsaria
> pankajs@...
> C/o Kalpavriksh
> Apt. 5, Sri Dutta Krupa,
> 908 Deccan Gymkhana,
> Pune 411004
> India
> Tel: + 91 20 5654239 / 5675450
> Fax: 5654239
> Email: pankajs@...
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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