PRESS
RELEASE

UN Permanent Forum tables demand for the adoption of the draft declaration
on the rights of indigenous peoples as two weeks meeting ends

HIV/ AIDS, indigenous communities in voluntary isolation and governmental
role in the Second Decade are also on the list

New York, 25 May - On the closing day of its Fifth Session, members of the
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues made strong
recommendations and drew world attention on issues that remain critical for
the survival, identity and development of the 370 million indigenous peoples
worldwide.

"The Permanent Forum strongly recommended the adoption of the Draft
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the General Assembly
during its sixty-first session in September 2006. The Forum is convinced
that the Declaration will be an instrument of great value to advance the
rights and aspirations of indigenous peoples and would represent a major
achievement for the Second Decade," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson
of the Permanent Forum.

The annual Session provides a platform for indigenous peoples to voice their
demands and dialogue with governments and the UN system about their
concerns. This year's high level meeting attracted over 1200 indigenous
peoples' representatives, NGOs, academia, senior representatives of more
than 55 Member States, some 31 UN system agencies and other
inter-governmental organizations.

For the first time in the Forum's history, a half-day segment of the meeting
was dedicated to one specific region- Africa. The African Union's Chair of
the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities of the African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, indigenous peoples' representatives
and governments attended the session. Attention was drawn to the continuing
challenges faced by indigenous peoples of the continent, and the Forum made
a number of recommendations regarding health, capacity-building, education
and related issues.

In related discussions on this year's theme of the Millennium Development
Goals, indigenous peoples participation was reiterated, particularly in the
understanding of what poverty and well being is for indigenous communities.
Participatory indicator setting and appropriate data collection and
disaggregation were recommended.

The spread of HIV/ AIDS and its impact on indigenous peoples was also a
priority during the meeting. The Permanent Forum urged UNAIDS and other
global partners to develop resources and ensure access to treatment and
prevention of the epidemic in indigenous communities.

In its recommendations, the Forum members also highlighted the situation of
peoples living in voluntary isolation like the Jarawa, Onges and North
Sentinel of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in South Asia; and the Ayureo,
Taromenane, Tagaeri, Awa-Guaja, Cacataibo and others of the Gran Chaco and
Amazon regions of South America. They asked governments and civil society to
ensure that indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation are protected
against encroaching, aggression, forcible assimilation and acts of genocide.
Human rights mechanisms of the United Nations should examine the plight of
indigenous peoples from French Polynesia, Guam and Marshall Islands who have
been victims of nuclear testing in the Pacific they added.

Going forward, the Forum will continue dialoguing with indigenous peoples,
governments and the UN system to develop concrete strategies on resolving
priority concerns of their indigenous peoples communities. Action plans and
partnerships during the Second International Decade of the World's
Indigenous People (2005-2015) are also high on the list.

The 6th Session of the Permanent Forum is proposed to be held in Bangkok in
May 2007 and will focus on the theme of "Territories, Lands and Natural
resources."

For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Oisika Chakrabarti, Department of Public Information, tel: 212.963.8264,
e-mail: mediainfo@...
For Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, please contact:
Mirian Masaquiza, Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,
tel: 917.367.6006,
e-mail: IndigenousPermanentForum@...

C/o Kalpavriksh
Apt. 5, Sri Dutta Krupa,
908 Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411004, India
Tel: 020 - 25654239
Web: www.kalpavriksh.org

From the latest issue of
Down to Earth

Sourcing Shompens -

Hunter-gatherers of Great Nicobar yield evolutionary clues


31/05/2006

BIPLAB DAS



Located in the Indian Ocean, the Great Nicobar Island is home to the
little-known tribe of Shompens. Displaying a stark resemblance to African
populations with some Mongoloid traits, they still cling to the life of
hunter-gatherers. Except occasional visits by researchers and government
officials, the enigmatic Shompens, who number just about 200, remain largely
immune to the influence of the outside world.

In an attempt to unravel their origins, a team of Indian scientists recently
studied their genetic material. It found that the Shompen "exhibit varying
levels of genetic relatedness with the Nicobarese, and Austro-Asiatic
speakers of mainland India and Southeast Asia", says Vijendra Kumar Kashyap,
who led the researchers from the National dna Analysis Centre in Kolkata,
Noida's National Institute of Biologicals and Port Blair's Andaman Adim
Janjati Vikas Samiti.

For the study, the scientists collected blood samples from 33 unrelated
Shompens and then extracted and isolated their dna. They specifically looked
for mutations in mt dna - dna of the mitochondrion, an organelle that
supplies energy to the cell and is inherited only from the mother. They also
examined dna segments on the y chromosome that can be passed only from a
father to a son. The findings were compared with data on related populations
of India, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

While analysis of mt dna reveals that the maternal lineage of Shompens is
closest to that of Indonesians, variations of dna segments on the y
chromosome reveal affinities to Austro-Asiatic people, and to Nicobarese and
Vietnamese, rather than to mainland Indian populations, says Kashyap. The
study appeared in the Journal of Human Genetics (Vol 51, No 3, March 2006).

Southern exit route The study will help understand how modern humans,
believed to have evolved in Africa, spread to other regions. "The Shompens
are an interesting people because they have morphological features akin to
many African tribals," says Partha Prathim Majumder of Kolkata's Indian
Statistical Institute. This makes the study relevant in the context of a
hypothesised southern exit route of modern humans from out of Africa. "If
anatomically modern humans had indeed used the southern exit route as they
moved to populate Australia, then the Andaman Islands and Southeast Asia
could have lain on their trail," wrote Majumder in a recent issue of the
Journal of Bioscience (Vol 30, No 3, June 2005).

A study led by Vincent Macaulay of University of Glasgow, Scotland, supports
the hypothesis. "Analysis of mt dna variation in isolated 'relict'
populations in southeast Asia supports the view that there was only a single
dispersal from Africa, most likely via a southern coastal route, through
India and onward into southeast Asia and Australasia," say Macaulay and his
colleagues in a paper published in Science (Vol 308, No 5724, May 13, 2005).
This probably happened during the last ice age 30,000-40,000 years ago when
sea levels dropped hundreds of metres and the shallow seas between Asia and
the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali became dry. This
probably paved the way for rapid human migration colonising Indonesian
islands and even Australia and Papua New Guinea. The Indian study supports
this explanation, since it has found that Shompens are genetically close to
Indonesians.

The study also shows that the Shompen and the Nicobarese probably derive
from the same founding population but split around 14,000 years ago, says
Kashyap. Support for a possible split comes from the analysis of the mt dna
isolated from the samples. The mt dna analysed contained only two distinct
genetic groups - b5a and r 12 - which showed very little genetic variation.
The low diversity in the Shompen and "the high diversity of these two groups
in the Nicobarese, indicates a founder effect in the Shompen," says Kashyap.
Founder effect is the loss of genetic variation when a new colony is formed
by a very small number of individuals from a larger population.

The r 12 group is also present in the Great Andamanese (who are Negritos)
but with a low frequency, ruling out their genetic contribution to the
Shompen analysed. Due to the founder effect again, Shompens may have lost
traces of genetic signatures directly linking them to their African
ancestors.
Story link

Copyright © 2002 Society for Environmental Communications


Down To Earth is a science and environment fortnightly published by the
Society for Environmental Communications, India. Subscribe to Down To Earth
to read some of the best articles on environment, sustainability and
development.

Click here for information on advertising opportunities with Down to Earth
online, or E-mail: advt@...

C/o Kalpavriksh
Apt. 5, Sri Dutta Krupa,
908 Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411004, India
Tel: 020 - 25654239
Web: www.kalpavriksh.org

This is an excellent page.
It prompted me to compose the letter that follows.
Alas, the address for the PM that is given on the blog seems to be
incorrect.
In any case, my letter bounced back.

Perhaps others of you would like to use this note as a template for your own
pleas.
Feel free:

I am writing out of grave alarm over the destruction of the Andaman Islands
that is masquerading as "development."  With this destruction comes a de
facto genocide of the Jarawa people.  This is not only morally inexcusable,
but if such conduct is permitted -- worse, encouraged -- by government, the
ultimate result will be destruction for all the inhabitants of the islands.
Indeed,the loss of these lands and people constitutes an immeasurable loss
for the entire world.

The Andaman jungles and the tribes who have lived there for thousands of
years contain a wealth of scientific and anthropological resources.  The
2004 tsunami survival records proved that such tribes have preserved vital
knowledge of nature that the "civilized" moderns long ago sacrificed to
supposed progress.  How else to explain why the "primitive" people knew the
tsunami was coming and got out of its way, while the "advanced" tourists and
villagers
were wiped out in their thousands? We destroy these lands and native people
at our own peril.

"Developers" are lured by short-term gains of money, but if we destroy the
earth beneath our feet and the air we breathe, what good is money? Logging
the Andaman jungles, building hotels along the coastline, introducing daily
planeloads of tourists, widening the Trunk road, bringing disease to people
who have no natural resistance -- these are all pieces of a puzzle that will
lead to doom unless checked right now.

I urge you to halt the genocide and save the natural treasure that is left
within the Andamans.

Sincerely,

-----Original Message-----
From: andamanicobar@...
[mailto:andamanicobar@...]On Behalf Of Madhusree Mukerjee
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 7:17 AM
To: andamanicobar@...
Subject: [andamanicobar] blog on Jarawa
Importance: High



I was sent this link for a blog on Jarawa by write2kill
http://www.write2kill.com/?p=3



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




Yahoo! Groups Links

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS
CG helpline number changed
Coast Guard always ready to help people in distress at sea
Port Blair, May 26
    The A&N Coast Guard Region has kept itself alive to all kind of situation
wherein any vessel or person is in distress at sea so as to respond to their
call in a quickest possible manner. The Coast Guard now has a new toll free
telephone number- 155211 in place of the earlier one i.e. 155204.
    The new telephone number '155211' installed at Maritime Rescue
Coordination Centre, Port Blair, is manned round the clock by Coast Guard.
The purpose of this telephone is to receive information directly from
fishermen and other agencies for search and rescue operation without any
delay. This direct telephone number will also help Indian Coast Guard for
launching search and rescue operation for saving life of fishermen at sea
while they are in distress.
    A communication from Dy. Commandant, Coast Guard, Shri V Krishna Kumar
said that if the fishermen are not returning back to harbour in scheduled
time or if they are over due as per their scheduled arrival, the family
members of fishermen can directly contact Maritime Rescue Coordination
Centre at Port Blair on telephone no. 155211. This number is also being
published in all prominent locations in Port Blair, and also at local
fishermen community areas like - Phoenix Bay, Junglighat, Wandoor and Dairy
Farm road.
    Apart from this, if local fishermen of Andaman and Nicobar Islands locate
any foreign poachers or illegal fishing in Indian waters, the fishermen can
go to the nearest telephone and pass the information to the Maritime Rescue
Co-ordination Centre Port Blair on telephone 155211. Maritime Rescue
Co-ordination Centre is situated in Indian Coat Guard Headquarter (A&N)
Buniyadabad, Port Blair.
    Any fishermen who are in distress at sea due to engine/ machinery failure
should help each other. If they are unable to do any thing they must
immediately leave the information on this telephone number to MRCC Port
Blair. Do not be hopeless while in distress, the communication added.

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS
Implementation of MSSRF action urged
Staff Reporter,
Port Blair, May 27
   The State BJP today impressed upon the govt. to adhere to the action plan
prepared by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation Institute (MSSRF),
Chennai for carrying out post-tsunami development in this island territory.
    Briefing presspersons at its office at Middle Point here, the party
President, Shri BP Ray, said the MSSRF action plan was prepared keeping in
view the challenges and island-wise response in the post-tsunami scenario in
these islands. According to him, even after lapse of several months since
the occurrence of this disaster, scores of tsunami affected people have not
received the benefit of the schemes meant for them. He announced party's
decision to organize a mass rally next month to protest against what he
called "improper way of implementation of a number of welfare schemes".
    among the other issues highlighted by Shri Ray include allowing
unemployed youth to manage and supply the mid-day meal in schools, removing
disparity for determining BPL beneficiaries between people of Andamans and
those of Nicobars, reintroducing scheme for referring of patients to Chennai
for treatment, checking price hike of commodities, restarting anchoring of
mainland bound ships at Mayabunder jetty, making available sawn timber and
sand, and introducing MSP scheme for procurement of rice and copra.

C

GoI agrees to Admn's proposal: Islands to have one more district, two
sub-divisions, two Tehsils
   The Daily Telegrams - May 26,2006


       The Govt. of India has agreed to the proposal of the A & N
Administration for bifurcation of the Andaman District and creation of
additional Sub-Divisions and Tehsils.
       The proposal envisages bifurcation of the Andaman District into two,
namely South Andaman and North and Middle Andaman with the headquarter of
the new district at Mayabunder.
       There will be two new Sub-Divisions, one at Diglipur and the other at
Great Nicobar.

       There will also be two new Tehsils, one at Little Andaman and the
other at Great Nicobar.

       Member of Parliament, Shri Manoranjan Bhakta today described the
creation of Mayabunder as the 3rd District in this islands territory as a
great achievement. Speaking to The Daily Telegrams on 26th May,2006, Shri
Manoranjan Bhakta said this action of the Govt. of India will have greater
impact in undertaking development activities in the A&N islands at a faster
pace.

       The MP was of the view that this will also be of immense benefit to
the people of North and Middle Andaman in performing their day to day
business more effectively. The MP also expressed his gratitude to the Prime
Minister of India, Home Minister, Lt. Governor, Chief Secretary and other
senior officers of the Administration for this achievement.





C/o Kalpavriksh
Apt. 5, Sri Dutta Krupa,
908 Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411004, India
Tel: 020 - 25654239
Web: www.kalpavriksh.org

I was sent this link for a blog on Jarawa by write2kill
http://www.write2kill.com/?p=3



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

THE BATTLE OF ABERDEEN IN RETROSPECT
The Light of Andamans
Issue 23, 27 May 2006


By O.N. Jaiswal*

The Memorial for the Battle of Aberdeen at Port Blair in Andaman and
Nicobar has this inscription: "This monument is built in the memory
of those Andamanese aborigines who bravely fought the Battle of
Aberdeen in May 1859 against the oppressive and retaliatory policy of
the British regime".
A brief episode in the annals of Andaman's history has come to
immortalize a decisive battle fought against the British by an
ancient tribe of India, the Andamanese; a race of near-naked
aborigines that has existed in the archipelago for centuries.
This colonial chapter in the history of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
also records the enigma of Dudhnath Tewari which continues to be
intriguing till today, even after a century and a half of his
incarceration in the erstwhile `Kalapani' or the dreaded penal
settlement of the Andamans.
Dudhnath, the convict number 286 of Cellular Jail, was deported to
Port Blair on September 27, 1857 on charges of mutiny and desertion
during the First War of Indian Independence while he served as a
sepoy with the 14th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry at Jhelum in
Punjab. It was, however, his life in captivity in the Andamans in
later years which made him a subject of debates. Whether he is to be
condemned or glorified for his deeds remains undecided till now.
On April 06, 1858 Dudhnath, along with 90 other fellow prisoners,
escaped from the British prison at Ross Island with hopes of crossing
over to the neighbouring Burma. The short-lived freedom of the
escapees, however, very soon gave way to sheer desperation as nothing
but endless sea and the hostile wilderness of the scattered islands
trapped them, slowly claiming their lives one after another. At that
time the tribal lands of Andaman were the home of the fearsome
Andamanese, a primitive Negrito tribe that killed at sight any
stranger intruding into their territory. Dudhnath and his mates were
attacked on several occasions by the tribals. Each ambush claimed
more lives till one fateful day he was shot with poisonous arrows and
laid at the mercy of his attackers. A sheer twist of fate, a rather
queer happening, saw the tribals spare his life for reasons not even
known to Dudhnath himself. He was nursed and looked after by the
tribals till he regained his health.
Having fled the jail and the prospects of finding a way back to his
homeland bleak, Dudhnath took the company of the Andamanese as his
fait accompli. He almost became one of them – hunting, fishing and
participating in their daily rituals. The Andamanese also took him to
be one of their own. So much so that they made Dudhnath marry two
Andamanese girls -Leepa and Jigah. Jigah was to bear his child later.
Destiny played its pranks. According to Dudhnath's statement recorded
by the then Superintendent of the Cellular Jail, Dr. J.P. Walker, it
was the summer of 1859, exactly one year and twenty-four days of his
stay with the Andamanese, when he saw some unusual activities in the
tribal camp. He was more intrigued when he heard the Andamanese
planning an attack on the convict station of Aberdeen at Port Blair
and to follow it up with the massacre of everyone in the adjoining
islands. The Andamanese warriors were assembling from across the
islands. `Horrified to the hilt', as Dudhnath described his own
state, and concerned about the lives of fellow countrymen living in
Port Blair who were sure to be killed in the attack, he deserted the
aborigines and came to Port Blair to forewarn his former captors-the
British-about the impending danger.
On the fateful day i.e., May 17, 1859 the tribals attacked as
planned. Their armies faced the pre-alerted British at Aberdeen. The
tribal bows and arrows were hardly a match for the fire power of the
forewarned British garrisons. The Andamanese were slaughtered in
thousands and their attack repulsed. In fact, the loss of lives was
so huge that a considerable part of the Andamanese race was wiped out
in one single day in the Battle of Aberdeen. The tribals retreated,
never to battle again. Portman, the British PRO with the aborigines,
later wrote in his report "I have heard accounts of it from Lt.
Warden; a British officer who took part in the battle. It was the
most desperate and determined attack ever made on the British
settlement. The intention of the aborigines was to exterminate us".
The battle of Aberdeen resulted into the consolidation of colonial
power in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago and the premature march
to extinction of the Andamanese of whom a mere 36 live a protected
life in the tribal settlement at Strait Island, about a hundred
kilometres north of Port Blair. As for Dudhnath, according to later
accounts, he was kept in British captivity for some time after the
battle and was subsequently pardoned by the British. He left the
islands for his native village in North India forever.
* AIO, PIB, Port Blair

MAP News, 170th Ed., 2 of 2Edited--MM

MAP NEWS, 170oth Edition, Part 2 of 2


S. ASIA

India
URGENT CALL FOR ACTION-Threat In Andaman and Nicobar Islands
***ACTION ALERT!!!***

Bangladesh
Before the flood
New Publication Released--Unraveling KJDRP
ADB Financed Project


OCEANIA

Australia
Australian farm manages to domesticate black tiger prawn production


LATIN AMERICA

Brazil
Joao Alfredo releases publication at Fisheies and Aquaculture Conference
15 March 2006
GIANT SHRIMP FARMING PROJECT THREATENS BRAZIL'S PRECIOUS MARINE BIODIVERSITY
URGENT ACTION TO STOP GIANT SHRIMP FARM Northeast Bank (BNB) resumes financing
of shrimp farming in the Northeast of Brazil
The Extractive Reserve of  "The Islands of Sirinhaém"

Ecuador
Aqua Bounty launches lead shrimp product in Ecuador

Colombia
Colombian Biologist Claims World's Largest Shrimp: Almost 16 Inches

Belize
Proposed Oil Exploration Threatens Biodiversity and Indigenous
***ACTION ALERT!!!***


THE CARIBBEAN

Cuba
Vietnam, Cuba to cooperate on aquaculture
Aquaculture in Cuba, A Proponent's Perspective

The Bahamas
Ecological effects of the Extensive Bimini Bay Resort Development on the
Mangrove and Seagrass ecosystems of Bimini (Bahamas) Lagoon with Special
Reference to the Juvenile Lemon shark

NORTH AMERICA

USA
High-tech Florida aquafarm riding on American fondness for shrimp and organic
food
SSA cuts deal on antidumping duties with Ecuadorian shrimp firm

STORIES/ISSUES
Double forest area under local control, group says
Migrating Birds Didn't Carry Flu

ANNOUNCEMENTS
FAO publishes multilingual glossary of aquaculture

AQUACULTURE CORNER
Global Shrimp Group Would Coordinate Production
Illegal salmon farm in Chilean Patagonia shut down, fishers celebrate




============================================

S. ASIA

India

URGENT CALL FOR ACTION-Threat In Andman and Nicobar Islands


This is an urgent call for anyone and everyone who cares enough to emit a
piercing scream, of rage or despair, as you choose, to protest the decimation of
the Jarawa.

Some of you may be aware of the rapidly deteriorating situation of the Jarawa of
the Andaman Islands. We are told that they number around 300. A new epidemic of
measles has struck them, with children who were born after the last epidemic in
1999 being affected.  This could not have come about if the Directorate of
Medical Services in the islands had done what it had assured the public it was
doing: regularly vaccinating the Jarawa against lethal infections to which they
have no immunity. During court-ordered forums in 2004 the Medical Services
directorate argued vehemently for the right to intervene in this manner, and won
it.  Their "measured intervention" has resulted in this current epidemic.

In truth, this latest crisis is only one of a series of alarming events that
have been exposed over the past months.  Other news includes the recent killings
of Jarawa children by crocodiles. And a group of Jarawa children, apparently all
orphaned by recent and unreported epidemics in the forest, have formed their own
band that lives near settled areas. Unable to forage or hunt effectively, their
only means of livelihood is through barter of valuable forest products with the
settlers. They have no food security; moreover, constant interaction with
outsiders makes them vulnerable to new infections. This development shows that
the desperate situation that we have been warning the administration about for
several years is at hand.

Ever since the Jarawa laid down their arms in 1998, their forest has become
overrun with poachers, some of whom provide food or alcohol to the Jarawa in
lieu of permission to poach. Instead of protecting the reserve and its resources
against such poachers, or the Jarawa against such harmful contact, the
administration punishes the Jarawa when they retaliate. For instance, shortly
after the December 2004 tsunami, unknown miscreants stole a Jarawa band's
entire, invaluable, store of honey, in response to which the group attacked an
illegal settler village. The authorities forcibly removed the Jarawa from the
location.

Significantly, those bands of Jarawa who have been affected by the measles
epidemic live close to or alongside the Andaman Trunk Road, which, even as we
speak, is being widened-in flagrant violation of the 2002 Supreme Court Order to
close the road.  For those of us who have been following events in the islands
closely, it seems no mere coincidence that the happenings there so closely
parallel the vision outlined by longstanding politician Manoranjan Bhakta. He
has called for the Andaman Trunk Road to be widened instead of closed, and has
also repeatedly stated his wish to see the Jarawa settled and placed on dole.

If the Jarawa no longer live in the forest, its invaluable resources can be used
by other actors such as timber contractors, builders in need of sand, tourism
operators in need of coral reefs, and so on and on. The Jarawa live in the last
pristine stretch of Great Evergreen Rainforest on the Andaman Islands, and they
do so precisely because they have defended it with their lives. With the Jarawa
gone, the forests and reefs will be immediately up for grabs. (With the forests
gone, the Andaman Islands will also become unliveable for lack of water, and
tens of thousands of people will need to be repatriated to the mainland. But the
administration seems not to worry about such things.)

So far, the Jarawa presence has stalled development plans for the islands in the
forests of Middle and South Andaman. The Jarawa are succumbing very fast,
however, to the many-sided onslaught. We can only conclude that the multiple
failures of the Andaman administration-to close the Andaman Trunk Road, to
protect the Jarawa forest from invasion, and to protect the health of the
Jarawa-are acts of deliberate and calculated negligence with a view to
decimating the remaining Jarawa population.

After having thrived for upward of 60,000 years on these islands, the Jarawa are
now on their way out. To kill them off it was not necessary to line them up and
shoot them. One only had to establish contact, and then just wait for disease
and deprivation to take their toll. This course of action the Andaman
administration has consistently followed. In our view, it amounts to genocide.

All these years we have tried to address the problem through the regular
channels. We have been exhilarated by court orders, and astounded when they
weren't implemented. We have gate-crashed seminars and written petitions to make
ourselves heard. All along we have received seemingly earnest assurances that
the needful would be done. We don't believe them any more. This is, for us, a
last scream. We want to register our anguish that this genocide is happening
before our very eyes, and in full view of the world.

Please join us. Send protest letters to the addresses below. Pass this note on
to friends. If you are a journalist, write about the Jarawa. If you belong to an
activist group, please get it involved. Let the Jarawa at least be mourned.

Dr. Madhusree Mukerjee   and   Dr. Sita Venkateswar

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
-----------------------

***ACTION ALERT!!!***
Shot Sample Letter:

Dear Mrs. Gandhi,
I am profoundly concerned about the desperate situation of the Jarawa of the
Andaman Islands. I am astonished to see how India, a nation with a proud record
of democracy, treats its most vulnerable peoples. Moreover, the flagrant
violation of Supreme Court orders reflects very poorly on the nation's
administration, and indicates that expediency, rather than ideals of justice,
tend to determine the course of events.
Please prove me wrong, and do what it takes to save the Jarawa.
Yours Sincerely,



Please send snail mail letters to:

Ms. Sonia Gandhi                                               Dr. Manmohan
Singh
10, Janpath                                                          Prime
Minister's Office
New Delhi - 110 011                                          South Block
India                                                                    Raisina
Hill
                                                                             New
Delhi 110 001
                                                                            
India


Please don't send letters to our personal emails. Thank you for lending your
voice.

Bangladesh

Note: The following is excerpted from a longer article:

Before the flood

Global warming is threatening Bangladesh's coast. But the area's tens of
millions of residents don't want to move.

By Emilie Raguso and Sandhya Somashekhar

Apr. 21, 2006 | In a wide clearing fringed with banana fronds, dusk brings the
buzz of a thousand mosquitoes. Nearby, a generator's rumble splits the cool air.
Eight musicians settle onto a brick stage in the village center, bringing with
them the tapping of a dhol drum, the wheeze and drone of a harmonium, the
shuffling of sandaled feet. The darkened platform bursts with light as a young
woman begins to sing, drawing the villagers from their clay huts. Bundled in
scarves and shawls, they press close as the drama begins.

There are no movie theaters in this remote village in southwestern Bangladesh,
not far from the Indian border, and few families own a television. So theater,
popular across South Asia, is a favorite entertainment. But the catchy tunes and
high drama of this particular show, called "Environmental Thinking: Where Will
We Go?" announce a grave warning. In the play, a community struggles to
withstand floods, storms and saltwater intrusion caused by global warming -- a
scenario that is unfolding, slowly, in this very village.

"If the flood comes, what will happen to us? There will be a shortage of
drinking water. We'll suffer from ailment and disease," the opening song goes.
"In starvation and malnutrition, all people will die. Ducks, chickens, cows and
goats, none will exist anymore."

Beneath a canopy supported by bamboo poles, cast members speak into microphones
hung with twine. They use wide sashes dyed marigold, red, turquoise or green to
create scenes of boats and benches, tea stalls and carnivals.

Mohon Kumar Mondal watches from the front row, his broad face illuminated by the
glow of the stage. Dressed in jeans and a gray sweater zipped to his chin, his
Western clothes belie his roots, which are firmly planted in this verdant region
a few miles inland from the Bay of Bengal. The cast members onstage, he says in
his native Bengali, are not simply actors. They are fighters in a war against
climate change. Their play is part of a regional education effort to alert
southwestern Bangladeshis about how changing climate affects their lives. But,
he fears, "the war will end before we can win."

He is most concerned about the residents of coastal communities. "In my case,
since I am quite educated, I can go to Dhaka [the country's capital, roughly 130
miles inland] and live quite happily," he says. "But what will happen to my
neighbors and relatives who are really uneducated, who don't even know what
climate is, what weather is, not even what is going on in the outside world? For
them the disaster will be unexpected, so they are going to die."

It is a despondent moment for Mondal, 29, who usually conveys a dogged optimism.
As the head of a local environmental organization called Working for Coastal
People, he spends much of his time trying to persuade people to stick by their
ancestral homes. But as the planet warms at an alarming speed, optimism is
becoming harder to muster. This is especially true with respect to Bangladesh --
a poor country the size of Wisconsin, bursting with a population nearly half
that of the United States. On top of rampant illiteracy, poverty and disease,
the country suffers year after year from devastating natural disasters.

Now they're also suffering from the effects of climate change. Experts say
warmer global temperatures will increase the intensity of cyclones that form
over the Bay of Bengal, sending more violent storm surges crashing into the
coast. The saltwater front will crawl further inland, rendering farmland
unusable and polluting much of the country's drinking water. The Sundarbans
National Forest, a wild swath of mangroves that plays an important role in the
nation's ecology, could be wiped out. Most alarmingly, as much as 18 percent of
the land could slip into the bay in the next 100 years because of rising sea
level, according to the World Bank. That would displace as many as 30 million
peopleS.

SThose with even a basic understanding of climate change note with bitterness
that this problem was largely caused by the gas-spewing West -- Bangladesh emits
less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 24 percent
for the United States -- but they are the ones who will pay the priceS.

SSouthwestern Bangladesh is densely forested, etched into islands and peninsulas
by the nine rivers that pass through it en route to the Bay of Bengal. It is
home to about 15 million people, both Hindu and Muslim, most of whom survive by
growing jute, rice and other crops, or by working in one of Bangladesh's
<http://www.usaid.gov/bd/files/gendered_analysis_shrimp.pdf>approximately 37,000
shrimp farms. In the Sundarbans, man-eating royal Bengal tigers stalk through
thick mangroves, and herds of delicate spotted deer cross paths with crocodiles
and nomadic fishermen. At times, the smell of molasses smoke drifts across the
area's sugarcane fields and tickles the nostrils.

S"A global sea level rise of about half a meter -- the average expected over
this century -- could cause an area of Bangladesh where about 10 million people
now live to be permanently submerged. If even a modest chunk of the Greenland
ice sheet or the west Antarctic ice sheet goes, the sea level would rise past
the capital of Dhaka -- which is in the center of the country -- and untold tens
of millions of people live between Dhaka and the sea right now."

But Jasuna says that, for her, migration is not an option.

"I'm committed that I will not leave this area. I love Bangladesh and I
especially love Shyamnagar. No matter what happens with the climate, if life is
in my body, if I haven't died -- even if the roads are covered with water, and
the houses are covered with water -- I will never leave. I would rather die
here."

<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/21/bangladesh/print.html>http://www.s\
alon.com/news/feature/2006/04/21/bangladesh/print.html

"Elaine Corets" manglar@...

=============================================================

New Publication Released--Unraveling KJDRP
ADB Financed Project of Mass Destruction in
Southwest Coastal Region of Bangladesh

Author

Shahidul Islam & Zakir Kibria

Published by

Uttaran
Tala, Satkhira, Bangladesh

For more ionformation

E-mail: uttaran@...

Description of Content

This booklet is a preliminary attempt to document and analyze the infamous
Khulna-Jessore Drainange Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP) implemented by Asian
Development Bank (ADB) in southwest coastal region of Bangladesh.  ADB
implemented $ 62 million KJDRP project (1995-2004) with a stated objective to
solve river drainage and waterlogging problem in the region.  Local communities
were skeptical about the project design and approaches. They mounted a massive
movement against the project and suggested alternative ecologically sound and
economically viable approaches/concept. The leading personalities of the
movement had to survive the violence of law and police brutality. The popular
concept suggested by local communities was based on indigenous water management
practices developed over generations. The concept later entered into the lexicon
of water "experts" as Tidal River Management (TRM). Local communities demanded
environmental and social impact assessment (EIA and SIA). The EIA report
recomended the peoples concept of TRM and commented that it is cost effective,
environmentally sound, and acceptable to local communities. However, TRM was not
implemented according to peoples suggestions and the project authorities
remained faithfull to their construction-happy engineering solutions. The failed
project has now left a legacy of environmental destruction exemplified by silted
up dead rivers, permanent waterlogging of thousands of hectares of land and loss
of biodiversity (indigenous variety of fish and crops). Morever, the land
acquiored for TRM was not compensated.

From: BanglaPraxis <banglapraxis@...>

=======================================================

OCEANIA

Australia

Australian farm manages to domesticate black tiger prawn production
[2006-05-12]

Before the breakthrough, farmers used wild stock to produce these prawns.
However, results have not been ideal, prompting various companies to hunt for
solutions to the problem.

Black tiger prawn is one of the most popular seafood in Australia.

Aquaculture's marine biologist Brian Murphy said the farm had been researching
ways to fully control the production process.

The farm has just completed a 50-tonne harvest of black tigers that were the
third generation to be bred in the hatchery from the original stock. A small
proportion was kept to breed the fourth generation.

Experts have said the quality of the prawns was as good as, if not better than
those caught in the wild, according to Murphy.

The successful harvest meant the breeding cycle of the black tiger prawn can now
be controlled, and the best breeds can be chosen to improve product quality and
production efficiency, he said. The completion last week of the commercial
harvesting of the black tigers helped the farm to a record production of 320
tonnes.

The production amounted to 11.8 tonnes a hectare, smashing the Australian record
of 10 tonnes a hectare which had been set by the same farm.

Source: <http://www.efeedlink.com/>eFeedLink - 12th May 2006
<http://www.panoramaacuicola.com/noticia.php?art_clave=2599>http://www.panoramaa\
cuicola.com/noticia.php?art_clave=2599

From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>


============================================

LATIN AMERICA

Brazil

Joao Alfredo releases publication at Fisheies and Aquaculture Conference
15 March 2006


Tomorrow, the last day of the 2nd National Conference on Aquaculture and
Fisheries, Joao Alfredo will release Threatened Mangroves:  Social and
Environmental Impacts of Farm-Raised Shrimp, which summarizes a report by the
House of Representatives Working Group on Shrimp Aquaculture, of which he was
the rapporteur.  The release will take place at 9:00 am at the headquarters of
the National Conferdation of Industrial Workers (Confederaçăo Nacional dos
Trabalhadores na Indústria-CNTI), in Luziania, a city in the state of Goias
where the conference is taking place.

Organized by the President's Special Secretary of Aquaculture and Fisheries
(Secretaria Especial de Aqüicultura e Pesca - SEAP), the event will bring
together more than a thousand fishermen, business representatives, and other
specialists from the fishing sector from all over Brazil to discuss the
challenges, constraints, potential, and investments needed for fisheries and
aquaculture in the next three years.

Created in April 2003, the Working Group on Shrimp Aquaculture concluded its
work in June 2005 with the unanimous approval of Joao Alfredo's report.  The
work filled in the gaps left by a more in-depth study about this activity, whose
rapid growth has become associated with the destruction of one of the most
complex ecosystems on the planet, the mangroves, as well as with affecting
riparian and carnauba palm forests and causing cumulative damage to the
hydrographic basin where shrimp farming takes place.

With respect to the environment, shrimp aqauculture threatens the source of
survival and culture for millions of people who live in traditional mangrove
regions: fishermen, shellfish collectors, indigenous people, and small farmers,
oftentimes victims of violence, expulsion, and exploitation by companies that
commonly seize public land from the people.

The Working Group carried out technical inspections of more than 50 shrimp farms
and held 9 public hearings with representatives of the communities affected in
the 5 states they visited, including Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, Piauí and Rio Grande
do Norte.  Joao Alfredo's report presents more than 30 legal and administrative
recommendations for control and regulation of this activity.  Among other
things, he proposes suspending public financing for companies that do not follow
environmental and labor laws and putting conditions - such as planning,
designing programs, and defining cumulative impacts - on new licenses and
financing.

He also put forth changing the legislation of the National Council for the
Environment (Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente-CONAMA) to expressly define
areas for preservation including the mangrove ecosystem itself, as well as
additional areas such as channels occupied by mangroves, areas considered
"apicum," salt water-influenced areas, canal networks, sandy banks, and dunes.

Threatened Mangroves was published by Senate Graphics (Gráfica do Senado) and
includes accounts from specialists, non-governmental organizations, and
community members from the areas affected by shrimp farms.

Translated by Frana Milan

From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>

==========================================================

GIANT SHRIMP FARMING PROJECT THREATENS BRAZIL'S PRECIOUS MARINE BIODIVERSITY


Salvador, 28 April 2006 -  Bahia's State Environment Council is voting today
(Although important decisions might be taken in the Council meeting, as far as
we know, it wont't be voted today anymore. Bahia's State Environment Council is
now announcing that the question will be discussed only.) on whether to issue an
environmental licence permitting what would be the biggest shrimp farm
development in Brazil.  Recognised as being of immense environmental importance,
much of the area in question should be protected as a Permanent Preservation
Area, as recognised in Brazilian law.  Yet, if a licence for development is
given, 800 hectares (equivalent to 800 football pitches) of precious coastal
habitat will be deforested.  The most biologically diverse coral reefs in the
entire southern Atlantic Ocean would also be put at risk.

As consumption levels of tropical shrimp, a favoured delicacy in Western
markets, have increased massively over recent decades, shrimp farming has taken
off as a means to reap profits from global demand.  Brazil has experienced rapid
and unprecedented growth in the industry, with more than 70% of its shrimp being
exported, mainly to Europe.  Yet the environmental and social costs have
frequently been disregarded, and this current proposed development is another
example of short-term profits taking precedence over long-term sustainability. 
This is ironic considering President Lula's recent speech at the ministerial
meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, where he declared it
unacceptable for the poorest countries in the world to bear the brunt of
environmental degradation caused by unsustainable consumption of resources by
the developed world.

The Abrolhos region, centred around the coastal town of Caravelas in the far
south of Bahia, northeast Brazil, is home to mangrove forests and restinga (a
uniquely Brazilian ecosystem of sparsely vegetated sand ridges) and a complex of
small islands, coral and algal reefs. Despite the location in one of the world's
biodiversity hotspots, 1,517 hectares of mangrove and restinga have been
acquired by a shrimp farmers cooperative: COOPEX (Cooperativa de Criadores de
Camarăo do Extremo Sul da Bahia), which includes European, namely, Portuguese
business interests.  An environmental impact assessment carried out on behalf of
the cooperative was found to be weak and deficient, raising real fears about the
environmental and social impacts that the project would create.

Recognised by Brazil's Ministry of Environment as being of Extreme Biological
Importance, the area holds not only conservation significance, but its natural
resources directly support more than 300 families who survive through shellfish
collecting, farming and fishing.  In the region as a whole, 20,000 people are
involved in artisanal fishing, an activity dependent on the environmental
quality of local estuaries. "The ecosystems of Abrolhos are fragile, and
directly depend on the health and integrity of the mangroves existing between
the municipalities of Caravelas and Nova Viçosa.  A development of this scale,
daily utilising 880,000 m3 of clean water, replete with fish and shellfish
larvae, whilst returning water loaded with organic material and chemical
products, will invoke a negative impact on the surrounding environment" affirmed
the biologist Guilherme Dutra, of Conservation International's Marine Programme
(CI-Brazil).

  "The experiences with shrimp farming in other regions of Brazil have revealed
that the activity is not sustainable from social and environmental points of
view," asserts Soraya Vanini of Instituto Terramar, an NGO based in the state of
Ceará where rapid shrimp farming expansion has occurred.  Shrimp farm
developments elsewhere have invoked hugely damaging environmental consequences,
such as habitat destruction and water contamination; as well as hardship for
some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the country, with fisherfolk
being expelled from their lands and access to traditional fishing grounds being
prohibited.

This has led environmentalists, researchers and others to mobilize to prevent
the proposed development in Bahia. The NGO alliance "Coalition SOS Abrolhos: 
Threatened Fisherfolk and Mangroves" ("Coalizăo SOS Abrolhos: Pescadores e
Manguezais Ameaçados") is calling for a prohibition to what would be an
environmentally and socially damaging decision if the licence is given.

Images and Reports available on request.

From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>

===========================================================


Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:47:25 -0700

Colombian Biologist Claims World's Largest Shrimp: Almost 16 Inches

Cartagena, Colombia (2006-04-17 19:28:14 EST) Colombian biologist Edilberto
Flechas has bought what he claims to be the largest shrimp ever seen. He bought
the massive shrimp from a fisherman for the equivalent of $800.

"This is the biggest species ever known here or even in literature," said
Flechas. "The size of this shrimp exceeds the average size. The average length
is 21 centimeters and this one is 40 centimeters."

The Black Tiger shrimp is farmed everywhere in Asia, particularly in Thailand.
It is not clear how this specimen ended up in Colombian waters.

The Black Tiger dominates the global shrimp market at 56% of the total world
shrimp production.

Other main sources of global supply are Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh
and Vietnam.

Flechas is worried about the implications of the foreign shrimp's invasion of
Colombian waters.

"The big difference, which could also be harmful for us, is that this species is
a predator and it could end native species," he said.

Although Flechas received a lot of tempting purchase offers for his shrimp, he
chose to keep it for further study.
From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>


============================================================

Belize

Proposed Oil Exploration Threatens Biodiversity and Indigenous

Livelihoods in 41,000 Acre Park


<http://www.emailbrain.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1146510947000&SiteID=5076&SID=1&Em\
ailID=4921424&Link=https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4930>

Please help  the communities in southern Belize take action on the oil
exploration issue. Your support will allow them to  continue protecting the
fragile Sarstoon Temash National Park and the livelihoods that depend on it!

Add your name to our online petition by
<http://www.emailbrain.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1146510947000&SiteID=5076&SID=1&Em\
ailID=4921424&Link=http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/838598250.>clicking
here.

SATIIM needs your support to develop a grassroots advocacy campaign to build
coalitions and raise awareness about this issue, which includes informing remote
communities about the potential impact of seismic testing and oil extraction on
their traditional homelands.

EcoLogic will direct all funds raised online designated "2006 Belize Campaign"
to our partner SATIIM and their efforts to fight oil exploration in the national
park they manage.


Cambridge, MA (May 1, 2006) -- The Texas-based USCapital Energy, Inc. is poised
to begin seismic testing in the Sarstoon Temash National Park and indigenous
traditional lands in southern Belize. Oil exploration could significantly change
the ecological character of the fragile wetlands in the 41,000 acre national
park and negatively affect the livelihoods of the indigenous Maya and Garifuna
peoples living in the area. In response, on behalf of our Belizean partner NGO,
we are writing to ask you to pressure the Belizean government to exclude the
national park and surrounding community lands from all seismic testing and
subsequent oil drilling.

Oil exploration in the national park may be a violation of Belize's
international treaty obligations under the Ramsar convention and the Convention
on Biological Diversity. An environmental impact assessment, although required
by Belizean law, has not been prepared.

Oil exploration in the park also constitutes an incursion into indigenous
traditional lands, violating the rights of the Maya and Garifuna communities, as
outlined by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. In addition, the
government of Belize has signed a co-management agreement with our local partner
the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM), which states
that prior consent must be obtained from SATIIM and the park communities they
represent before permits are granted for activities in the park. That consent
has neither been sought nor granted.

Sarstoon Temash National Park was established by the government of Belize in
1994. It encompasses 14 eco-system types and includes 10 miles of coastline
along Amatique Bay in the Gulf of Honduras. The park is home to 226 species of
birds, 24 species of mammals, 22 species of reptiles, including the endangered
crocodile, 42 species of fish and 46 species of butterflies. The park contains
the only comfra palm forest in Belize, the only known lowland sphagnum moss bog
in Central America, and the best example of undisturbed red mangrove forest in
the region. It also serves as an important wildlife corridor from other Belizean
protected areas to Guatemala, protects the Belize Barrier Reef system, and is of
high economic, cultural, and spiritual importance to the indigenous Maya and
Garifuna communities living around it.

***ACTION ALERT!!!***
What You Can Do:

Sign our online petition available by
<http://www.emailbrain.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1146510947000&SiteID=5076&SID=1&Em\
ailID=4921424&Link=http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/838598250.>clicking
here. We would like to collect 1,000 signatures as soon as possible! We will
forward your signature to the authorities mentioned below.
Or,
<http://www.emailbrain.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1146510947000&SiteID=5076&SID=1&Em\
ailID=4921424&Link=http://www.emailbrain.com/rwcode/content.asp?SiteID=5076&Sect\
ion=28951>click here to cut and paste the text of the draft letter SATIIM has
prepared and email it directly to Honorable John Briceno, Minister of Natural
Resources, Local Government and the Environment in Belize at
<mailto:minister@...>minister@... , with copies to Brian E.
Richter, President, U.S. Capital Energy at
<mailto:brichter@...>brichter@...; Wilbur
Sabido, Chief Forest Officer of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Forest
Department at <mailto:cfo@...>cfo@... ; Andre Cho, Inspector
of Petroleum, Geology and Petroleum Department at
<mailto:geology@...>geology@...; and Margarita Astralaga,
Ramsar Secretariat at
<mailto:astralaga@...><mailto:astralaga@....>astralaga@....
Please also copy <mailto:info@...>info@... and/or
<mailto:satiim@...>satiim@...  so we can track the number of petitions
sent.
Send this urgent call for action to your environmental and social justice
networks.
Learn more about the Sarstoon Temash National Park, the Sarstoon Temash
Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM), and oil exploration in southern
Belize by visiting
<http://www.emailbrain.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1146510947000&SiteID=5076&SID=1&Em\
ailID=4921424&Link=http://www.satiim.org.bz/>www.satiim.org.bz.

"Shaun Paul" <bvallarino@...>

==========================================

THE CARIBBEAN

Cuba

Note: The following article describes a very large potential threat to all the
mangroves of Cuba from shrimp farming. Vietnam's form of aquaculture and
mangrove protection, if applied in Cuba, could be devastating. R. R. Lewis III

Vietnam, Cuba to cooperate on aquaculture

IntraFish Media

Vietnam will help Cuba improve its shrimp-growing capabilities as part of an
agreement signed last week by the twqo nations.

The memorandum of understandig to boost cooperation in the fisheries sector was
signed April 20 in Havana, Cuba, by Vietnam's Minister of Fisheries, Ta Quang
Ngoc, and his Cuban counterpart, Alfredo Lopez, the Vietnam Assciation for
Seafood Export and Processing (VASEP) reported.

Vietnam will provide expertise in breeding shrimp for exports to Cuba and supply
Cuba with fish seeds. The two countries will conduct training courses, exchange
information and facilitate trade, and to expand their agreement into other areas
of aquaculture.

Copyright 2005 Intra Fish Media

From: LESrrl3@...

=========================================================

Aquaculture in Cuba, A Proponent's Perspective

Before 60´s aquaculture in Cuba was unknown and of course unexploited. The
construction of hundreds of reservoirs of different sizes since 1963 in order to
develop agriculture as well as to control the seasonal flood associated to
hurricanes, give the opportunity to develop the aquaculture too. With this
porporse, fish farms were constructed for producing "seeds" to be distributed in
the recently constructed reservoirs.
Nowadays, fish production from aquaculture is about 100,000 tons, corresponding
to the large part to those obtained from extensive methods which imply an
harmony with the environment from the eutrophication point of view; the rest is
obtained by semi-intensive methods. The intensive method is too expensive and
has very high environment cost and it is not used.
In the 80´s shrimp aquaculture started developing. However, only 3 shrimp farms
were constructed in the country. One of them is in Camagüey, the province where
I live and work. This farm was constructed behind the mangrove on little
productive and salty soils. Pools are filled by pumping sea water. Perhaps, the
highest negative impact is associated with the transportation of sea water to
the land ecosystem but not with the destruction of mangrove.
Nevertheless, many actions were developed from the beginning to minimize the
negative impacts.
I hope this little information let you have a clear vision of how we have
developed aquaculture with minimum environment cost.
On the other hand, our country has also developed coastal investment with
tourist propose, mainly in beaches which usually are located in zones that
belong to the sandy dune- sublittoral lagoon system and are surrounded by
mangrove. However, it is common to see tourist resorts surrounded by mangroves
in the "back yard".

==========================================================

The Bahamas

Ecological effects of the Extensive Bimini Bay Resort Development on the
Mangrove and Seagrass ecosystems of Bimini (Bahamas) Lagoon with Special
Reference to the Juvenile Lemon shark

summary

A brief history of the Bimini Bay resort development is given along with its
present status.  The record of similar resort developments along with our
research findings suggest that if carried to completion the anthropogenic damage
to lagoonal ecosystem at Bimini (which supports the only extensive mangrove
forests on the western edge of the Great Bahamas Bank) will have lasting impact
not only locally but on reefs far afield due to the nursery function of these
ecosystems.  This function includes the production of commercial species of
conch, lobster, finfish as well as sport fishes such as bonefish, permit and
others which comprises much of the reef assemblage.

Bimini's shallow, mangrove-fringed seagrass beds provide ideal nurseries for
many marine species including young lemon sharks our top predator model species.
Using the so-called BACI analysis (Before After Control Impact), effects of the
Bimini Bay development were investigated by studying three aspects of lemon
shark biology; a comparison growth rates of juvenile lemon sharks in the North
Sound and  Sharkland nurseries (impacted) with South Bimini (control) nursery; a
comparison of first-year survival rates between 1995-2005 of neonate lemon
sharks in the North Sound and Sharkland; and a comparison of habitat damage and
changes in the North Sound and South Bimini between 2003 and 2005. BACI analysis
identified significant trends between growth rates of sharks before and after
the major dredging event of March 2001. In addition there was a highly
significant difference between first-year survival rates of both North Sound and
Sharkland neonates before and after March 2001. Finally significant changes were
also identified between 2003

From: "S. Gruber" <sharkdoc@...>

=============================================

NORTH AMERICA

USA

High-tech Florida aquafarm riding on American fondness for shrimp and organic
food
By SUSAN SALISBURY

More than 60 miles from any salty seas, a high-tech Florida shrimp farm is
busily growing crustaceans. Technology and years of scientific experimentation
have made production of Pacific white shrimp possible in the low-salinity
artesian spring water pumped from 1,000 feet below ground at OceanBoy Farms west
of Clewiston. That's enabling company President Steve Walton to ride the wave of
two trends: a growing American fondness for shrimp and a burgeoning market for
organic foods.

In 2001, OceanBoy, which produces, processes and sells its shrimp with the tag
line ''from birth to box,'' sold its first crop of approximately 100,000 pounds
to Publix. Last year, production grew to 1 million pounds. This year Walton
projects at least 2 million pounds of sweet Pacific white shrimp tails.

America's most-consumed seafood is shrimp, at 1.2 billion pounds a year. At the
same time, the organic foods category is growing by 20 percent a year. Take
those trends and couple them with consumer concerns about the purity of imported
shrimp and OceanBoy Farms, the only commercially viable U.S. producer of organic
shrimp, is in a favorable position to sell its product

For years, Florida shrimp farms, as well as shrimp fishermen, have had
difficulty competing with low-cost foreign imports. In 2003, there were 10
shrimp farms in the state, and seven of them produced a combined crop valued at
$5 million. Now there are five farms; more recent production data is being
collected and won't be available until later this year, said Sherman Wilhelm,
who directs the Florida Department of Agriculture's Aquaculture Division.

Most of the shrimp consumed in the United States, about 88 percent, are
imported, with the rest supplied domestically, either wild-caught or
farm-raised, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. On the
wild-caught side, the U.S. produced 317 million pounds of shrimp valued at
$445.9 million in 2004, with Florida's share at 29.4 million pounds worth $51
million.

Close to 90 percent of shrimp consumed in the U.S. comes from overseas,
primarily China, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Ecuador, according to
the U.S. Commerce Department. Most of that is grown in coastal shrimp farms,
with about 40 percent caught wild.

Source:
<http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/special_packages/business_monday/\
14292537.htm>The Palm Beach Post

From: icsf@...




Double forest area under local control, group says

Wed May 3, 2006 5:59 PM BST

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - The world should double the area of forests under the
control of local communities by 2015 as part of an effort to combat poverty, a
new international group said on Wednesday.

The Rights and Resources Initiative, backed by several governments and
conservation groups, called for "an unprecedented effort to strengthen local
rights to own and use forests and fight rural poverty, prevent illegal logging,
and protect biodiversity."

"The group aims to assist communities and governments to double the global
forest area under community ownership and management by 2015," it said.

U.N. goals for halving poverty by 2015 could not be achieved unless governments
helped the 1.6 billion people who depended on forests for their livelihoods, it
said.

"That includes some 350 million indigenous and tribal people who depend on
forests for food, housing, heat, and medicine," it said.

Their rights were often eroded by logging or by forest clearances by rich land
owners or governments, it said.

It said that local communities, including indigenous residents, now managed at
least 370 million hectares of forest -- an area larger than India. In total,
forests cover about 30 percent of the earth's land area.

Andy White, coordinating the initiative from the United States, said that the
situation for forestry ownership was feudal because governments had tight
control. Local people could often do a better job. Governments control the land
and people who depend on forests often have few rights," he told Reuters. "The
situation is like Europe in the 14th century or quite like the situation in the
United States 100 years ago."

Ninety percent of forests in Africa were government owned, he said. He said that
local communities were often more efficient at managing forests than government
or logging companies.

"Local communities are not saints but they can probably do a better job in
managing the forests," he said. Needed reforms of laws, mapping and so on would
probably cost at least a billion dollars and take years to achieve.

The RRI said its founding partners included the World Conservation Union (IUCN),
the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research and
Washington-based Forest Trends. It has funding from countries including the
United States, Britain, Canada and Sweden.

"Significant legal and other barriers persist," said Achim Steiner,
Director-General of the IUCN.

"This initiative aims to support communities and governments in addressing these
barriers on a global scale, building on the momentum that is already under way."

<http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-\
05-03T165909Z_01_L03736623_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-FORESTS-DC.XML&pageNumb\
er=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=13>http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=s\
cienceNews&storyID=2006-05-03T165909Z_01_L03736623_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT\
-FORESTS-DC.XML&pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=13

From: Ashish Kothari ashishkothari@...

=============================================

<http://www.nytimes.com/>
 
<"http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.com/p\
rinter-friendly&pos=Position1&camp=foxsearch2006-emailtools06-nyt5&ad=Water_logo\
_88x31_2K.gif&goto=http://clk.atdmt.com/ORG/go/nwyrkfxs0040000007org/direct;at.o\
rgfxs00000890/01>
  \
May 11, 2006

Migrating Birds Didn't Carry Flu

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

ROME, May 10 - Defying the dire predictions of health officials, the flocks of
migratory birds that flew south to Africa last fall, then back over Europe in
recent weeks did not carry the deadly
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/avi\
aninfluenza/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>bird flu
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/vir\
uses/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>virus or spread it during their annual
journey, scientists have concluded.

International health officials had feared that the disease was likely to spread
to Africa during the southward migration and return to Europe with a vengeance
during the reverse migration this spring. That has not happened - a significant
finding for Europe, because it is far easier to monitor a virus that exists
domestically on farms but not in the wild. "It is quiet now in terms of cases,
which is contrary to what many people had expected," said Ward Hagemeijer, a
bird flu specialist with Wetlands International, an environmental group based in
the Netherlands that studies migratory birds.

In thousands of samples collected in Africa this winter, the bird flu virus,
A(H5N1), was not detected in a single wild bird, health officials and scientists
said. In Europe, only a few cases have been detected in wild birds since April
1, at the height of the migration north.

From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>

=========================================

ANNOUNCEMENTS

FAO publishes multilingual glossary of aquaculture

21 April, 2006 - THE FAO Fisheries Department has published a multilingual
Glossary of Aquaculture containing, more than 2 958 terms with definitions,
synonyms, related terms, information sources and images, when available.
The primary objectives of the glossary are to serve as a reference to fish
farmers, consultants, administrators, policy makers, developers, engineers,
agriculturists, economists, environmentalists and all those interested in
aquaculture, and facilitate communication among experts and scientists involved
in aquaculture research and development.

The online glossary of aquaculture is available in the five official languages
of FAO (Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish) at the following address:
<http://www.fao.org/fi/glossary/aquaculture/>http://www.fao.org/fi/glossary/aqua\
culture/

Instant definitions and translations of the terms to and from Arabic, Chinese,
English, French and Spanish are available by clicking on the related language.

Terms can be searched through the search engine, by alphabetical order or by
aquaculture subject area.

<http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/4358>http://www.fishupdate.com\
/news/fullstory.php/aid/4358

From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>

=========================================

AQUACULTURE CORNER


==============================================================

Illegal salmon farm in Chilean Patagonia shut down, fishers celebrate

The local government of Palena, in the Chilean Patagonia, ordered the navy to
remove all breeding cages of industrial salmon that the Pacific Star Salmon
Company illegaly placed in the Estero Palvitad, in Chaiten.

Several organizations had previously informed the local government about this
irregularity. The local government, based on the Regulation of Aquaculture
Concessions, had the obligation to order the removal of these illegal cages by
force.

This measure was informed to the non-governmental organization and conservation
group Ecoceanos by the Governor of Palena, Claudio Leiva, who declared "I have
signed the decree; therefore the navy is making sure that this cages are
promptly removed from the location".

The Pacific Star Salmon Company had also occupied areas in which there are
shoals of shellfish, which support local fishermen's livelihoods.

This is the first time that a salmon company that occupied areas where salmon
farming is forbidden has been expelled due to pressure from citizens and the
collaborative work between fishermen, environmentalists and solicitors
representing the local communities.

Ecoceanos appreciated the quick response from the local government, and declared
that "this is a new situation for the Chilean salmon industry. We ask the
authorities and citizens to think carefully about what happened, especially
because this company, which was working illegally, is a member of the Clean
Production Agreement that was signed by businessmen and the government."

Ecoceanos also said that what happened in Chaiten is only "the tip of the
iceberg", since many salmon companies are still using illegal cages, destroying
natural shoals of fishes and shellfish, and contaminating the water and marine
resources, which are very important for fishermen and different organizations.

"We will continue reporting these illegal situations, so the government applies
the appropriate laws, and companies confront their legal and financial
responsibilities," stated Ecoceanos.

Orlando Martinez, member of the Fishermen's Union of Chaiten, declared that "the
authority complied with the regulations and we are happy about this, but it
doesn't resolve the problem that is affecting the fishing activity in this
area."

"We demand the exit of all salmon farming companies that operate on natural
shoals or banks. We demand they stop contaminating the areas where we work. We
wish to export our products, but if our waters get contaminated in the future,
what are we going to do?" the fisherman asked.

Source: <http://www.parlamentodelmar.cl>Ecoceanos News

From: icsf@...




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

MAP News, 170th Ed., 1 of 2Edited--MM


The Mangrove Action Project News, 170th Edition, Part 1 of 2

Dear Friends,

This is the 170th Edition of the Mangrove Action Project News. Your donations to
MAP are both greatly appreciated and needed! Please see our "Join MAP" section
of our web site, and join today!

Alfredo Quarto,
Mangrove Action Project

Partnering with mangrove forest communities, grassroots NGOs, researchers and
local governments to conserve and restore mangrove forests and related coastal
ecosystems, while promoting community-based, sustainable management of coastal
resources.

---------------------------------------------------

Back Issues available!

Note: The latest issues of the MAP News are available on MAP's Website:  
http://www.earthisland.org/map/map.html


       Contents for MAP NEWS, 170th Edition

FEATURE STORY
MAP Visit To Bimini Island Reveals "An Island In the Extreme"
***ACTION ALERT!!!***

MAP WORKS
MAP Curriculum Workshop Promises Much More To Come
Volunteer Opportunities, Here and Abroad
MAP Announces Its 2007 Children's Mangrove Art Calendars

AFRICA

Nigeria
Oil RAIN in OGONI
***ACTION ALERT!!!***


ASIA

S.E. ASIA

Thailand
Thailand Promoting Conversion Of Abandoned Shrimp Farms Into Oil Palm
Plantations
Thai shrimp exports down by 25% this year
Urgent need for mangroves on coast
influences on Thai shrimp exports
Prison being turned into a tourist attraction

Indonesia
Forests in Southeast Asia Fall to Prosperity's Ax
***ACTION ALERT!!!***

Vietnam
Vietnam to convert 1,000ha of rice fields into shrimp hatcheries
VN Shrimp Under Microscope
Vietnam seafood industry agog as US reviews antidumping tariffs

The Philippines
Shrimp industry gears up for a rebound

Burma
Plans Approved For Mangrove Restoration In Myanmar (Burma)

-------------------------------------------------

FEATURE STORIES

MAP Visit To Bimini Island Reveals "An Island In the Extreme"

MAP's executive director had the opportunity to visit Bimini on a fact finding
tour in late April, discussing with local residents the problems associated with
the ongoing destructive development there. The overall feeling of the local
people is that the government of the Bahamas is too corrupt and the project too
big to easily stop. MAP's partner groups in this effort believe outside pressure
combined with internal dissent is essential to halt the next planned phase of
the development, including hotel building, additional condos, a marina, shops
and an 18 hole golf course, which will cause further major mangrove destruction
and threaten already endangered native species.

Taking note of the fact that Bimini Island in the Bahamas was made famous by the
writings of Ernest Hemingway, MAP has coined the expression regarding the recent
destructive Bimini Bay development there as "An Island In the Extreme!" Both
Gerardo Capo, the private developer, and the Hilton Hotel chain have joined
forces to inflict heavy, irreparable damage to the island's mangroves and
coastal life, including the lives of the local community of Bimini. If this
development goes full course, or even proceeds partially forward with additional
land clearing and dredging, little of the former luster of this island jewel
will remain, and a tragic legacy will be left for both residents and visitors to
Bimini.

Though the destructive nature of the "Capo caper" can easily be discerned by
local residents and visitors alike, little of the previous local resistance can
now be found among locals, who really have the most to lose by the development.
Bone fishing, fly fishing and big-game fishing guides all will lose business, as
the loss of the Island's mangroves and coral reefs resulting from the project
will mean significant reductions in the wild fisheries, which once were
considered a world-class fisheries among sports fishermen.  Dive shops and other
various water sports and tourism ventures will also suffer as the real draw of
Bimini-its natural beauty and high biodiversity-will be seriously compromised by
the Capo/ Hilton Bimini Bay Resort development. Innumerable endangered species
such as the endemic Bimini boa, the rare saw fish, the threatened lemon sharks,
and many migratory bird species will disappear or greatly diminish in numbers,
while the Island's famous coral reefs and protective mangroves are lost in the
18th hole. This development also threatens an area of Bimini meant for
designation as a Marine Protected Area because of its importance as an
international biodiversity hotspot.

Meanwhile, the lives of the local population-many there for many generations--
will be invariably changed for the worse, as traditional livelihoods and the
health of the Island are being adversely affected.  Early on, there was
wide-scale, vocal opposition to this illicit development, which now overshadows
all previous developments on the Island. However, it now seems that Capo has
bought not only the 700-plus acres of Bimini for his pet island redesign
project, but is fast buying out the local spokespersons on the island who
formerly had opposed his dubious venture.  Those Biminites who had spoken out
most loudly against Capo's caper have now grown silent, with evidence that they
have been bought out one by one with personal "gifts" from the Bimini Bay
Resort. One leading opposition voice-a local minister-who had early on
steadfastly opposed the project was recently seen deplaning Capo's private jet
in a new suit, arm in arm with Capo himself. Another Island leading voice
against the project-the head of a Planning Committee, who had previously spoken
out against the project-- was turned around completely after her recent
"vacation" with Capo's family to the Maldives and Seychelles Islands. When she
returned from this trip, she had only praise for the development and for Capo.
Other opponents have also been silenced by Capo's well-timed "generosity," as
gifts of turkey's for each family on Bimini and a Christmas party with gifts for
the children last year further quelled the local opposition.  It would seem that
Capo's age-old tactic of "trade beads to appease the locals" is working in his
favor, yet there still is that persistent ember of opposition needing a fresh,
offshore sea breeze to revive it.

It is evident, despite the quiet, that the locals are not happy with the
development, as there is much talk behind the scenes in personal conversations
with resident Biminites expressing dismay and concerns about the project. Many
will discuss the problems they are now or will be facing. The false promises of
more local employment fly in the face of the fact that Mexicans are now being
brought over to Bimini to take the few jobs Bimini Bay Resort will provide. And,
most realize that the dredging of the coast and physical removal of the existing
island channels, altering of beaches and land fills that are accompanying this
project may well be fatal to the Island's future as a healthy and viable place
to live. They may be silent or less vocal in their opposition, but there is
still an undercurrent of opposition to many of Capo's designs on their Island
paradise. There can be little doubt that Hemingway's formerly depicted "Island
in the Stream" is now an "Island in the Extreme!"

Letters of protest are urgently needed now to halt this terrible development
scheme from progressing any further. A designated Marine Protected Area for the
Island is needed! Please write letters urging that this MPA is immediately
established and that the Bimini Bay Resort development is not allowed to
progress further. Ask that the golf course on North Bimini and other development
plans for the East Channel be halted so that these remaining intact mangroves
are conserved and protected as part of the intended MPA.

Important Side Note: One other overlooked factor is that the University of Miami
did an economic impact study of the Bimini Bay project, carried out by Dr. Liana
McManus and Dr. Kenny Broad under the multu-university $5m Bio-complexity
project. Their economic model showed no net benefit to the people of Bimini.  If
one takes into account the economic loss traceable to habitat destruction on
marine resources you are talking about a serious economic impact especially on
the subsistence population.

***ACTION ALERT!!!***

Please Write Letters Of Protest Against The Planned Bimini Bay Development

  HERE ARE TWO NAMES TO WRITE TO Concerning Bimini Island:

The Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie - Prime Minister
The Office of the Prime Minister
Cecil Wallace - Whitfield Centre
Cable Beach
P.O. Box N 3217
Nassau, N.P. Bahamas

Gregory Rockett
Vice President, Development
Hilton International - The Americas
901 Ponce de Leon Blvd. #700
Coral Gables, FL 33134
USA
<mailto:Gregory.Rockett@...>Gregory.Rockett@...
Direct: +1 305 774 4502
Main: +1 305 444 3444
Fax: +1 305 774 3895
gregory.rockett@...

Executive Assistant:

Direct: +1 305 774 4524
<mailto:nanette.torano@...>nanette.torano@...

For More Information, please contact Bill Parks at "William C. Parks"
bertram25@...


Volunteer Opportunities, Here and Abroad

MAP is looking for interns and volunteers who can cover their own expenses, such
as airfare and basic living expenses in country.   If you're interested please
send your CV to mangroveap@....

There are a number of tasks that qualified volunteers could help us with-- some
small, some larger, some not so interesting, and some things that could be quite
rewarding.   Anyway it would be a way to get your feet wet in the issues which
MAP deals with and we would try to be very flexible in matching your interests
with our needs.  Please do look at out web site:
http://www.earthisland.org/map/map.html for more information on MAP.
Though MAP office does not have the financial resources to provide room and
board, we would be happy to help find suitable inexpensive accommodation, places
to eat etc....   Often, sponsoring universities provide students with an
allowance for living expenses, but this depends on the arrangements interns make
with their schools.   The cost of living is fairly low in the Developing
countries, so this should not be too taxing on a limited budget.

Regarding work projects, we've several possible ideas that would be both very
challenging and would require the volunteer or intern to be very self-directed
and independent, while possibly involving fairly isolated locations, but which
can be very rewarding and interesting.    Language would be the greatest barrier
but with ingenuity and perseverance volunteers will find ways to deal with this.

Projects involve dealing with local communities to reduce environmental impacts
on coastal resources, and also involve building environmental education
awareness amongst them.   Sustainable livelihoods, eco-tourism, and waste
management could be work topics as well as.   In fact the possibilities are very
broad and there is a lot of flexibility.  Here is a very brief description of
three potential projects ideas:
1)  One of MAP's partners, Sandhan Foundation, located in Orissa, India is
building a Community Coastal Resource Centre (CCRC) on the boundary of
Bhitarkanika Conservation area, which is a  World Heritage Site and a UNESCO
Biosphere Reserve and will soon become a RAMSAR site as well.  The CCRC is being
built on the concept of other MAP partner CCRCs located in Nigeria, Senegal, Sri
Lanka, Indonesia, Honduras, and recently in the Andaman Islands.  Their purpose
is multi-faceted involving a place for community meetings, training, education
and a place for demonstration of sustainable concepts regarding coastal natural
resource management and conservation.  Sustainable livelihood is another aspect.
The centre is rather remote, located 5 hours from Bhubaneswar. There are
presently two Indian staff (one speaks English) at the centre to maintain the
facility and also doing limited community outreach, but soon they will be
looking for several staff persons to develop the resource centre and run
programs. Please see http://www.sandhanfoundation.info/  and
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sandhan

2) Another of MAP's partners in Thailand-- Naucrates, an Italian based NGO
working in Thailand for 8 years on sea turtle conservation-- has branched out to
mangrove conservation activities several years ago.  Their project site is on
Phra tong Island off Phangnga Province in Southern Thailand.   The island was
hit very hard by the tsunami and they lost all their facilities, equipment and
several staff.  One of the three villages was totally destroyed.   The island
has wildlife and has not been impacted by tourism like many other islands in
Thailand. The island still has a wild deer population and endangered stocks and
a few sea turtles still come to nest annually. The only resort was washed away
and there is a small group of Eco-houses on one beach owned mainly by
foreigners.  Many of these were also destroyed by the tsunami.  This year
Naucrates will continue their sea-turtle beach survey work with volunteers and
also do community environmental educational awareness raising.   Naucrates has
recently build a small environment centre beside the school with a tsunami
donation from Italy which they plan to use for children's programs and community
out reach so there would be any opportunity to do mangrove education activities
with several Thai staff who also speak English.
Naucrates is also doing a small mangrove restoration project in an area which
was tsunami damaged. Please see http://www.naucrates.org/

3.) One of MAP's recent new contacts "Organization for Marine Conservation
Awareness and Research" (OMAR) in Tamil Nadu, India has a Internship program and
they're involved in research, mangrove restoration and community outreach
through volunteers.  Please contact Balaji at <marine_balaji@...>  They're
just putting up a website http://www.omcar.org/  which already has good
information on their projects.

Organization for Marine Conservation Awareness and Research (OMCAR Inc)
56/2 Mannai Nagar Mattusanthai Road
Pattukkottai (post),Thanjavur (Dist),
Tamil Nadu   Telephone: +91 / 93 60 54 81 17
Vedharajan Balaji <marine_balaji@...>
Website: http://www.omcar.org/

From: "MAP / S.E. Asia" mapasia@...

======================================

MAP Announces Its 2007 Children's Mangrove Art Calendars. MAP is Looking for
contributions from schools from around the mangrove world for our 2007 Calendar!

MAP's new Children's Mangrove Art 2006 Calendars are now available. In addition
to these beautiful calendars, we are selling packets of 5 beautiful greeting
cards containing several mangrove images from Monica Gutierrez-Quarto's artwork.
to raise funds for MAP.

Any donation of $35 or more qualifies the donor for an annual membership with a
free calendar or card set! Please give generously today!

PLEASE help MAP stay in this fight for the future by becoming a donating
subscriber today! Check our website for details (www.earthisland.org/map) or
contact: <mailto: mangroveap@...>mangroveap@...

==============================================

AFRICA

Nigeria

Oil RAIN in OGONI
Location: K-Dere and B-Dere and Nkpor (Ogoni, Rivers State, Nigeria)
From: Styvn Obodoekwe and Mike Karikpo
Date: 4 April 2006

HIGHLIGHTS

Oil wellhead spills large volumes of crude into environment.
Farmlands and produce contaminated.
Shell had prior notice of the faulty wellhead.

   Thank you.

  S.E. ASIA

Thailand

Thailand Promoting Conversion Of Abandoned Shrimp Farms Into Oil Palm
Plantations

Word is out now thart Thailand is promoting the conversion of large areas of
abandoned shrimp farms into oil palm plantations. This news bodes badly for the
possibility of restoring these former productive mangrove wetlands, thus
restoring the health of these vital ecosystems and the troubled wild fishery. If
these lands are further converted to oil palm plantations,  then it would seem
that the fate of these former mangrove wetlands is sealed.


===============================================

Thai shrimp exports down by 25% this year

BANGKOK, April 11 (TNA) - Thai exporters said on Tuesday the country's shrimp
exports this year may fall by 25 percent to 250,000 tonnes from 280,000 tonnes
last year due to floods that inundated prawn farms in the country's southern
region and the stronger Thai baht against the US dollar.__Somsak Paneetatyasai,
president of the Thai Shrimp Association, said the government should give
emergency assistance to farmers as at least 1,900 commercial shrimp farms in
southern Thailand were flooded late last year, effectively which normally
produced over 10,000 tonnes of prawns every year.__He said natural disasters and
disease in shrimps in Brazil, China, Vietnam,India and Ecuador have also reduced
supply for the world market by 2.5 million tonnes.__Normally these countries
would supply altogether 3 million tonnes of shrimps to the world market
annually. However, the shortage in supply has caused the price of prawns to
rise, he said.__''We could see clearly a lower production during the first
quarter of this year. Supply of shrimp during this year's Water Festival has
reduced by more than two-third,'' said Mr. Somsak.__"The cost of investment for
Thai prawn farmers has soared to the highest levels in five years," Mr. Somsak
said.
"Farmers became indebted because of floods and expensive petrol bills as most
farms have no access to government electricity supplies and must use
generators,'' he said. (TNA)-E110
From: icsf@...

=========================================================

THE NATION  March 1, 2006

Urgent need for mangroves on coast

Wave barrier needed to stem advance of ocean near Bangkok, Samut Prakan: study

There is an urgent need for mangrove reforestation and more wave barriers along
coastal areas in Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon provinces, as the ocean
is moving inland at a rate of 10-25 metres per year, experts said.

In about 50 years, the sea will be more than three kilometres closer to
Suvarnabhumi Airport, Samut Prakan and Bangkok, one geologist forecast.

A 100-metre buffer zone of mangrove forests is needed along the coastline to
prevent erosion, a team of experts said.

Their initial findings are based on study commissioned by the Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to find solutions to coastal erosion.

The study covers 80 kilometres along the northern coastline of the Gulf of
Thailand, including the 5km shoreline of Bangkok's Bang Khunthien district and
coastal areas in the two adjacent provinces.

Most of the mangrove forests in the area were damaged or cut down for shrimp
farms, said Dr Seri Suprathit, who is leading the study.

"The mangrove forests now only reach 40 metres inland from the sea on average,
but we need a sea-buffer zone of 100 metres, which would reduce wave power by 80
per cent," he said.

Of the 2,735 rai of mangrove forests that were in Bang Khunthien 30 years ago,
only 200-300 rai remain, according to the BMA.

It had tried to prevent erosion by constructing Bt300-million worth of retaining
walls, but the walls have to be restored every few years because they sink into
the soft soil.

Dr Seri and his team have proposed five solutions. The first three require
shrimp farmers to return land for mangrove reforestation so the buffer zone can
be extended to 100 metres. The BMA would also build more retaining walls,
jetties or breakwaters, or a combination of the three.

  If the shrimp farmers refuse to give up land, the consultants propose two
options in which landfill is used to extend the coastline.

"If they don't give us their lands, we might have to use landfill to expand the
mangrove forest areas. But [this] would have many side-effects and be very
costly," Seri said.

The consultants say they need more feedback from local residents and have to
further study the environmental impacts of the proposed solutions.

The mayor of Samut Prakan's Tambon Klong Dan said the shrimp farm he ran for 15
years failed because of coastal erosion. Narong Komklom also said he has
accumulated Bt9 million in personal debt trying to prevent coastal erosion.

"I paid out of my own pocket and tried many solutions, but I failed," Narong
said.

"We hope the BMA and the government will hurry up and solve the problem because
people are spending hundreds of thousands of baht a year trying to cope with
it."

Chatrarat Kaewmorakot

From: "MAP / S.E. Asia" mapasia@...

====================================================

influences on Thai shrimp exports

from Seafood.com 26 April 2006

The Thai shrimp association says that high fuel prices are drastically cutting
local production of wild shrimp, and as a result, more farmed white shrimp is
being consumed in Thailand, rather than being exported. They say this amount
could reach 50,000 tons, and will have an impact on Thai shrimp exports during
the second quarter.

From: "Elaine Corets" <manglar@...>

======================================================

Bangkok Post   Sun. May 7, 2006

Prison being turned into a tourist attraction
Safe haven for birds being created

By Wassana Nanuam

Pattani's Central Prison has become a safe haven for tens of thousands of
shorebirds and waterbirds whose habitats in the province have been invaded or
destroyed by local people. Plans are under way to convert a mangrove forest
adjacent to the prison into a new tourist attraction.

The birds previously lived in other mangrove swamps in the province but poachers
forced them to re-settle in the 10-rai mangrove forest near the prison.

Now the birds are making nests and laying eggs near the prison.

''Generations of birds have been living here for over twenty years because they
feel safe. People are reluctant to come in to hunt them or take their eggs,''
said Udom Kuinara, director of the prison.

Mr Udom also has his sights set on turning the mangrove swamp near the prison
into a tourist spot for bird watchers.

He has requested a budget of three million baht for the construction of a
walkway for bird-watching and for a study of the mangrove forest. He said the
presence of tourists will pose no security problem for the prison, which is
surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. The prison currently houses 767
prisoners, 70 of whom are in high-security cells.

The first flock of the birds migrated from Siberia 25 years ago. Now, more than
29 species can be found in various mangrove swamps in the gulf of Pattani,
within nearby localities such as Tanyong Pao village, Pakbang Tawa village, Bang
Pla Mo village, Rus Milae village, and near the Prince of Songkla University's
Pattani campus, running all the way to the western end of the Pattani river.

From: "MAP / S.E. Asia" <mapasia@...>

========================================

Indonesia

Forests in Southeast Asia Fall to Prosperity's Ax

The Indonesian government has signed a deal with
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/\
index.html?inline=nyt-geo>China that will level much of the remaining tropical
forests in an area so vital it is sometimes called the lungs of Southeast Asia.

For China, the deal is a double bounty: the wood from the forest will provide
flooring and furniture for its ever-expanding middle class, and in its place
will grow vast plantations for palm oil, an increasingly popular ingredient in
detergents, soaps and lipstick.

The forest-to-palm-oil deal, one of an array of projects that China said it
would develop in Indonesia as part of a $7 billion investment spree last year,
illustrates the increasingly symbiotic relationship between China's need for a
wide variety of raw materials, and its Asian neighbors' readiness to provide
them, often at enormous environmental cost.

For Mr. Anyie and his clan, the deal will bring jobs and the opportunity for a
modern life. "We love our forest, but I want to build the road for my people - I
owe it to them," said Mr. Anyie, 63, an astute elder of the Dayak people. "We've
had enough of this kind of living."

From Indonesia to Malaysia to Myanmar, many of the once plentiful forests of
Southeast Asia are already gone, stripped legally or illegally, including in the
low-lying lands here in Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo. Only about
half of Borneo's original forests remain.

Those forests that do remain, like the magnificent stands here in Mr. Anyie's
part of the highlands, are ever pressed, ever prized and ever more valuable,
particularly as China's economy continues its surge.

Over all, Indonesia says it expects China to invest $30 billion in the next
decade, a big infusion of capital that contrasts with the declining investment
by American companies here and in the region.

Much of that Chinese investment is aimed at the extractive industries and
infrastructure like refineries, railroads and toll roads to help speed the flow
of Indonesia's plentiful coal, oil, gas, timber and palm oil to China's ports.

In one of the latest deals, on April 19, Indonesia announced that China had
placed a $1 billion rush order for a million cubic yards of a prized
reddish-brown hardwood, called merbau, to be used in construction of its sports
facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Merbau wood, mostly prevalent in Papua's virgin forests, has been illegally
logged and shipped to China since the late 1990's, stripping large swathes of
forest in the Indonesian province on the western side of the island of New
Guinea.

The decision to award a $1 billion concession to China will "increase the
deforestation of Papua," a place of extraordinary biodiversity, said Elfian
Effendy, executive director of Greenomics, an Indonesian environmental watchdog.
"It's not sustainable."

The plan for palm oil plantations on Borneo was signed during a visit by the
Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to Beijing last July.

Under pressure from environmental groups, the Indonesian environment and
forestry ministries have come out against the plan. The coordinating minister
for economic affairs, who goes by the single name Boediono, said in April that
he was still weighing the pros and cons of executing the entire plan.

The commander of the Indonesian military, Gen. Djoko Suyanto, whose forces are
heavily involved in Indonesia's illegal forestry businesses, strongly backed the
plan during a visit to the border region in March.

Certainly, there are profits to be made. Major consumer companies like Procter &
Gamble say they are using more palm oil in their products instead of crude oil;
palm oil is favored for cooking by the swelling Chinese middle class, and it is
being explored as an alternative fuel.

Indonesia's environmentalists, and some economists, say chopping down as much as
4.4 million acres of the last straight-stemmed, slow-growing towering
dipterocarp trees on Borneo would gravely threaten this region's rare ecosystem
for plants, animals and people.

Maps for the project have aroused fears that it would encroach into the forest
in Kayan Mentarang National Park, where the intoxicating mix of high altitude
and equatorial humidity breeds an exceptional diversity of species, second only
to Papua's, biologists say.

The area is the source of 14 of the 20 major rivers on Borneo, and the
destruction of the forests would threaten water supplies to coastal towns, said
Stuart Chapman, a director at the World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia.

For years, Mr. Anyie, the Dayak elder, said he had resisted offers from
commercial contractors to cut down the forest around his village, next to the
park.

He worked hard, too, to keep the old ways of life, which until 40 years ago
included forays into headhunting, he said, showing visitors the skull of a
Malaysian soldier stowed in his attic, a souvenir from the 1965 border war with
Malaysia.

But now it is time for change, he said. "People have told me, 'Wood is gold,
you're still too honest,' " said Mr. Anyie, a diminutive man with brush-cut
black hair.

His own grown children have deserted the village for big towns, and the
villagers left behind are tired of traveling everywhere by foot (three days to
neighboring Malaysia where jobs in palm oil plantations are plentiful) or by
traditional long boats powered by anemic 10-horsepower engines.

For those seeking to visit, the journey is just as arduous. The area can be
reached only by light plane, a pummeling voyage over rapids in a wooden canoe
and then a trek through tangles of trees and creepers.

A three-day stay at a research station deep inside the forest told what is at
stake for the ecosystem, first documented by Charles Darwin's colleague, Alfred
Russel Wallace, in an account in the late 1850's called "The Malay Archipelago."

Wild mango trees, tropical oaks, pale-trunked myrtles, sago palms, rattan trees
and pandanas with shiny leaves like long prongs crowded the hills that rise
almost vertically above the river.

Exceedingly tall and elegant dipterocarps towered over all, their green canopies
filtering shards of occasional sunlight. Underfoot, tiny dew-encrusted green
mosses, still damp in the afternoon, clung to rocks, and miniature versions of
African violets poked their mauve flowers just above the ground.

Wildlife abounds, said Stephan Wulffraat, 39, a Dutch conservation biologist and
the director of the research station run by the World Wildlife Fund. The forest
is home to seven species of leaf monkeys, he said, and at high noon, a crashing
sound high in the trees announced a group's arrival. A red-coated deer made a
fleeting appearance and dashed off.

On the gloomy forest floor, Mr. Wulffraat, who fends off leeches by tucking his
pant legs into knee-length football socks, has set more than a dozen camera
traps to photograph wild creatures too shy to appear.

Three years ago, an animal the size of a large cat with a bushy tail with a
reddish fur sauntered by the camera. Mr. Wulffraat, a seven-year veteran of the
forest, said that the animal resembled a civet, but he added that he and other
experts believed that it was an entirely new species.

The discovery of a species of mammal like a civet is unusual, but dozens of new
species of trees, mosses and herbs, butterflies, frogs, fresh water prawns and
snakes have all been found since the station opened in 1991, he said. "This
field station has more frogs and snake species around than in all of Europe,"
Mr. Wulffraat said.

Until now, the forests at these higher elevations have been protected by their
sheer inaccessibility. To get back to the coast from the research station, for
instance, takes a 15-hour journey along a 350-mile stretch of the Bahau and
Kayan Rivers in a wooden longboat powered by three outboard motors.

In contrast, the forests in lowland Kalimantan, where roads have been hacked
into the land already, are so ravaged by logging that they will have disappeared
by 2010, the World Bank says.

As the roads start penetrating the area of Mr. Anyie's clan, the upland forests
will begin to disappear here, too. The solution is to adopt sustainable
management plans, Mr. Wulffraat said.

Such plans allow logging only in specially certified areas, he said. But so far,
he said, they have proved a losing proposition.

"In about 30 years," Mr. Anyie said, "the forest will be gone."

Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting for this article.


TAKE ACTION
Protest China's Plundering of Ancient Indonesian Rainforests to
Build 2008 Olympic Facilities

http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=olympic_timber

With two-and-a-half years to go until the start of the 2008
Olympics to be held in Beijing China, the Chinese government has
recently placed a $1 billion rush order for endangered
rainforest timbers from Indonesia's Papua province to be used in
construction for the games. A proposed timber processing factory
would industrially harvest 800,000 cubic meters of the famous
and threatened merbau (intsia spp) rainforest timbers, to be
exported to China for the construction of sports facilities.
Indonesia's Papua province on the island of New Guinea has some
of the world's last remaining large intact rainforests. These
rainforests are millions of years old, contain untold
biodiversity and evolutionary history, and provide critical
regional and global ecosystem processes. An investment of this
size will only serve to legitimize and further fuel illegal,
highly unsustainable, and ecologically devastating logging,
ensuring the destruction of this critically threatened ancient
rainforest. It is against the Olympic ideals of bringing "people
together in peace to respect universal moral principles" when
the events are housed in ancient rainforest timbers of
questionable legality and morality. Please insist the Chinese
government commit to hosting an "old-growth, ancient forest
free" Olympics. Please take action now at
http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=olympic_timber

From: "GlenBarry@..." <GlenBarry@...>

===============================================================

Vietnam

Vietnam to convert 1,000ha of rice fields into shrimp hatcheries
By Ha Yen

Deputy Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples' Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan has
approved a programme to convert 1,000ha of rice fields into shrimp hatcheries.

Under the programme, the water surface for shrimp would be 4,100ha by 2010, up
by 18% over 2005. Can Gio District alone would have 3,600ha, an increase of
800ha over 2005, while Nha Be District would have 500ha, down by 400ha. About
2,000ha for current extensive shrimp farming will be turned into ecological
shrimp farming also.

HCM City hopes to have total output of 15,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2010, up 1.76
times over 2005. In order to meet the target, about 1,250ha of agricultural land
in Can Gio District will be converted to shrimp farming, including 600ha of rice
fields. In Nha Be District, total shrimp area will be 500ha by 2010.

HCM City plans to restructure the Can Gio Seafood Trading Centre to upgrade
operations and planners will set up a shrimp auctioning floor at An Nghia
Market. In addition, enterprises and small traders will form a chain for
collection, preliminary treatment and packaging to distribute on the domestic
market through Metro and other wholesale markets.

The city will also focus on safer shrimp production in the salt-marsh area of
the Can Gio biosphere reserves. In the long term, seafood in general, and shrimp
cultured in Can Gio and Nha Be districts in particular, will be consumed through
the Muong Chuoi Seafood Centre.

The programme will include six projects from 2006 to 2010 totalling VND90bil,
including the Brackish-water Seafood Breeders Centre by Saigon Agriculture
Corporation, which will produce 200mil breeding shrimp every year, and 13
irrigation projects serving 1,000ha of shrimp farms. In addition, there will be
a project on shrimp culture under the international standard GAP (Good
Agricultural Practice) on 230ha in Ly Nhon Commune as well as a project to
releasing shrimp into the sea.

Source: <http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2006/05/568312/>VietNamNet

From: icsf@...

=======================================

VN shrimp under microscope
24/04/2006 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet - Minister of Fisheries Ta Quang Ngoc has signed a decision to
establish a steering committee charged with monitoring shrimp purity in 12
southern provinces.

The steering committee will be headed by Nguyen Tu Cuong, Director of the
National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Veterinary Directorate (Nafiquaved).
Other members will include representatives from the departments under the
Ministry of Fisheries and local departments for agriculture and rural
development.

The committee will direct the implementation of the 2006 action plan initiated
by the Ministry of Fisheries on ensuring seafood quality and safety.

The 12 southern provinces include Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, HCM
City, Ben Tre, Hau Giang, Can Tho, Kien Giang, Tra Vinh, Ca Mau, Soc Trang and
Bac Lieu. All shrimp will be examined at delivery sites.

In related news, the US once again warned against antibiotic residues in shrimp
products exported to the country. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
discovered Malachite Green in a consignment imported from Chinese Fujing Weilong
Food Co. Ltd. The company has been 'black listed' by the FDA. Malachite green is
a synthetic dye used to colour fabric and paper, but is also used to treat
fungal and protozoal infections of fish and fish eggs.

On April 17, FDA agents discovered Malachite Green in a consignment imported
from another Chinese company, Raoping Jialong Frozen Food.

The warnings against importing unsafe seafood have been increasing since 2005.

Fourteen crab exporters from China, Vietnam and Indonesia have been named on the
black list as their products have been found to contain Chloramphenicol. The
names of fifteen shrimp exporters from five other countries have also been added
to the list, including four Vietnamese tra and basa exporters, three Chinese eel
enterprises, one Thai company and a salmon breeder from Chile.

The products of the above mentioned companies have been discovered as having
Choramphenicol, Oxolinic acid, Malachite Green or Ciprofloxacin residues. The
products of two Indonesian shrimp companies have also declared as having
Nitrofuran.

According to FDA regulations, in order to have their names scratched from the
black list, the companies will have to export a minimum of five 'safe'
consignments to the US (with products examined and certified by independent
laboratories).

Ha Yen

From: icsf@...

=====================================================

Vietnam seafood industry agog as US reviews antidumping tariffs
By Quang Thuan - Translated by Thanh Tuan

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) hosted Friday
a meeting of shrimp exporters to confer on the antidumping tariff review being
done by the US.

All the 54 shrimp exporters have petitioned the US Department of Commerce (DOC)
to reconsider the tariffs [ranging from 4.3 to 25.7 per cent] slapped on them
since July 2004.

"The complicated process may take 12 to 18 months; so it is hard to predict the
outcome," Ho Quoc Luc, VASEP chairman, said. He suggested: "Companies involved
must first prepare their accounts in accordance with DOC stipulations, while
shrimp farmers and provincial administrations should concentrate on improving
the infrastructure to produce more suitable-sized shrimp at lower prices."

Warning that US laws were complicated, Luc told the companies to closely
co-operate with each other and hire lawyers. The antidumping review could lead
to instability in the prices of Vietnamese shrimp in the US, leaving
distributors reluctant to buy it, the exporters predicted.

Source: <http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=13183>Thanh Nien

From: icsf@...

=========================================================

The Philippines

Thursday, April 13, 2006
Shrimp industry gears up for a rebound

IN THE 1980s, the shrimp and prawn industries in the Philippines were on the
rise, thanks to the premium prices the homegrown black tiger prawn commanded in
the international market. Business was too good traditional crops were abandoned
in near-shore farmlands and converted into prawn ponds.

In the 1990s, the industry suffered a decline when diseases swept prawn farms
from Luzon to the Visayas. It has not fully recovered since.

Survivors of the decade-long prawn pestilence are fighting back, determined to
win lost markets by adopting the latest in prawn farm technology,
commercializing other species side by side the tiger prawn, and adopting the
best hatchery and feeding practices.

All of these will highlight the 5th National Shrimp Industry Congress slated in
the middle of the year.

This early, leaders of the Philippine Shrimp Industry Association (Philshrimp)
are already pinning their hopes on a new variety of white shrimp with the exotic
scientific name of Litopeneaus vannamei, native to South America.

After hurdling some quarantine and bureaucratic red tape, the local shrimp
industry, in partnership with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
(Bfar) succeeded in importing breeding stocks for the white prawn for controlled
production in government experimental farms.

The exotic varieties of shrimp were brought in only for research and development
only to be commercially produced if proven to be more productive and less prone
to diseases as the legendary tiger prawn.

Results of the pilot farm projects are to be known during the convention. On
which it will anchor a new program to revitalize the industry by popularizing
and new shrimp variety or industry players and the government will go back to
the experimental farms to develop a disease-resistant member of the tiger prawn
family.

This early, results have been encouraging. It is now perceived that the white
prawn will hasten the industry's goal to enhance prawn production and augment
the incomes of farmers, traders, exporters, processors and feed millers.

Hand in hand with the introduction of a new species for commercial raising, the
congress has been envisioned to update shrimp farmers on the latest advances on
shrimp farming in the Asia-Pacific region, the best shrimp farming practices in
Thailand and new products in aqua-culture.

The congress will also be heavy on upgrading technologies in hatchery, prawn
culture and feeding.

The industry is likewise expected to arrive at its own marketing strategy for
both fresh and processed products.

Movers behind the shrimp industry promise to hit not only the foreign, but the
local marketplace in the next few years with an abundance of the new white
shrimp. (Abe P. Belena/Philexport News and Features/Sunnex)

From: icsf@...

==================================================

Burma

Plans Approved For Mangrove Restoration In Myanmar (Burma)

Restoration plans in the Ayeyarwady Delta of Burma Myanmar are approved by
Myanmar's Forest Department.  A small grant from the tsunami special project
fund of the Gobal Greengrant Fund (GGF) to MAP was awarded for this project.  
The local organization, Mangrove Service Network (MSN), will now is now
undertaking a restoration project of 100 acres some of which was an abandoned
shrimp farm area. MAP's preferred restoration methodology of
ecological/hysrological restoration will be used there as the working model for
this demonstration site.  Two members of MSN, Mr. U Win Sein Naing and Mr. U
Htay Lin, had attended MAP's week long Ecological Mangrove Restoration Training
Course in Vijayawada, AP India in Nov. 2005 which was given by Mr. Robin Lewis
of Florida.   U Htay Lin is providing  supervision in the field for the project.

From: "MAP / S.E. Asia" <mapasia@...>


--
Alfredo Quarto, Executive Director
Mangrove Action Project
PO Box 1854
Port Angeles, WA 98362-0279
USA
phone/ fax (360) 452-5866
<mangroveap@...>
mailto:mangroveap@...
web site: http://www.earthisland.org/map/map.html

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This is beautiful prose- but who does it refer to?
Please enlighten.

Rauf


--- zubair ahmed <zubairpbl@...> wrote:

> Self-Styled Messiahs of the Islands
>
> By Zubair Ahmed
>
> There is no dearth of self-styled saviours and
> messiahs in our Islands.
> However, it is we who make their existence and
> survival possible, with our
> inconceivable foolishness and stupidity. It seems
> that the Islands have more
> protectors and messiahs than the population.
> Tsunami victims have their own saviours. The
> Islanders suddenly needs
> protectors from outside invasion. Jarawas need
> guardians to advocate their
> cause.
> Ellsworth Toohey—a villainous character in Ayn
> Rand's most popular
> philosophical novel, 'Fountainhead'—has many avatars
> in our Islands.
> Ellsworth Toohey is not a man without brains. He is
> the only man with
> brains, as he perceives and makes others believe.
> "Don't set out to raze all shrines - you'll frighten
> men. Enshrine
> mediocrity - and the shrines are razed . . . Kill by
> laughter. Laughter is
> an instrument of human joy. Learn to use it as a
> weapon of destruction. Turn
> it into a sneer. It's simple. Tell them to laugh at
> virtue. Don't let
> anything remain sacred in a man's soul - and his
> soul won't be sacred to
> him. Kill reverence and you've killed the hero in
> man" That's Toohey. He is
> an unabashed leader, who styles himself as
> representative of the will of the
> masses. Having no true genius, he makes himself
> excellent by manipulating
> the masses to believe that mediocrity is excellent.
> Here is a Toohey, who directly and indirectly hurts
> our conscience.
> This avatar is an organizer of communities. He knows
> what is better for us.
> He is a lawyer, a writer, an architect, a unionist
> and the messiah of all
> tsunami victims. He enshrines mediocrity. He wants
> to control people. "Great
> men can't be ruled," Toohey says. "Therefore, we
> don't want any great men."
> This saint is surrounded by mediocre people, without
> original thoughts. He
> is a man who could never be, and he himself knows
> it.
> A powerful critic, of all those against him, he
> seeks control over all the
> fields as a means of gaining wider power. He is not
> a disillusioned man.
> Instead of embarking on a constructive program of
> building his strength, he
> chooses the destructive path of tearing down others.
> He seeks power over
> them in every possible way. Under the guise of
> friendship and support, he
> takes over their souls, telling them how to conduct
> their lives. Either way,
> he stands for one constant-the morality of
> self-sacrifice-for he intends to
> be the beneficiary of those sacrifices. He preaches
> a doctrine of selfless
> service to society.
> His power-seeking activities are manifested in two
> interrelated forms. At
> the private level, he cultivates a legion of
> brainwashed followers who have
> relinquished all independent functioning and obey
> his every command. He is a
> cult leader in this regard. His method is to
> convince others to give up
> their values, those things they love most; and that
> gives meaning to their
> lives.
> He is a man whose life is utterly dominated by other
> men-by the schemes,
> scams, plots, and machinations necessary to control
> others. He does not
> accomplish anything. His entire existence is devoted
> to gaining spiritual
> and political power over others. Others are not
> merely the dominant - they
> are the exclusive-factor in his life. His existence
> is defined by what
> others think of him; they are his reality; he is
> real only in their
> evaluations. He needs others to regard him as an
> important (indeed, the
> all-important) factor in their lives. He tries to be
> the panacea of all
> their problems, and diseases. He has advocated all
> cases in advance; that
> you might just be thinking about now. He controls
> many societies, and
> unions. He has created mediocre leaders, or has
> organized them under his
> tutelage. He makes them behave and protest the way
> he wants. He prepares the
> letters and they sign on it. They feel important,
> when he listen to them. He
> needs power, but seems unaware of the way to achieve
> it.
> In the aftermath of tsunami, he protested against
> all the international and
> national NGOs, involved in the relief work. He
> registered his protest
> everywhere. He tried to find out their credibility.
> Later, when he saw the
> tsunami of funds flowing, he gave up the protests
> and became their
> mouthpiece. He concentrated on the downtrodden and
> the poor. As the
> Islanders know, his heart lies with them.
> He protests against the design of temporary
> shelters. Later, he builds them
> to protect the poor victims from rain and sunshine.
> He adamantly fights
> against outsiders getting permanent houses. And
> then, he builds it for them.
>
> He advocates reservation for the poor Islanders. His
> umbrella is so wide and
> all embracing; he befriends those, who are against
> reservation. He runs a
> parallel government. As Toohey in 'Fountainhead' has
> associations for
> Literature, Architecture, Advocates and other
> fields, this Toohey also has
> different associations, fora and letterheads. The
> mediocre heads of these
> associations meet weekly and discuss the course of
> action, as if they decide
> the course of action of the administration and
> preside over the destiny of
> the Islanders.
> Tsunami has produced two types of Tooheys: first,
> those who made money out
> of tsunami and are now out to buy respectability.
> Secondly those, who have
> earned enough respect; they are now selling it for
> money.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     andamanicobar-unsubscribe@...
>
>
>
>
>
>


Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com

Chowra - A Resurgent Island *By Govinda Raju        *

The Light of Andamans::: Issue 23, 27 May 2006



Chowra was one of the worst affected islands during the last tsunami in
2004. It was feared that about a third of its population had perished in the
tsunami. Initially some attempt was made to provide temporary shelters to
those who had survived the devastation in Chowra itself. However, for want
of basic amenities and loss or damage of infrastructure, entire population
was shifted and accommodated in temporary shelters at nearby Teressa Island.

             Mr. Jonathan, Chief Captain of Chowra and an able leader of men
had protested at that time also explains Mr. Rasheed Yousuf, a Tribal
Activist of Nancowry. Apparently the population of Chowra was shifted on the
plea of shortage of drinking water. But Mr. Jonathan had debunked that
theory on the ground that water was a perennial problem and not a post
tsunami phenomenon. But the administration stuck to its gun to contain the
problem in a small area rather than spread it.

             Although the tribes from Chowra and Teressa perhaps belong to
the same ethnic stock, yet it was an alien land for Chowraites. They had
nothing to do other than loiter about in Teressa Island and live on the dole
dished out by the administration. It is over a year and a half after the
tsunami, yet there was no talk of rebuilding infrastructure and basic
amenities to facilitate the return of Chowraites to their own homes. In the
meantime the administration had discontinued the supply of free ration too
without realizing the plight of the people like Chowraites who were living
away from their hearth & home. However, supply of free ration was restored
on the orders of the High Court.

              Fed up with the inaction and indifference of the administrative
authorities, eighty four families out of a total of 348 families decided to
take their destiny into their own hands and set sail for Chowra. According
to Mr. Rajender Pal, Block development Officer and acting Assistant
Commissioner, Nancowry, they moved out of Teressa Island taking their
temporary shelters with them. They have since set up their own temporary
shelters at Chowra without the benefit of any support from the Rajiv Gandhi
Rehabilitation Package of the Government of India or high flying national
and international NGOs or the A&N Administration.

             They are engaged in recreating a new world for their families by
themselves without any assistance from the government or the administration.
Piqued at the audacity of the group the administration stopped the supply of
free rations to them for a time. However, speaking over the phone Mr.
Rajender Pal stated that the people who had moved back to Chowra were issued
ration at Teressa. The Chowraites collect it and take it to Chowra on their
own. Heconfirmed that it is not supplied to them *at* Chowra Island.

             The determination of a small group of Chowraites is so strong
and intense that they moved a 40 KVA DG set from the ship to shore within
three hours, according to sources in the Electricity Department. The entire
population including women and children were engaged in the job fighting
against nature in the form of a turbulent sea. The same day they shifted the
entire plant and its accessories to the location where it has to be
installed. The electric lines are being drawn. Very soon power generation
will be restored in Chowra Island, the sources confirmed.

And the people of Chowra are doing all these works voluntarily for the
benefit of their community rather than for the sake of money.

It is one of the most backward islands in the matter of infrastructure. It
never had a pucca road, road transport or telecommunication facilities.
Water has been a perennial problem throughout its history. Mr. Rajender Pal
informs that a desalination plant has been shifted to Chowra which has to be
installed for the supply of fresh water. With the onset of monsoon the
situation may not be very bad for the next six months. It will be
interesting to watch what happens to the desalination plant after that. If
it delivers or goes the way the earlier one has gone.

             Chowra Island is spread over 8.20 Sq. Km situated in open sea in
the Bay of Bengal. It stands out among other tribal islands in that it is
the only island that had the expertise in pottery and traditional boat
building. There was a time when Chowra used to supply all the pottery items
to almost all the tribal islands in Nicobar group. The people of this island
are adept at making traditional *hori* or canoe. People from all other
islands approach Chowraites for getting their canoes in return for coconut,
pigs and other items in barter. Pottery however lost its prime position with
the introduction of metallic utensils and cooking vessels.

             All the members of tribes and even other fishermen had objected
to the supply of fiberglass fishing boats that the administration and the
NGOs distributing. The members of tribes had demanded their traditional *
horis*. But they were told that it was not possible to provide them since it
was not feasible to build one. The Chowraite proved them wrong here too.

During their sojourn in Teressa, the Chowra people did not sit idle. With
right encouragement from Rev. Sylvanus they constituted a cooperative
society called A&N Yaich-Tarik Cooperative Society Limited and embarked upon
their traditional job of boat building. Deftly they went about their job and
delivered 123 out of 126 large, medium and small *horis *to the Relief &
Rehabilitation Commissioner till the people of Teressa reportedly objected
to the Chowraites cutting down their trees*.* Now the Society has requested
the administration to supply them with tompyng – the right timber for boat
building. The department of fisheries is also reported to have placed orders
for five *horis*.

             The people of Chowra, in a step taken out of sheer frustration
and disillusionment, have taught a lesson or two to the Disaster Management
Experts and the national and international NGOs how to device a
rehabilitation programme for the disaster affected people through their own
efforts rather than spoon feeding them for months and years together turning
them into parasites and zombies.

             The tribes have more pride left in them than the other civilized
people. On hindsight it would be realized one day that they were totally
mishandled after tsunami. What they needed was immediate succor and a little
material help for rebuilding their own world in their own way. Instead they
were handled in such a way that now they have become their own enemy.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Book Reviews /
The Nicobar Islands - Cultural Choices in the Aftermath of the Tsunami
by Simron Jit Singh and Oliver Lehman, . Czernin Verlag, 2006, 230pages, EUR 49,
ISBN: 3-7076-0078-5


REACHING OUT TO THE PAST
Review by Pankaj Sekhsaria
From the latest issue of Conservation & Society Volume 4, No. 1, March 2006

http://www.conservationandsociety.org/cs_4_1_173-175.pdf

The destruction the tsunami of December 2004 caused in the Nicobar Islands
was of such a nature and magnitude that it is difficult to explain. It is
difficult
to explain because it took away virtually everything from an entire community.
What can one say of a community where every single individual is affected
in a way that there is almost no semblance of what existed once? It is
difficult because an entire people appear to have been left with almost no
reference
from their past. The past that we otherwise take for granted, suddenly
appears to exist no more.
Simron Jit Singh's new book 'The Nicobar Islands - Cultural Choices in
the Aftermath of the Tsunami' forces the reader (rather the looker) to question
the indestructibility of the past. Can the past be destroyed; is the past
forever,
it appears to ask. In many ways it also provides the answer, actually two-
'No' and 'Yes'.
No, the book says - the past is not forever and shows graphically the loss
that has taken place. If memory is one vector to the past, the tsunami showed
how it can be effectively destroyed. Thousands of people, including many
elders were taken away en masse in the matter of a few minutes. The entire
leadership of entire villages (like on Katchal Island) were washed away by the
unprecendented fury of the waves. With them has gone the knowledge and the
wisdom of what was, at best, a tenuous connection with the past.
If memory is one connection to the past, the other is the material culture of
a people. It did not help that the Nicobari community is primarily a coast
dwelling community. Their settlements, made up essentially of thatched
dwellings on stilts were always on low lying lands near the coast. Nothing
remains now. Everything, every element of their material culture-their
houses, their boats, artifacts and objects used in daily life or having ritual
and
cultural significance, documents, books, papers and photographs-was
washed away.
Little remains, it would appear, that could help the people to connect to the
past, and that too at a time when the present is precarious and the future
extremely
uncertain. The entire Nicobari population of nearly 30,000 people
lives today in uncomfortable intermediate shelters made of tin, where the
struggle is to ensure the basic necessities of life. It is to make sense of this
struggle of the present and future that Singh's book provides vital clues -
even a framework.
Yes, the book also seems to indicate, that the past, at least elements of it,
can be forever. It cannot be destroyed completely. The past does always exist!
This book, if nothing else, is undeniable proof of precisely this. It is an
invaluable record of a culture and a people who have been devastated like
nothing
else in living memory-where, perhaps, the future will make sense only in
proportion to the connection that can be made with the past. It is a proposition
that the author puts forth with extreme caution, not wanting to be seen as
influencing
the 'cultural choices' the community makes. 'The tsunami', he says
in the concluding part of his introduction to the book, 'has taken not only
their
material possessions, but also their pride and dignity. Some perhaps have a
vague memory of what there once was. So how can they build their future
upon a past which has no tangible reference, nothing that they can see or
experience
anymore, and nothing they can draw their energies from? It was to
fulfil this need that made me embark upon this book. This book may thus be
seen as a window to the past, and for the Nicobarese to realise what they have
lost. It is in one way a serenade to the rich cultural heritage of the
Nicobarese,
and in another a wishful desire that the Nicobarese, on seeing these images,
may wish to take some of the elements of their past into the future. In other
words', and one wishes his hopes come true, 'I am secretly hoping that the
images will touch them deeply and provide them with the necessary energy to
negotiate their future in the aftermath of the tsunami'.
'The Nicobar Islands.' is an interestingly done book, rich in visual and
with text in two languages-English and German. Not surprising since the
book has been published in Austria where Singh presently works as a researcher
and lecturer at the Institute of Social Ecology, Faculty for Interdisciplinary
Research at the University of Klagenfurt. What stands out about the
book however are the pictures. It is, infact, more a book of pictures that are
accompanied by text-four short chapters in addition to the foreword and the
introduction. The pictures make up nearly 170 pages of this 230 pages book
and illustrate various aspects of the community, culture, rituals, and symbols
of the Central Nicobars (comprising the islands of Nancowry, Kamorta, Trinket
and Katchal). The pictures are an extremely significant contemporary record
of the years just preceeding the cataclysmic tsunami. They have been
taken by the author during his stay and researches in the islands since he first
came here in 1999.
It is perhaps the last chapter "The aftermath - And the meek shall seek the
earth" that can be considered the highlight of the book. Singh discusses in this
short essay his experience of meeting members of the devastated community
in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. There are important insights into
the experiences, feelings, fears and hopes of the Nicobari community. There
are also sharp comments on the nature of the relief and rehabilitation work
carried out by the government agencies and particularly the large number of
large relief and aid organisations that came in after the tsunami. The pictures
here are a grim record of what the tsunami did-devasted landscapes, pensive
human faces, destroyed infrastructure, settlements and rapidly dying coconut
plantations that are now submerged in water and the temporary shelters that
the community now calls home.

The book, like most publications has its irritants. To begin with-it is clear
that its been done in a hurry. There are serious proofing flaws-particularly
inexcusable are the occurrence of different spellings-Chowra on one page,
Chaura on another; Portifer in one place, Fortifer in another. One feels that
the captions for the photographs too could have been better. A valuable addition
to the book would have been a few more older, and historical pictures.
Presently the book has only five. Another thing that one finds missing,
particularly
because Singh discusses human-nature relationships, is anything
about the environment of the islands. Tectonic activity in the immediate
aftermath
of December 26, 2004 caused significant subsidence of land in the
Nicobar Islands. The islands, like Singh points out, have sunk by an average
of six feet, rendering most habitable and cultivable lands here useless. Even a
brief note-an environmental snapshot of the islands before and after the tsunami
would have added great value to the discussions regarding the possibilities
and the future of the rehabilitation process.
All these however do not take away from the central value of the book. Singh
is certainly one of the most significant chroniclers of the life and society of
the
Nicobars in recent times. His first book, 'The Sea of Influence', that was
published
in 2003 was an outcome of his doctoral work carried out in the University
of Lund in Sweden and provides significant information and insights into the
historical
developments in the Nicobars in the last two and a half centuries.
'The Nicobar Islands - Cultural Choices in the Aftermath of the Tsunami',
like his earlier work, is an extremely important contribution. It could be at
the
same time a record of the past and a window to the future. Whether it ends up
being both is something that only time will tell, and as Singh stresses in his
book, depends on what the Nicobarese finally decide themselves.
Pankaj Sekhsaria1

1
Pankaj Sekhsaria is author of Troubled Islands - Writings on the indigenous
peoples and environment of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and National
Foundation for India - Media fellow 2005-06 for writing on the A&N Islands.
Copyright: © Pankaj Sekhsaria 2006. This is an open access article distributed
under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and
distribution of
the article, provided the original work is cited.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

THE USE AND KNOWLEDGE OF HERPETOFAUNA OF LITTLE NICOBAR ISLAND, INDIA
by Manish Chandi
From the latest issue of Conservation & Society Volume 4, No. 1, March 2006

http://www.conservationandsociety.org/cs_4_1_155-165.pdf

Abstract: The island of Little Nicobar in the southern Nicobars is the least
developed of all the inhabited islands in the archipelago. The Nicobarese are
one of the few tribal communities who are exempt from the provisions of the
Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Studies on the use of wildlife in the
Nicobars are rare in spite of the knowledge and use of species for consumption
and sustenance. This article focuses on the ethnobiology of herpetofauna
in Little Nicobar and the methods of use. This was part of a larger study on
the food production and procurement strategies of the 'Payuh', who are the
ethnic group of islanders who identify themselves as such on the island of
Little
Nicobar and surrounding regions; the term 'Payuh' is in use even in the
Nancowry group of islands and on the south western coast of Great Nicobar
Island but these populations are culturally distinct in many ways. Though
local communities have lived off forests and fauna for many years, and occupied
the coast for habitation and conversion into plantations, wild species still
persist on the island in less disturbed habitats, unlike other islands in the
archipelago. This article details the way these islanders describe the
herpetofauna.
Keywords: herpetofauna, Little Nicobar, India, food, resource use, habitat
conservation

INTRODUCTION
THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR group of islands are situated in the Bay of Bengal,
spanning latitude 6°45˘N to 13°41˘N and longitudes 92°12˘E to 93°57˘E.
  The Ten Degree Channel separates the two island groups, distancing
the Nicobar archipelago 160 km south of the Andaman Islands. The Nicobar
group of 24 islands is clustered into three groups, and only 12 are
inhabited. The northern group has two islands Car Nicobar Island and to its
south, the small island of Battimalv. Car Nicobar island is the headquarters of
the Nicobar District. The middle section of the group consists of Tillangchong,
Chowra, Teressa, Bompoka, K/Camorta, Trinket, Katchal and Nancowry
islands. The southern Nicobars is a group of two large islands, Great
and Little Nicobar Islands, and smaller islands, Kondul, Pulomilo, Menchal,
Trak, Treis, Kabra and Meroe; the last five are uninhabited (Saldhana 1989;
Andrews and Sankaran 2002) (Figure 2). However neighbouring islanders
visit these islands to harvest produce from their plantations.
The islanders are commonly referred to as 'Nicobaris' by outsiders as a general
term for residents of the Nicobar archipelago, but these islanders have
different
dialects and terms of reference for each other. The 'Payuh' are a group of
islanders who inhabit the southern Nicobars, mainly Little Nicobar Island,
Kondul
and Pulomilo while some of their relatives are also distributed throughout the
archipelago mainly in the Nancowry group of islands. Payuh, which means 'native
person', is used by these islanders to distinguish themselves from other
islanders
of the Nicobars, by dialect/language and geographical location.
This article discusses perceptions and knowledge of the Payuh of the
herpetofauna
that are part of their island ecosystem; this knowledge has been built up
over generations of interaction and use. The distribution of these faunal
elements
across the island makes confrontation and regimes of perception and use
inevitable.
The island is a mosaic of wet evergreen forest tracts in the interior, coastal
beach forest, freshwater swamps, mangroves, and riparian forest that cut across
the island. There has been little or no previous documentation of the culture
and
faunal resources of the island of Little Nicobar. This article attempts to
present a
different way of looking at the species discussed; namely through the eyes of
the
indigenous islanders.
METHODS
Fieldwork was conducted between the years 2000 and 2003 focusing on use of
natural resources during which this information was also gathered. The island
of Little Nicobar was surveyed to map settlement regions after which nearby
islands that are used for plantations were also visited. My focus being on the
production and processing of food found naturally on the island, fieldwork
extended
to more than 3-4 months at a stretch over two and a half years in various
seasons. This gave me ample opportunity to observe and participate in life
amongst the islanders I was staying with. My residence was largely confined
to a small hamlet and two others along the west coast primarily as they were
the most isolated, those that continued most traditions, was the richest in
floral
and faunal elements in which I was interested in knowing of how they
were used and also because the most amount of hunting and gathering activities
were concentrated in this area.
RESULTS
The large reptiles that the Payuh frequently come into contact with are the
saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, the four species of marine turtles,
the water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator nicobarensis) and the reticulated
python (Python reticulatus). Other herpetofauna found on the island are not
common in Payuh dialogue or use, but are known by those who come into
contact with such fauna during their infrequent treks in the forest. The
indigenous
islanders of the Andaman and Nicobar islands are exempt from the
schedules of the Indian Wild Life Protection Act (1972), and are allowed to
use wildlife for sustenance but not as articles for sale. The Payuh, like other
Nicobar Islanders are sedentary and live along the coast by tending plantations
and fishing. Forays into the forest are largely by a few men, to hunt or
collect timber and other building materials when necessary. Women and children
are largely confined to the precincts of the settlement and gather such
information
only through the descriptions of eventful hunts and creatures
encountered by men who venture into the forest for food. Amongst the Nicobar
herpetofauna (Das 1999, 2002) discussed here, apart from the Malayan
Box Turtle, frogs, agamids, skinks and snakes, the other large reptiles are all
sources of protein and part of the Payuh diet.
Malayan Box Turtles (Cuora amboinensis), known as 'Etaing' in Payuh
dialect, are commonly kept as pets; since they are harmless and easy to look
after, these turtles are tethered or are kept in an enclosure. It is common but
elusive and rarely found, only being noticed and flushed out by dogs
accompanying
hunters in the forest.
Due to the difficulty in finding this species, nothing much is known of its
natural history except that it is found in swampy regions in the forest, usually
inundated during the monsoon. This species occurs only on the two large islands,
Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar Islands, and is not known to exist on
the surrounding islands (Das 1996, 1999 for the geographic distribution of
this species). The reticulated python (Python reticulatus), the largest snake
found in the archipelago, is known as 'Yammai' in the Payuh dialect. Another
reference 'Yammai kamai' literally means 'eater of our chicken'. This species
is also referred to as 'Tulanth', a name more commonly used by all islanders
in the Nicobars and not specific to the Payuh. The python is named for its
uncanny
habit of attempting to feed on prized domestic fowl of these islanders.
It is known to visit households to feast on this easy prey, but is often
discovered
before its meal is digested and is killed. There have been instances when
large pythons have been killed after feasting on fully-grown domestic pigs.
After the snake is killed it is usually sent to sea on a miniaturized canoe, to
displace it as an element of destruction from the village precincts. Some Payuh
hunters told me that pythons looked different in the inland forest compared
to the ones found along the coast and settlements. The pythons found in
the inland forest are supposed to be darker in colouration, heavier bodied and
longer than those found on the coast. Not having seen a single live python in
the wild the Payuh suggested I visit Menchal Island along the northeastern
coast, which was supposed to have a healthy population of pythons. The
plantations
of the Payuh on such outlying islands are chiefly of coconut. Banana
trees of many varieties are also planted along the edge of coconut plantations
close to the forest. The pythons are known to frequent the banana trees to prey
on birds and fruit bats that feed on the fruit. We searched all trees with ripe
and ripening fruit, but were unsuccessful in locating the reptile. The birds
that
visit the trees are usually parakeets (Psittacula caniceps), hill mynas (Gracula
religiosa) and black naped orioles (Oriolus chinensis). Pythons coil around
the ripe bunch of fruit and lie in wait for the birds and bats that visit the
trees.
Apart from the nearly universal disgust and fear of snakes, some Payuh found
such behaviour intelligent enough for the snake to deserve some of their
respect.
Apart from the python, other snakes that are seen on occasion are the 'Biyohe'
the bronze-backed tree snake (Dendrelaphis pictus), the 'Kaonl' the
dog-faced mangrove snake (Cerberus rhynchops) and the 'Hiya paloah' the
marsh snake (Gerardia prevostiana) (see Table 1) all of which are common
but rarely seen. The Biyohe is often seen atop coconut trees searching for
geckoes or small skinks such as young of Dasia nicobarensis/olivacea

'Palainh'. The sea snake 'Gok layuh' (Laticauda colubrina) comes ashore at a
few places on the main island but is seen more commonly on the smaller islands
such as at Kabra Island, known for its mosquitoes and sea snakes.


Sea turtles, 'Ka owis' are a common source of meat; as in other parts of the
world they are exploited while nesting, and are also harpooned from canoes.
Four species are known to nest in and around the archipelago (Bhaskar 1993;
Andrews et al. 2001), and more specifically on the western coasts of Little
Nicobar Island. Of these, the leatherback sea turtle is the only species that is
not hunted for its meat nor are its eggs collected, except by a few very elderly
people. The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the hawksbill sea turtle
(Eretmochelys imbricata) visit mostly outlying islands including some
beaches on Little Nicobar Island, whereas the leatherback sea turtle
(Dermochelys
coriacea) and the olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) are known to
nest only on the beaches of the larger islands, Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar
Islands. Some Payuh reported another species that nests occasionally on
the smaller beaches, similar in appearance to the Green sea turtle but with a
larger head. However surveys conducted since 1977 in the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands provide no evidence of any other species nesting on beaches in
this island group (Bhaskar 1993; Andrews et al. 2001). These islanders have a
name for this species 'Kao hippuh'; the other local sea turtle names are,
'Hikunth'
for the leatherback sea turtle, 'Kao ka' green sea turtle, 'Kao kayil'
hawksbill sea turtle, and 'Kao reyeh' olive ridleys.
Eggs of these species are collected and eaten during the nesting season,
when available and found. Only a few elderly people consume the eggs of the
leatherback turtle, undeterred by its smell and a local belief that it has
energy
draining properties and hastens aging. The arrival of the sea turtles is
associated
with the monsoon winds, 'Suhop' the southwest monsoon winds and
'Phool' the northeastern winds. It is observed that hawksbills and green sea
turtles arrive to nest after the leatherback and olive ridley sea turtles,
starting
in May, following the pattern of northeastern winds which blow before the
southwest monsoon. The leatherback sea turtle is the only species that is not
eaten and all hunted hawksbill turtles are checked for the presence of fat
around its neck. The presence of fat is an indicator that the turtle has been
feeding on algae or a species of sea grass, which makes the meat poisonous
and unfit for consumption. Most turtle meat is consumed raw (any raw edible
meat is called 'uhavgh'), directly from the carapace, choice portions are
carved out for children. Sea turtles are hunted at night using a torch of dried
coconut leaves, or with a petromax lantern held aloft on a canoe punted
slowly over sea grass beds offshore or over nearby coral reefs. The disoriented
turtle surfaces and is seemingly confused by the light, making it easy to
harpoon from the canoe. Coral reef regions known as feeding sites of turtles
during the day are visited in the hope of harpooning a turtle. Invariably these
turtles happen to be hawksbill sea turtles. The Green sea turtle is the next
most commonly hunted turtle. Some Payuh also keep sea turtle hatchlings as
pets. Very rarely do the turtles grow to a size worthy of it to be eaten. More
often, the hatchlings die or are released by children while playing with their
pets in nearby creeks. Green, olive ridley and hawksbill sea turtles that are
encountered on the beach while nesting are promptly captured for food. At the
start of the nesting season for these species, the first nesting turtle is
usually
only known by its tracks, after which a count of 12-14 days is kept by the
help of a leaf of the Cycas (Cycas rumphii)-'rai tiwiyle'. The leaflets are
broken off on each day until the specific number of days is reached. Then the
entire beach is patrolled at night to await the arrival of the turtle that came
earlier on, in the belief that it would arrive again and bring other sea turtles
along with it to nest.
The monitor lizard (Varanus salvator nicobarensis) is the only reptile that
has different names within Payuh ethnoanemology. It is distinguished by size;
the larger more commonly seen lizard is called 'haroouin', whereas its juvenile
counterpart is called 'ukoungeh'. Brightly streaked hatchling monitors are
called 'tamau heeauwegh'. The tamau heeauwegh is considered a delicacy as
it is not often caught and moreover the fat it contains adds to its taste as
well
ignites the fire 'heeauwegh' of the barbecue. These are not considered to be
separate species; the names distinguish size classes and taste. Monitors are
acknowledged to be clever animals, mainly because they get to megapode
(Megapodius freycinet abboti) eggs before humans can and are able to steal
crocodile eggs with ease. This lizard is also known to lay its eggs in megapode
mounds, after consuming the megapode eggs if any, or eggs of the sunbeam
snake (Xenopeltis unicolor), 'Ngooh moh', also known to use the mound
to lay its eggs. This large lizard is not hunted regularly but only left to
chance
encounters in the forest, when hunters' dogs sometimes encounter and corner
them. However the cleverness and agility of the monitor lizard has earned it a
status among the Payuh as the elder brother of the crocodile.
Of all the reptiles that the Payuh come in contact with, the saltwater crocodile
(Crocodylus porosus), [known to the Payuh as 'Kohnghueveh'] is respected
for its strength and its meat as a culinary delicacy. Though it inhabits
several estuarine creeks and freshwater streams that criss-cross the island,
only a few Payuh hunters are both brave and knowledgeable about the techniques
to hunt this species. Though the final hunt is fairly simple, the knowledge
of the terrain deep inside the forest where it is easy to hunt crocodiles
that inhabit pools in freshwater streams, and being able to 'study the water'
for crocodile trails requires an experienced hunter. This experience is scarce
among the Payuh, and thus the meat is elevated to a delicacy, which is shared
generously and equally among the participants of the hunt, and other hamlet
residents. Due to the lack of experience amongst most Payuh, crocodile hunts
are incidental and very rare, being restricted to periods when conditions along
the courses of streams are favourable. On the other hand, crocodiles are also
allowed to inhabit creeks adjoining villages until they begin to prey on the
Payuh's dogs and pigs. If any such incident should occur, the offending
crocodile or an unfortunate substitute from that particular creek is killed
soon.
Only a few hunters are accustomed to the techniques of crocodile hunting, so
in the event of any meat being available, it is shared with all neighbours in
the
village. Hunting the species for its meat involves long treks into the upper
reaches of the freshwater stream, where crocodiles are known to nest and prey on
boar, macaques and fish. Once the shallows of the meandering stream are
reached, the hunter studies the deep pools found invariably at every turn of the
stream. Slide marks and claw prints on the banks are the most revealing signs of
the animal, but these are not sometimes seen due to the canopy overhang and the
unsuitability of a basking spot for the crocodile. I eventually learnt that a
faint
trail left by the animal on the stream bed while swimming upstream was the
clearest and latest evidence of the crocodile's presence. This is established by
poking a fine long stick, which also serves as a harpoon, into the deep pools to
check for the presence of the crocodile. When a poke results in a twitch by the
animal underwater, a barbed harpoon head tied to a long rope is used to snare
the
crocodile. A few more harpoon heads are similarly thrust into the crocodile,
which by now starts rolling and struggles to get loose, until it tires. The
stressed
reptile is hauled up onto the bank and is killed by a quick jab of a knife
behind
the skull to sever the spinal chord. The animal is then cut up from the belly
and
all the meat is apportioned; only the innards, the skull and claws are left
behind.
The innards are thrown into the water for other crocodiles or given to the
accompanying
dogs; the skull is strung up on the nearest branch in the forest as a trophy
of the hunt, and is not taken home. The meat is not skinned, but is cut to
sizeable portions to be barbecued.
Hunts take place only during summer when the stream is shallower and
hunting crocodiles is easier. During the rains, inundated regions along streams
are avoided, as by then the crocodiles have moved into the forest areas near
the streams to nest and are more aggressive. During the monsoon, the Payuh
hunters believe that crocodiles roam along the inundated foothills of hillocks
in the forest to prey on wild pigs. During this period, hunters avoid these
regions
for fear of losing their prized hunting dogs to crocodiles. Crocodiles are
believed to possess three pairs of eyes by some Payuh hunters. Apart from the
regular eyes, the gular glands and the paracloacal glands in between scales on
the ventral surface are believed to be eyes that crocodiles use underwater to
locate prey and hunters. This adds to the extra care and respect with which
crocodiles are treated by experienced hunters who are capable of exploiting it
as a resource.
The crocodile also features in shamanistic rituals on the island. Shamans,
'Minlooneh', use a variety of effigies, 'Kareyou/Kareva', to both treat and
exorcise illnesses and cast spells. The effigies are carved according to the
perception
of the illness afflicting the patient, and what the shaman in his trance
sees beyond the obvious. A few effigies incorporating crocodile heads were
observed, some with a man's head in its jaws, others as part of a larger
creature,
an amalgamation of cryptic animals seen in the shaman's trance. The
only other reptile or amphibian to figure as a 'Kareyou' was a toad, 'pindram'.
I was told a belief of a gargantuan 'pindram', which is said to live
deep in the forest and has been seen only by a few ancestral 'minlooneh'. It is
said to be visible to only few people; the effigies are reminiscent of its
existence
in the healing and spiritual world of the Payuh.
CONCLUSION
With such close proximity to herpetofauna, and their use over centuries, the
Payuh appear to have (until now) been successful in integrating their
traditional
livelihood patterns with modern conservation ideology. The use of species
is restricted to successful and knowledgeable hunters, seasonal variation,
and fortunately an absence of trade in these species until now. Being coastal
dwellers, the forest and water systems are intact and pristine, resulting in
natural habitat for many species, promoting both wildlife and human existence.
The use of species being varied over seasons and substantiated with
fish and horticultural fruit, the Payuh seem to take only what is needed, secure
in the knowledge of its availability in future.

Acknowledgements
I thank Harry Andrews and the Andaman Nicobar Environmental Team, a division
of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust for the opportunity and resources
that facilitated the survey. At Little Nicobar Island, Moses, Abed, Hajoon,
Roghtauh, P. Joora and Kanyungh for sharing experience, time and space. The
District Commissioners (Andamans and Nicobar districts) for permission to
visit these restricted tribal areas.
Notes
1. Three species of Mabuya (M. multifasciata, M. rudis and M. rugifera) and
another
skink Lygosoma bowringi are known from the region; all are referred to as
'Pangaonh',
with no specific name for each. Similarly, the two Dasia species are
known as 'Palainh'; all geckoes with the exception of Gekko smithii are called
'kalachiya'. The Asian house gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus has successfully
colonised
huts on uninhabited islands such as Meroe, Menchal, Treis and Trak islets,
by arriving on such islands as stowaways, during plantation work. Gekko smithii,
Dasia nicobarensis and D. olivacea are frequently encountered while climbing
coconut
trees to either harvest nuts or while tapping toddy.
2. A fish, of the family Syngnathidae, order Gasterosteiformes, [sea horse's and
pipe
fishes] was also described as a small crocodile-like lizard locally called
'Kumyeh
kaunh 'due to its visual similarity to lizards. This observation occurred while
leafing
through the photographic guide and seeing the picture of the Gharial (Gavialis
gangeticus). A marine snake eel ('Hinkat'), which mimics the colubrine sea snake
(Laticauda colubrine) in colour was also seen on reefs in the region. When
disturbed
(the eel was initially mistaken by myself to be a colubrine sea snake and
my attempt to capture the specimen disturbed it) the eel reverted to a dull
brown
colour of surrounding rocks and boulders along the reef flat.
Herpetofauna on Little Nicobar Island, India / 165
3. Most freshwater snakes are called 'Hiya palaoh' unless identified carefully.
The
Nicobarese worm lizard Dibamus nicobaricum is often confused with earthworms.
The small-eared striped skink Lipinia macrotympana is believed to have
properties
to cure urinary tract infections, and is used by placing the animal on the
patient
and massaging the region with it. Similarly toads Bufo camortensis, are believed
to possess curative properties, especially to clean areas severely infected with
pus,
such as splinters decomposing in the skin, and also cases of
folliculitis/abscesses.
The remedy in these cases is to place a live toad with an incision on its
ventral region
to expose the beating heart and place it over the infected part so that the
throbbing heart may absorb the infection and relieve pain. This technique though
often mentioned by suffering people asking for relief, is rarely practised due
to the
fear/disgust evoked by the amphibian and the pain that this method might induce.
Some swear by this as the most effective remedy.
REFERENCES
Andrews, H.V. and V. Sankaran. 2002. Sustainable Management of Protected Areas
in the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands. ANET, IIPA and FFI, New Delhi.
Andrews, H.V., S. Krishnan and P. Biswas. 2001. The Status and Distribution of
Marine Turtles
around the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago. GOI/UNDP Sea Turtle Project, IND/
977964.
Bhaskar, S. 1993. The Status and Ecology of Sea Turtles in the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands.
ST-1/93. Center for Herpetology, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, Mamallapuram.
Das, I. 1996. Biogeography of the Reptiles of South Asia. Krieger Publishing
Company, Malabar,
Florida.
Das, I. 1999. Biogeography of the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands.
In: Tropical Island Herpetofauna-Origin, Current Diversity and Conservation (ed.
H.
Ota), pp. 43-77. Elsevier Science B. V., Amsterdam.
Das, I. 2002. A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of India. New
Holland Publishers,
London.
Saldanha, C.J. 1989. Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep. An Environmental
Impact Assessment.
Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.


Contact: Manish Chandi, Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team (ANET), Post Bag
1, Junglighat
P.O., Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India.
Address for Correspondence
Manish Chandi, C/O Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, Post Bag 4, Mamallapuram 603104,
Tamil
Nadu, India.
E-mail: manishchandi@...

Copyright: © Manish Chandi 2006. This is an open access article distributed
under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and
distribution of the article,
provided the original work is cited.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Self-Styled Messiahs of the Islands

By Zubair Ahmed

There is no dearth of self-styled saviours and messiahs in our Islands.
However, it is we who make their existence and survival possible, with our
inconceivable foolishness and stupidity. It seems that the Islands have more
protectors and messiahs than the population.
Tsunami victims have their own saviours. The Islanders suddenly needs
protectors from outside invasion. Jarawas need guardians to advocate their
cause.
Ellsworth Toohey—a villainous character in Ayn Rand's most popular
philosophical novel, 'Fountainhead'—has many avatars in our Islands.
Ellsworth Toohey is not a man without brains. He is the only man with
brains, as he perceives and makes others believe.
"Don't set out to raze all shrines - you'll frighten men. Enshrine
mediocrity - and the shrines are razed . . . Kill by laughter. Laughter is
an instrument of human joy. Learn to use it as a weapon of destruction. Turn
it into a sneer. It's simple. Tell them to laugh at virtue. Don't let
anything remain sacred in a man's soul - and his soul won't be sacred to
him. Kill reverence and you've killed the hero in man" That's Toohey. He is
an unabashed leader, who styles himself as representative of the will of the
masses. Having no true genius, he makes himself excellent by manipulating
the masses to believe that mediocrity is excellent.
Here is a Toohey, who directly and indirectly hurts our conscience.
This avatar is an organizer of communities. He knows what is better for us.
He is a lawyer, a writer, an architect, a unionist and the messiah of all
tsunami victims. He enshrines mediocrity. He wants to control people. "Great
men can't be ruled," Toohey says. "Therefore, we don't want any great men."
This saint is surrounded by mediocre people, without original thoughts. He
is a man who could never be, and he himself knows it.
A powerful critic, of all those against him, he seeks control over all the
fields as a means of gaining wider power. He is not a disillusioned man.
Instead of embarking on a constructive program of building his strength, he
chooses the destructive path of tearing down others. He seeks power over
them in every possible way. Under the guise of friendship and support, he
takes over their souls, telling them how to conduct their lives. Either way,
he stands for one constant-the morality of self-sacrifice-for he intends to
be the beneficiary of those sacrifices. He preaches a doctrine of selfless
service to society.
His power-seeking activities are manifested in two interrelated forms. At
the private level, he cultivates a legion of brainwashed followers who have
relinquished all independent functioning and obey his every command. He is a
cult leader in this regard. His method is to convince others to give up
their values, those things they love most; and that gives meaning to their
lives.
He is a man whose life is utterly dominated by other men-by the schemes,
scams, plots, and machinations necessary to control others. He does not
accomplish anything. His entire existence is devoted to gaining spiritual
and political power over others. Others are not merely the dominant - they
are the exclusive-factor in his life. His existence is defined by what
others think of him; they are his reality; he is real only in their
evaluations. He needs others to regard him as an important (indeed, the
all-important) factor in their lives. He tries to be the panacea of all
their problems, and diseases. He has advocated all cases in advance; that
you might just be thinking about now. He controls many societies, and
unions. He has created mediocre leaders, or has organized them under his
tutelage. He makes them behave and protest the way he wants. He prepares the
letters and they sign on it. They feel important, when he listen to them. He
needs power, but seems unaware of the way to achieve it.
In the aftermath of tsunami, he protested against all the international and
national NGOs, involved in the relief work. He registered his protest
everywhere. He tried to find out their credibility. Later, when he saw the
tsunami of funds flowing, he gave up the protests and became their
mouthpiece. He concentrated on the downtrodden and the poor. As the
Islanders know, his heart lies with them.
He protests against the design of temporary shelters. Later, he builds them
to protect the poor victims from rain and sunshine. He adamantly fights
against outsiders getting permanent houses. And then, he builds it for them.

He advocates reservation for the poor Islanders. His umbrella is so wide and
all embracing; he befriends those, who are against reservation. He runs a
parallel government. As Toohey in 'Fountainhead' has associations for
Literature, Architecture, Advocates and other fields, this Toohey also has
different associations, fora and letterheads. The mediocre heads of these
associations meet weekly and discuss the course of action, as if they decide
the course of action of the administration and preside over the destiny of
the Islanders.
Tsunami has produced two types of Tooheys: first, those who made money out
of tsunami and are now out to buy respectability. Secondly those, who have
earned enough respect; they are now selling it for money.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear Manish,
We can't sympathise with you. We have broader interests. Not just the
comforts of backpackers. Kindly read these stories:

Air conditioned tin ka dibba
	 The Administration had ordered for eighteen 75-pax vessels
for coastal services. Fourteen of which had arrived and two more are
awaited. Orders for two vessels have been cancelled. Each vessel
costs between Rs. 8-10 crores.
	 The traffic between Neil, Havelock, Long Island, Rangat and
Port Blair is quite heavy as a large number of tourists visit
Havelock Island. There is a rush for seats both by the local
residents and the tourists alike. It has got a capacity of just
seventy five passengers.
	 These are all air conditioned, fully closed vessels which
neither the tourists nor the local commuters ever demanded. The
tourists enjoy watching waves, schools of Dolphin, flying fish and
generally the green coastline passing along as the vessel moves
forward. But they are jam-packed in a small room with a television
that never works, a music system that is always out of order and an
air conditioning system that stops functioning within three months of
the arrival of a new vessel.
	 An expert in Maritime affairs states that an air conditioned
vessel cannot sail carrying passengers since there is no arrangements
for fresh air and any number of wall mounted fans or pedestal fans
cannot substitute the air conditioning. Such vessels, he says, should
compulsorily be laid off till the air conditioning works
satisfactorily.
	 "How could the administration approve the design of a vessel
that costs about 10 crores yet carries just 75 passengers at enormous
running cost", he wondered.


The Story of MV Teal
Manning – A One Sided Contract
By Staff Reporter

Port Blair; Manning contract to operate and run the vessels of
shipping department is a new phenomenon introduced a decade back. The
masters and engineers of the department had protested vehemently
against it and they still do.
But the master and engineers are themselves responsible for such a
development to some extent, it is learnt. The department, at that
time found itself helpless to maintain services and achieve optimum
utilization of vessels. The masters would not undertake voyages
beyond the scheduled ferry services. The practise of Manning Contact
has its genesis there.
The contractor gets a whopping Rs 3.85 lakh per vessel per month.
The services rendered by the manning contractors-engaged-masters too
have not been very encouraging. They are not conversant with the
creeks and sea routes, submerged rocks, atolls and shallow waters. It
results in frequent accidents bending shafts causing lay off of the
vessels. MV Teal was a victim of such inexperience, allege the
masters of shipping department.
Rs 8.00 crore MV Teal was a new vessel having rendered just six
months service when she ran over a submerged rock shearing the bottom
plate along the length of the vessel. The propeller shaft too was
bent.  "Thankfully, balance tank and fuel tank were not damaged or
the vessel would have simply sunk," said a retired master.
MV Teal was in dock for repairs when the tsunami waves sunk it. The
department had to shell out Rs 2.00 crores to lift it. Engineers and
masters of the department are sceptic about its re-commissioning. "It
should have been written off straightaway and a new vessel ordered.
The Manning Contractors are not held responsible in such cases of
accidents and damages. They continue to get paid even if the vessel
is under repairs for months after month.  "Another way to blow tax
payers money" commented the master.

MV Rangat: Passengers held hostage for 12 hours
By Staff Reporter

Port Blair: The Department of Shipping Services runs a number of
ferries from Port Blair to different destinations like Neil Island,
Havelock Island, Strait Island, Long Island,  Rangat and Mayabunder
almost on a daily basis. Havelock Island being a tourist spot has got
two ferries in a day; one in the morning and the other in the evening.
	 On May 09, 2006, MV Rangat was on her scheduled sailing for
Mayabunder at 6 o'clock in the morning. She went upto Ross Island and
her engines developed some snag. She had to return for the
rectification of the defects. As the repair work was going on the
passengers were not allowed to disembark or leave the vessel for the
reasons known only to the master of the vessel.
	 After three hours of struggle she was repaired and sailed
again. But hardly had she crossed Ross Island, some other trouble
cropped up and she had to be attended again. The repairs works went
on for another four hours. But there was no change in the plight of
the passengers. They were not allowed to disembark. When some
passengers tried to disembark and straighten their limbs, the crew
intervened and dissuaded them on the plea that the vessel was about
to leave.
Till 6 o'clock in the evening she was under repair and the passengers
were boiling inside the so-called air conditioned passenger hall. The
air conditioners on the upper deck never worked. The lower deck or
berths did get air-conditioners working in the afternoon.
The air conditioning system of about a dozen of such vessels has
failed and it is a torture traveling in these tin ka dibbas. But
these vessels keep on plying violating the provisions of Merchant
Shipping Act for air conditioned vessels.
From 6 am in the morning to 6 pm in the evening the passengers were
treated like those of a hijacked aircraft. Kept under strict guard,
not allowed to disembark or even get down to the jetty. The
passengers consisted of a group of women, children, old and young and
all of them had to survive without food, water or a whiff of fresh
air.
The DSS has over a dozen of similar vessels available with it. It is
evident that no other vessel of the same family was available in
working condition to replace the defective one to take the passengers
to Mayabunder.
The ship finally sailed at about 6 o'clock in the evening and reached
Mayabunder at midnight. The Directorate of Shipping Services has a 20-
year maintenance contract with Yenmar, the Japanese manufacturers of
the engines.


Shipping – Sick Child of Administration
By Staff Reporter

Port Blair: After the Shipping Corporation of India, the Directorate
of Shipping Services is the largest fleet owners in India. Asset-wise
also it is the richest department of A&N Administration. But the
similarities and comparisons end there. On the ground, it is the most
inefficient, wasteful, negligent and shoddily managed department of
the Administration. It has got a fleet of about a hundred vessels of
various sizes, specifications and utilities. But there is a perennial
shortage of vessels for inter-island services. It can be safely said
that, at any given time, over 70% of the vessels are not available
for the service of the people for whom they are meant.
	 The Planning Commission sanctions purchase of 20-25 vessels
in every Five Year Plan without going into the utilization, the
revenue earned and the state of repair of the vessels purchased
during the previous five Year Plan. As soon as the new batch of
vessels arrives they are immediately pressed into service; seven days
a week and 365 days a year without any maintenance, care and respite.
By the time these overworked, fatigued vessels refuse to run any
more, a new batch of vessels arrive and the old ones are conveniently
parked at some corner in the Dockyard complex or at Hope Town or at
any convenient place far from the prying eyes. This vicious cycle
goes on and on.
	 It was not so a few decades back till its upgradation into a
Directorate. It was simply Marine Department run by a single gazetted
officer designated Engineer & Harbour Master. The older generation
still remembers Late M.K. Sandel walking briskly in his boiler suit.
He had converted the entire department into a well oiled machine that
could handle any kind of job pertaining to ships or any other
constructions. At that time the boat building yards now lying empty,
used to be buzzing with activities where wooden boats were built for
use in the island. MV Kismat, deployed in Harbour ferry and MV Moli
that used to make trips upto Mayabunder, were the shining examples of
the workmen of that era and the wonders they could create. Even now
small motor launchers built at Marine Dockyard are in operation. The
smaller drydock was designed & built by late Sandel through the
workers of Marine department only.
	 The up-gradation of the department and the induction of a
number of gazetted officers' snapped the close ties between the
officer and the workers. Corruption; naked and blatant, swallowed the
department.
	 Today, it is a top heavy department where no positive
development is visible. It is thoroughly corroded edifice that has
lost its structural integrity. A Classis case of systems failure!
There is no one who has any clue about the ways the department can be
salvaged. Immediately after the departure of Cdr. Paul James, the
department got a Trinity of M/S Dharam Pal, IAS, Rajesh Kumar UTCS
and Cdr. Rajinder Kumar.  In all probability, the former two might
have seen a ship for the first time. It will be a gross injustice to
the officers to expect too much from them.
	 In such a scenario, unless something drastically serious is
considered at the topmost level there is no hope to resurrect the
department that is sinking deeper day by day.



-- In andamanicobar@..., manish chandi
<manishchandi@y...> wrote:
>
>
> I dont know if you are aware, but MV Ramanujam is a
> flat bottomed vessel , meant for riverways and not the
> sea. Of dancing dolphins- yes you can dance with them
> when the ship pitches and rolls uncontrollably in a
> sea with a slight swell!- Flying fish- when the sea
> actually gets rough well you can see flying pieces of
> breakfast that tourists try to gorge on the tub, in
> the sink and on the floor, half digested. I have no
> mercy for MV Ramanujam, having not got tickets on the
> tin dubbas, i had to sail on MV R...with the sea
> getting rough in December last year- you could
> actually see the sky for a moment and the next moment
> the waves below the window- she rolls like nothing
> else at sea; many tourists who were enjoying their
> breakfast asked the captain to turn the vessel around
> for the safety of land in Port Blair- have wasted 2
> days like this- the tin dubbas on the other hand
> plough their way and reach about 2 hours before MV
> Ramanujam- the tour operators like MV Ramanujam as
> they dont have to entertain the one day tourists due
> to the extra 2hours going and 2 hrs coming back on
> board the flat tub.The unwary tourist gets an hour or
> 2 at Havelock does the sacred act of pouring sea water
> on their head like ganga jal at beach No 7, is whisked
> along the sights of touristy Havelock and its time to
> board the ship to return to Port Blair.
>  If efficiency is the point- the tin dubbas do the job
> very well. MV Ramanujam, it was suggested by a local
> engineer would do well if used as a vessel for the
> Harbour cruise tourist, food , drinks, dance floor
> would fulfill the purpose very well than rocking the
> hell out of tourists and passengers when the sea
> shakes a little etc.
> --- zubair ahmed <zubairpbl@g...> wrote:
>
> > The Light of Andamans, Issue 22, 20 May 2006.
> >
> > Havelock – Tourism scuttled for suitable Boat
> >
> > By Staff Reporter
> >
> > Havelock: M.V.Ramanujam, a Shipping Corporation of
> > India managed
> > vessel plying between Port Blair and Havelock, had
> > its last voyage on
> > May 10, 2006 before proceeding on for Annual
> > Passenger Survey. It
> > would be around four months before she resumes her
> > inter-island
> > services. M.V.Ramanujam was plying between Havelock
> > and Port Blair in
> > addition to two trips per day that the
> > air-conditioned tin ka dibbas,
> > called speedboats by the local people.
> >  M.V.Ramanujam was the vessel of choice of the
> > tourists and the local
> > people alike for its cheaper tickets and openness.
> > The tourists could
> > enjoy the views of the passing coastlines, the
> > flying fish and the
> > dancing dolphins if they were lucky enough to spot a
> > school. The open
> > space allowed them to move freely in the ship, catch
> > plenty of fresh
> > air and generally enjoy themselves.
> >  For the local people, it was cheaper and could
> > carry all kinds of
> > cargo like basketsful of crabs, fowls; goats,
> > vegetables and tonnes of
> > banana.
> >  Both kinds of travellers were happy and contended
> > though it was a
> > trifle slow compared to the tin ka dibbas. But the
> > advantages far
> > outweighed the disadvantage of speed.
> >  M.V.Ramanujam used to haul over 500 passengers
> > during peak tourist
> > season whereas tin ka dibba can, at best, carry 100
> > passengers. The
> > gap between the fares of the two is enormous, the
> > ratio being 1:5.
> >  The average arrival of tourists was 250 per day
> > even after the
> > torrential rains. But from the very next day when
> > the tin ka dibbas
> > took over, it has nosedived to 25-30. The reason is
> > simple; there are
> > local people who must travel for various reasons
> > whatever the fare.
> >  The tour operators, the taxi and jeep owners and
> > the lodge and hotel
> > owners have started missing the services of
> > M.V.Ramanujam badly from
> > the very next day of its withdrawal. They all are
> > aware of the slump
> > during monsoon season. But monsoon is yet to set in
> > and their sources
> > of livelihood have been brutally cut off long before
> > the closure of
> > the season. And just for want of a suitable vessel
> > to connect Havelock
> > to Port Blair.
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >     andamanicobar-unsubscribe@...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

19 May 2006

INDIA: DOCTORS CONFIRM JARAWA HAVE MEASLES

Doctors on the Andaman Islands have confirmed that members of the
Jarawa tribe have been suffering from measles. The local authorities
had denied that there had been an outbreak of measles within the
tribe, claiming instead that a number of Jarawa had 'heat rash'.

A large number of Jarawa children have been admitted to G. B. Pant
Hospital in the town of Port Blair in the past month, with various
diseases including pneumonia and eye problems - both common
after-effects of measles. All have now been returned to their forest.
Doctors told the BBC this week that the children were in fact
suffering from measles.

When 108 Jarawa contracted measles in 1999, the local authorities
also denied that the Jarawa had had the disease, but were forced to
concede several weeks later following the testimony of doctors on the
islands. Survival has repeatedly warned that the authorities' failure
to keep outsiders out of the Jarawa reserve, and to close the road
that runs illegally through the reserve, put the Jarawa at risk of
potentially fatal diseases.

Diseases like measles have wiped out many tribal peoples worldwide.
In the 19th century, the disease wiped out at least half of the Great
Andamanese on one island and all those on another island. That tribe,
once 5,000 strong, now numbers only 41 people. In 1978, following the
construction of a highway through their forest, four Yanomami
communities in Brazil lost 50% of their population to measles.

-ENDS-

To write a letter to the Indian authorities visit
http://www.survival-international.org/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=39

To read this press release online, visit
http://survival-international.org/news.php?id=1614

Photos and footage available. For more information call Miriam Ross
on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@...

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/news/news.asp?id=24257

Nachrichten · Ausland
Masern bedrohen Volk im indischen Ozean
Freitag, 19. Mai 2006

Port Blair/Andamanen - Unter den Jarawa, einem Naturvolk auf den Andamanen,
einer kleinen Inselgruppe im indischen Ozean, sind die Masern ausgebrochen.
Dies teilt die Hilfsorganisation “Survivel" mit, die sich weltweit für
bedrohte Völker einsetzt.

Der Ausbruch einer Kinderkrankheit in einer abgelegenen Region der Erde wäre
wohl kaum erwähnenswert, wenn die Krankheit nicht zum Ausstreben des ganzen
Volkes führen könnte. Diese Gefahr erscheint real, weil bereits im Jahr 1999
eine Maserepidemie vielen Jarawa das Leben kostete. Nur 41 Mitglieder
überlebten die Epidemie. Früher war der Stamm einmal 5000 Menschen stark.
Die Masern wurden vermutlich über Touristen eingeschleppt. Seither besteht
ein striktes Zutrittsverbot zu dem Reservat, das offenbar nicht eingehalten
wird, wie die Masern-Epidemie zeigt.

Da die letzte Epidemie bei den älteren Mitgliedern eine Immunität
hinterlassen hat, erkrankten dieses Mal nur Kinder an einem
“Hitze-Hautausschlag", den aus Indien zugereiste Ärzte in einer Klinik der
Hauptstadt Port Blair jetzt als Masern diagnostizierten. Wenn die Meldungen
von Survival zutreffen, ist die Epidemie bereits wieder abgeklungen. Die
meisten Patienten seien wieder in die heimatlichen Regenwälder
zurückgekehrt. /rme
Links zum Thema

» Pressemitteilung von Survival

» Wikipedia zu den Jawara

» Wikipedia zu den Adamanen

From: TRINet
To: TRINet
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 9:43 PM
Subject: Weekly News May 22, 2006




Weekly News May 22, 2006
Upcoming
General
Tsunami Memorial
Tsunami Warning
Housing and Infrastructure
Elderly
Children
Other Countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives

Upcoming
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is organizing
an International Conference on Marine - Hazards & Opportunities from 3-5
July, 2006 at Chennai, India. Further details from the TRINet website or
write to sthomas@....


General
Tsunami deepened Tuticorin harbour: "The tsunami's scouring effect had
deepened the harbour by at least half-a-metre," said NK Raghupathy, chairman
of the Tuticorin Port Trust. Speaking to Hindustan Times during a recent
visit to Sri Lanka, Raghupathy said that tsunamis were not a threat to the
Tuticorin port or the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP) thanks to the
existence of the island of Sri Lanka. "The canal is very well protected
because of the existence of Sri Lanka," he said. "At any rate, the
possibility of another tsunami in this region is remote," he added.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1702243,000500020002.htm

Integrate disaster risks into development: WB report: The rebuilding of
physical infrastructure, after natural calamities,has been effective while
integrating possible disaster risks into development programs have proved
inadequate according to a just released report investigating the Word Bank's
disaster response over the past 20 years. The study found that almost 80
percent of the projects that had natural disaster reconstruction as a
substantial element were rated satisfactory for outcome compared with the
Bankwide average of 72 percent for all projects in the same period. It
however, points out that it has not done so well in reducing vulnerabilities
and addressing root causes of damage due to disasters. "Hazards of nature,
risks to Development-an evaluation of WB assistance for natural disasters''
points out that countries affected by disaster and donors that try to help
them including the Bank have generally treated disasters as interruptions in
development rather than as a risk integral to development.
http://www.tsunamiresponsewatch.org/trw/2006/05/18/integrate-disaster-risks-into\
-development-wb-report/#more-666


Welsh publisher's 'Tsunami-aid' cookbook wins award: A Welsh publishing
company has won an international award for a book in aid of victims of the
Asian tsunami. East meets West, a glossy cook book published by Accent Press
in Pembrokeshire, has beaten thousands of entries from around the world to
win the International Gourmand Cook Book Special Award at the Gourmand World
Media Awards. The book features recipes by the cream of the culinary world,
including Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Keith Floyd, Gary Rhodes and many
more. All profits from the book help mothers and children affected by the
tsunami. The book's authors, Barbara Jayson and Jenny de Montfort, began the
fundraising project after hearing about the disaster.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=17106916&method=fu\
ll&siteid=50082&headline=welsh-publisher-s--tsunami-aid--cookbook-win-award-name\
_page.html


Tsunami Memorial
Spain wins tsunami competition: AN international jury has chosen a Spanish
design for a memorial in Thailand for the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami beating an
Australian entry. The winning concept is of a cluster of five towers that
are to be set in forest at Khao Lak in southern Thailand. Hundreds of
entries were submitted from around the world and five finalists were chosen.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,19169221-5001028,00.html

Concern over tsunami memorial: Environmentalists have demanded the design
details of the winning tsunami memorial be considered by the National
Environmental Board (NEB) before construction starts in a national park in
Phang-Nga. Surapol Duangkha, secretary-general of Wildlife Fund Thailand,
said he was afraid the memorial would be another government project that
will disturb forest and wildlife resources in the country. Nisakorn
Kositrat, secretary-general of the Office of Natural Resources and
Environment Policy and Planning, said although the memorial will be built in
a national park, an environmental impact assessment was not required.
http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/05/19/national/national_30004382.php

Tsunami Warning
Asian nations stage tsunami drill: Wednesday May 17, 2006. More than two
dozen Pacific and Asian nations took part today in a huge exercise involving
a mock tsunami warning. The idea was to practice new alerts systems and
safety drills that are being developed to try and avoid a repeat of the
massive losses of life caused by Asia's calamitous tsunami at the end of
2004. Today's mock tsunami warning set off alarms from Guam to Singapore and
sent many people, including Filipino villagers, rushing to higher ground.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,,1776974,00.html


Tsunami warning system to be set up: New Delhi: The government is setting up
its own early warning system for tsunami and storm surges in Indian Ocean at
the total cost of Rs 125 crore, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal
informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday, May 15. The warning system would have
components like installation of tsunami warning sensors close to the ocean
bottom at appropriate locales in indian ocean with real time connectivity. A
centre would be set up at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information
Services, Hyderabad on round the clock basis.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20060515133632&Topic=0&Title=Top%\
20Stories&Page=H


SAARC nations to evolve strategy to exchange information during calamities:
Mumbai: The Press Information Bureau additional principal information
officer B S Chauhan will be heading the Indian delegation at the Third
Conference of Editors and Working Journalists of SAARC (South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation) countries at Male. On the agenda is
SAARC countries evolving a strategy to exchange information on media usage
during calamities. The prime criteria is that reaching out is a must in
disseminating critical information for those in the concerned affected
areas. Sharing the experience of India on media management during Tsunami
crisis, Mr Chauhan said, all stations of All India Radio in southern states
of India and East Coast including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands where
continuously broadcasting information on the developing situations in the
affected areas are based on live inputs by districts and State authorities
from different locations. Radio and TV stations also broadcast information
about relief measures like helplines and measures to combat epidemics. He
said that, the media must be involved as a participatory agency which
combines the media, government officials, government multimedia implementing
agencies, NGOs, public opinion representatives and the beneficiaries.
http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k6/may/may206.htm

University Students Design Solutions to Environmental Issues: Ten teams of
university students have been chosen as finalists in the IEEE Computer
Society International Design Competition. The teams, which designed and
implemented computer-based solutions to real-world problems along the theme
of Preserving, Protecting and Enhancing the Environment, will travel to
Washington, D.C. to present their projects in the CSIDC 2006 World Finals on
1-2 July. One of the finalists is ICFAI Institute of Science and Technology,
Hyderabad, India; "Tsunami Tracking System".
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-16-200\
6/0004363161&EDATE=

Housing and Infrastructure
Shelters for tsunami victims: Port Blair, May 18. Altogether 96 shelters
have been completed by Friends Society in Social Service (FSSS) in its 14
adopted villages of South Andaman.   A function was held in this connection
at Guptapara, in which Shri Sharad Pant, Program Manager, FSSS expressed his
happiness over the overwhelming support extended by the local body,
volunteers and Village Development Committee members. He advised
beneficiaries for taking proper care of the shelters to make it last long.
Smt Appal Narsamma, Gram Panchayat Pradhan, Guptapara, who was the chief
guest, informed the gathering that for sustainable development  of village,
every villagers should actively participate in the activities relating to
village development.
http://www.and.nic.in/telegrame.htm


Locating resettlement areas in A&N Islands: Presentation on behalf of DST by
Dr B.R. Subramanian, Chairman of Team and Advisor, Department of Ocean
Development, Chennai on "Findings and recommendations of DST constituted
scientific expert team to study tidal pattern, seismic pattern, and
submergence to help to locate resettlement in A&N Islands" is available by
clicking the link below.
http://www.and.nic.in/FINDINGS/webpages/frame.htm


Monsoon slams into tsunami-hit Indian archipelago early: India's annual
summer monsoon has arrived in the Andamans archipelago, bringing misery to
homeless tsunami victims but cheer to the rest of the parched nation. The
monsoon arrived Wednesday two days ahead of schedule, in the southern island
group of Car Nicobar and was expected to hit the archipelago's Port Blair
capital later Thursday, said weather office spokesman B.D. Gupta in the
Andamans. The deluge brought distress for thousands living in temporary
shelters built after the December 2004 tsunami battered the emerald-green
archipelago. "These are flimsy tin shelters and many of these don't even
have proper floorings and this kind of rain brings in a sea of water into
our homes," said Martin, a Nicobarese tribesman from Moos village. "Added to
the rains comes a variety of diseases for which the authorities are not
prepared," added Aiysha Majid, chief of a nearby village.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/20/2006&Cat=7&Num=011


Elderly
Tsunami rehab: Old age home to be set up: The first home for the aged for
tsunami survivors will soon be in place in the Cuddalore district of Tamil
Nadu. Moved by the large-scale destruction to life and property by the
tsunami, NDTV viewers had contributed generously. In association with
Helpage India, the village has been named after many people who made it
possible.
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=tsunami&slu\
g=Tsunami+rehab%3A+Old+age+home+to+be+set+up&id=88124&callid=1


Children
Child survivors to be retained in their natural environment: Chennai.
Involvement of children as participants in the decision making process,
experimented with during the tsunami rehabilitation programme, must be
extrapolated to other situations involving calamities and disasters, said
C.V. Sankar, Special Officer, Relief and Rehabilitation. The State had also
recognised the importance of retaining children in their natural
environments and prevented adoption of children orphaned by the tsunami. Mr.
Sankar said an evaluation must be made of the kind of support systems that
are required to involve children in the process.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/20/stories/2006052020070800.htm


Minds, hearts bond when tsunami-hit girls meet orphaned boys: Pune, May 19:
Thirteen young girls from the tsunami-hit Andaman Islands were in the city
on Friday to spread the message of peace and happiness among the less
fortunate children. The girls currently staying at Andamans-based orphanage,
Pranab Kanya Sangh, were victims of the devastating tsunami that hit the
islands in December 2004. They interacted boys from the Akurdi-based
orphanage home, Nachiket Balgram and presented a dance, participated in
antakshari and other cultural programmes. The idea, conceptualised as a
journey for happiness, has support from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife
Gursharan Kaur who flagged off the yatra from her residence in April. The
children have been to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Haryana and will tour
Bangalore, Chennai and Kanyakumari, before returning to the islands by June
end. The journey has been organized by ME and NGO SOS Children's Villages in
India.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=183505


Other Countries
Indonesia
Success through disaster: British Columbia is extending its efforts to
promote the province's wood products in Asia in what could be a marketing
first for the industry -- a disaster-relief campaign with the potential to
sell thousands of B.C.-made wood-frame homes in Asia. The government's
Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd. is targeting aid agencies in
tsunami-battered regions of Indonesia with offers of free construction
training. A lack of building skills among aid workers has contributed to the
lengthy delays in the rebuilding process.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=a07d66f8-89ff-49f\
6-93c6-59d47541dc0c&k=54707


Commission accuses media of objectifying women in Aceh: Jakarta. Research by
the Aceh Working group of the National Commission on Violence Against Women
shows women are still objectified by the print media. The group studied two
nationally distributed daily newspapers, Kompas and The Jakarta Post, to see
how they covered female Aceh refugees after the tsunami, including during
the reconstruction and rehabilitation process, the disbursement of
humanitarian aid, the peace building process between the Indonesian
government and the Free Aceh Movement, as well as the implementation of
sharia law in Aceh. A researcher, Dewi Yuri, said mass media as a tool for
building public opinion still depicted women as victims and dependent human
beings. She said after studying the two newspapers researchers had found
women were not presented as policy makers, but only as victims. "The two
newspapers had little coverage about women in political matters," she said.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=45725


Rebuilding in Indonesia: AmeriCares has committed to funding nearly $8
million worth of new projects to aid recovery in Indonesia's tsunami
affected areas of Aceh Province and Nias Island. The new projects,
undertaken in partnership with a variety of local organizations working in
the region, address some of the most pressing needs of the recovery effort,
including health care, water supply/sanitation and livelihood issues. Among
the largest projects are a $3.1 million malaria and dengue fever prevention
and treatment program undertaken with the MENTOR Initiative, an extension of
a program begun last year, and two efforts in collaboration with the
International Organization Migration, which will benefit the health and
livelihood situations of more than 2,500 families in Aceh Province.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/AMMF-6PUE34?OpenDocument


Sri Lanka
UNDP empower tsunami affected communities in Hambantota: The United Nations
Development Programme [UNDP] will formally hand over material and financial
assistance worth Rs.7.5 Million, to 62 selected Community Based
Organizations (CBOs) in the Hambantota District today. The project
"Sustaining Tsunami Recovery by Organizations Networking at the Grassroots
level through Promoting Local Accountability and Capacity Enhancement
Systems" or (STRONG PLACES Project) is being funded by the Government of
Germany. This project aims to grant CBOs and district-based NGOs with
institutional support, thus moving away from the pattern of project-based
funding. There will be smaller grants extended for institution-building,
human resource development, operations, logistics and support for community
resource centers.
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/109


South/Southeast Asia and East Africa: Earthquake and Tsunamis - Fact Sheet
No. 23: Some 2,032 houses are under construction on 74 sites across 11
districts. In the south of Sri Lanka, the Australian Red Cross is supporting
construction of 42 houses; French Red Cross is funding 70 per cent of a
project to build 312 houses; Belgian Red Cross Flanders is close to
completing 51 two-storey twin houses; Spanish Red Cross have completed 33
houses and are working on a further 23; Irish Red Cross is reaching roof
level of eight, four-storey blocks housing 64 apartments; and Belgian Red
Cross Luxemburg has finished 137 houses and is building 52 more. Medical
equipment is being purchased for three hospitals; tender procedures are
underway to procure equipment for 18 other health facilities. Some 178 new
houses in two resettlement areas in Galle district have been connected to
the main water supply through a Federation funded project. Training has been
afforded to 1,375 people in skills ranging from tiling, wall painting,
landscaping, aluminium partitioning and carpentry power tools; suitable tool
kits have also been provided.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-6PUG7J?OpenDocument


United States to contribute $1 million for tsunami shelter communities in
Sri Lanka: The United States announced a $1 million grant to finance part of
a comprehensive care and maintenance program to ensure that temporary homes
continue to meet the basic shelter standards established after the tsunami.
The US embassy in a statement said, "The project will be implemented by the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the request of the Sri
Lankan government's Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA).
http://www.colombopage.com/archive/May16121939JV.html


UNDP constructs over 200 houses for the tsunami victims of Sri Lanka: The
United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] said that it has planned to
handover 236 housing units for the tsunami victims who lost their houses in
the 2004 Asian tsunami. UNDP spokesman Sanaka Samarasinha says these houses
have been built in Galle, Moratuwa, Kuchchaveli and Point Pedro.The total
expenditure exceeds US$ four million. The UNDP spokesman further said that
the housing units are still under construction and the UNDP hopes to
handover these units to recipients by the end of June, this year. The
project also covers to repair another 181 partly damaged houses and the
project includes the construction of another three apartment blocks in
Galle. He said that all houses have modern facilities and the house owners
have been assisted to construct the houses by themselves.
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/186


Continuing violence slowing down aid projects: World Bank: An upsurge in
violence in the north east part of Sri Lanka could slow down progress
post-conflict development projects, a top World Bank official said Friday.
"We are extremely concerned by the number of deaths in the past three months
as a result of the violence," the bank's regional vice president for South
Asia, Praful Patel told journalists. "If the security situation
deteriorates, we will be forced to re-look at our development projects in
the north and east," he said. The bank has around 200 million dollars worth
of development projects in the volatile north and east includes a housing
reconstruction, irrigation and agriculture. However, Patel said the bank has
managed to complete only 15 percent of the tsunami rebuilding activities in
the trouble regions, as against 85 percent in the south. "The slow down in
the north and east is because of the continuing tension," the bank's country
head for Sri Lanka Peter Harrold said.
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=1678377261&no_view=1&SEA\
RCH_TERM=1

Thailand
Permanent shelters rise in Koh Lanta island: In three weeks' time, 71
permanent shelters will gradually rise in Sang Kha Ou, a seaside village of
Koh Lanta island, Krabi province. The homes were built on one rai --
equivalent to a third of an acre or 1,600 square metres -- of land donated
by a doctor, and the rest from pooled village sites. Consensus on the house
design took some time: "The beneficiaries, mostly sea gypsies, wanted a one
level house that would be suitable for their traditional rituals and
beliefs," explained sub-district official Nirat Hantaley. It took the
villagers at least three months to agree on the design, "and they are very
satisfied with their choice," Hantaley said, appreciating how World Vision
worked effectively with other organisations, government offices and "even
with people of different faiths." "[I am] grateful to World Vision for its
patience and commitment to help," Hantaley continued, adding that
beneficiaries had tried other avenues without success before approaching
World Vision for help.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/217167/114794106416.htm


Maldives
Improving health with waste management centres in the Maldives: Large piles
of tsunami debris remaining in the Maldives, such as: broken glass, battery
acid and rubble from destroyed buildings can cause numerous health problems
amongst the population. Incidences of injury and illness can be especially
prevalent among children who are drawn to playing around the large,
colourful mounds. Water sitting in the beachside rubbish attracts rats and
mosquitoes - carriers of the steadily growing dengue fever problem, which
has struck children in 65 per cent of cases. Once chemicals and heavy metals
seep into the ground, the water supply becomes contaminated as do fish - a
major food staple and source of income. However these problems are being
helped by a $10.3-million joint venture between the Canadian and Australian
Red Cross, according to the coordinator of the Fulidhoo Island health post
in the Maldives, Shakeela Ibrahim. The Australian and Canadian Red Cross are
building waste management centres on 74 islands in the Maldives. These
centres ensure the environmentally safe cleanup of tsunami debris, while
also introducing an ongoing solid waste management system for domestic
garbage. Dramatic clean-ups have now been completed on seven of the hardest
hit islands with plans to continue with the remaining 67 in need. So far,
over 12,600 cubic metres of tsunami debris and dangerous waste have been
removed.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6PW2U6?OpenDocument




Disclaimer:
This news update is provided by TRINet for the benefit of those working in
tsunami rehabilitation
purely for information purposes only.
Please send your comments to info.trinet@...
Visit us at: www.trinet.in

Do the Jarawas need the AAJVS ?
Itjust goes to show how we continue to play with the
future of a people just like they were toys or
animals- AAJVS Murdabad!!

--- zubair ahmed <zubairpbl@...> wrote:

> The Light of Andamans, Issue 22, 20 May 2006.
>
> Shifting Jarawas – AAJVS' Goof Up
>
> By Staff Reporter
> The Andaman Adimjan Jati Vikas Samiti and the
> Directorate of Tribal
> Welfare seldom miss a chance to put its foot in its
> mouth.
> Jarawas were suffering from measles and getting
> admitted into the
> hospital in droves. There was panic all over. The
> Directorate of
> Health Services deputed a team of doctors to Middle
> Strait and
> Kadamtala for an on the spot investigation,
> treatment and for taking
> preventive actions. National and International press
> was plastered
> with the Jarawa affliction.
> But, for reasons best known to AAJVS and DTW, they
> were engaged in
> some other sinister move to shift the Jarawas from
> Middle Strait to
> Tirur. Vehicles were engaged, labour hired and
> trucks carrying 45 of
> the tribesmen reached Tirur village one evening
> during the last month
> end.
> The villagers however did not swallow the pill. They
> stopped the truck
> and did not allow the Jarawas to get down. When
> asked who had directed
> them to Tirur, the Jarawas said "Ghoshal". The
> villagers asked the in
> charge to call Mr. Ghoshal. The Pradhan of the
> Panchayat Mr. Mahadev
> Majhi too was not in the locality at the time.
> By the time Mr. Ghoshal reached there, Mr. Majhi too
> had arrived. A
> prolonged discussion ensued between them. The
> villager itself was
> suffering from measles and the Pradhan did not want
> to complicate the
> matter further. Secondly, the villagers of Temple
> Myo, Herbertabad and
> Tirur were fed up with Jarawas intruding their home
> and hearth every
> now and then. They did not want another battalion of
> Jarawas trooping
> into their gardens, plantations and homes at will.
> "There were five people on the roll of AAJVS working
> at Tirur. But I
> never saw more than one at any given time. Are they
> working in your
> homes?" he had asked Mr. Ghoshal. Mr Ghoshal's reply
> was that the
> workers were paid on the basis of attendance rolls
> submitted by the
> Police. The Policeman standing nearby didn't like it
> kindly. "You pay
> them even before we submit the attendance rolls" he
> retorted.
> "What about supply of banana to the Jarawas every
> week?" Mr. Mahadev
> Majhi fired the next salvo. "I never saw or heard of
> any banana supply
> in the past year and a half" he continued. Mr.
> Ghoshal had nothing
> better to do than fumble for words.
> Talking to The Light of Andamans" Mr. Majhi confided
> that it was a big
> racket. The Jarawas were exploited to the hilt by
> the AAJVS and the
> Department of Tribal Welfare. Nobody was interested
> in the welfare of
> the Jarawas or any other tribe. 'They appoint people
> from far off
> places to work at Tirur. They never turn up and yet
> get paid. Why not
> appoint unemployed boys from the same Panchayat? We
> too can keep a
> watch in that case" he fumed. "Banana! Why can't
> they buy from our
> people who suffer at the hands of the Jarawas?
> Because then the racket
> would be busted" he concluded. Mr. Mahadev Majhi was
> exploding with
> fury.
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     andamanicobar-unsubscribe@...
>
>
>
>
>


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I dont know if you are aware, but MV Ramanujam is a
flat bottomed vessel , meant for riverways and not the
sea. Of dancing dolphins- yes you can dance with them
when the ship pitches and rolls uncontrollably in a
sea with a slight swell!- Flying fish- when the sea
actually gets rough well you can see flying pieces of
breakfast that tourists try to gorge on the tub, in
the sink and on the floor, half digested. I have no
mercy for MV Ramanujam, having not got tickets on the
tin dubbas, i had to sail on MV R...with the sea
getting rough in December last year- you could
actually see the sky for a moment and the next moment
the waves below the window- she rolls like nothing
else at sea; many tourists who were enjoying their
breakfast asked the captain to turn the vessel around
for the safety of land in Port Blair- have wasted 2
days like this- the tin dubbas on the other hand
plough their way and reach about 2 hours before MV
Ramanujam- the tour operators like MV Ramanujam as
they dont have to entertain the one day tourists due
to the extra 2hours going and 2 hrs coming back on
board the flat tub.The unwary tourist gets an hour or
2 at Havelock does the sacred act of pouring sea water
on their head like ganga jal at beach No 7, is whisked
along the sights of touristy Havelock and its time to
board the ship to return to Port Blair.
  If efficiency is the point- the tin dubbas do the job
very well. MV Ramanujam, it was suggested by a local
engineer would do well if used as a vessel for the
Harbour cruise tourist, food , drinks, dance floor
would fulfill the purpose very well than rocking the
hell out of tourists and passengers when the sea
shakes a little etc.
--- zubair ahmed <zubairpbl@...> wrote:

> The Light of Andamans, Issue 22, 20 May 2006.
>
> Havelock – Tourism scuttled for suitable Boat
>
> By Staff Reporter
>
> Havelock: M.V.Ramanujam, a Shipping Corporation of
> India managed
> vessel plying between Port Blair and Havelock, had
> its last voyage on
> May 10, 2006 before proceeding on for Annual
> Passenger Survey. It
> would be around four months before she resumes her
> inter-island
> services. M.V.Ramanujam was plying between Havelock
> and Port Blair in
> addition to two trips per day that the
> air-conditioned tin ka dibbas,
> called speedboats by the local people.
>  M.V.Ramanujam was the vessel of choice of the
> tourists and the local
> people alike for its cheaper tickets and openness.
> The tourists could
> enjoy the views of the passing coastlines, the
> flying fish and the
> dancing dolphins if they were lucky enough to spot a
> school. The open
> space allowed them to move freely in the ship, catch
> plenty of fresh
> air and generally enjoy themselves.
>  For the local people, it was cheaper and could
> carry all kinds of
> cargo like basketsful of crabs, fowls; goats,
> vegetables and tonnes of
> banana.
>  Both kinds of travellers were happy and contended
> though it was a
> trifle slow compared to the tin ka dibbas. But the
> advantages far
> outweighed the disadvantage of speed.
>  M.V.Ramanujam used to haul over 500 passengers
> during peak tourist
> season whereas tin ka dibba can, at best, carry 100
> passengers. The
> gap between the fares of the two is enormous, the
> ratio being 1:5.
>  The average arrival of tourists was 250 per day
> even after the
> torrential rains. But from the very next day when
> the tin ka dibbas
> took over, it has nosedived to 25-30. The reason is
> simple; there are
> local people who must travel for various reasons
> whatever the fare.
>  The tour operators, the taxi and jeep owners and
> the lodge and hotel
> owners have started missing the services of
> M.V.Ramanujam badly from
> the very next day of its withdrawal. They all are
> aware of the slump
> during monsoon season. But monsoon is yet to set in
> and their sources
> of livelihood have been brutally cut off long before
> the closure of
> the season. And just for want of a suitable vessel
> to connect Havelock
> to Port Blair.
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     andamanicobar-unsubscribe@...
>
>
>
>
>


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Foreign cruise liner Costa Allegra visits Port Blair
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=296827&sid=REG

Port Blair, May 21: The cruise ship Costa Allegra, on a brief tour of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, arrived here from Colombo last evening.

The massive cruise liner with 758 passengers and 400 crew members docked at
port Blair's Haddo wharf.

The passengers from different countries visited places of tourist interest
and historical importance like Corbyn's Cove, National Memorial Cellular
Jail. The bewitching beauty and bounties of nature of the islands amazed
them. ''For me it is a dream come true to travel in the luxury liner in all
its glory. The visit to these islands will remain etched in my memories,''
said Simon, a young Romanian passenger.

Keki M Master, Vice President, S M Baxi Co, shipping support services, the
man behind making the cruise liner halt at Port Blair, said, ''The A N
Islands have tremendous tourism potential and if foreign cruise liners make
these a permanent destination, the islands will be immensely benefitted.
Apart from boosting tourism it will bring economic prosperity to the
islanders.''

Pepito Alvarez, Spanish showman, who will perform magic and juggling,
boarded the cruise ship from here. He arrived here by jet airlines aircraft
this morning to board the cruise ship. He has earned the distinction of
being the first man, boarding any cruise ship from Port Blair.

Bureau Report

The Light of Andamans, Issue 22, 20 May 2006.

Shifting Jarawas – AAJVS' Goof Up

By Staff Reporter
The Andaman Adimjan Jati Vikas Samiti and the Directorate of Tribal
Welfare seldom miss a chance to put its foot in its mouth.
Jarawas were suffering from measles and getting admitted into the
hospital in droves. There was panic all over. The Directorate of
Health Services deputed a team of doctors to Middle Strait and
Kadamtala for an on the spot investigation, treatment and for taking
preventive actions. National and International press was plastered
with the Jarawa affliction.
But, for reasons best known to AAJVS and DTW, they were engaged in
some other sinister move to shift the Jarawas from Middle Strait to
Tirur. Vehicles were engaged, labour hired and trucks carrying 45 of
the tribesmen reached Tirur village one evening during the last month
end.
The villagers however did not swallow the pill. They stopped the truck
and did not allow the Jarawas to get down. When asked who had directed
them to Tirur, the Jarawas said "Ghoshal". The villagers asked the in
charge to call Mr. Ghoshal. The Pradhan of the Panchayat Mr. Mahadev
Majhi too was not in the locality at the time.
By the time Mr. Ghoshal reached there, Mr. Majhi too had arrived. A
prolonged discussion ensued between them. The villager itself was
suffering from measles and the Pradhan did not want to complicate the
matter further. Secondly, the villagers of Temple Myo, Herbertabad and
Tirur were fed up with Jarawas intruding their home and hearth every
now and then. They did not want another battalion of Jarawas trooping
into their gardens, plantations and homes at will.
"There were five people on the roll of AAJVS working at Tirur. But I
never saw more than one at any given time. Are they working in your
homes?" he had asked Mr. Ghoshal. Mr Ghoshal's reply was that the
workers were paid on the basis of attendance rolls submitted by the
Police. The Policeman standing nearby didn't like it kindly. "You pay
them even before we submit the attendance rolls" he retorted.
"What about supply of banana to the Jarawas every week?" Mr. Mahadev
Majhi fired the next salvo. "I never saw or heard of any banana supply
in the past year and a half" he continued. Mr. Ghoshal had nothing
better to do than fumble for words.
Talking to The Light of Andamans" Mr. Majhi confided that it was a big
racket. The Jarawas were exploited to the hilt by the AAJVS and the
Department of Tribal Welfare. Nobody was interested in the welfare of
the Jarawas or any other tribe. 'They appoint people from far off
places to work at Tirur. They never turn up and yet get paid. Why not
appoint unemployed boys from the same Panchayat? We too can keep a
watch in that case" he fumed. "Banana! Why can't they buy from our
people who suffer at the hands of the Jarawas? Because then the racket
would be busted" he concluded. Mr. Mahadev Majhi was exploding with
fury.

The Light of Andamans, Issue 22, 20 May 2006.

Havelock – Tourism scuttled for suitable Boat

By Staff Reporter

Havelock: M.V.Ramanujam, a Shipping Corporation of India managed
vessel plying between Port Blair and Havelock, had its last voyage on
May 10, 2006 before proceeding on for Annual Passenger Survey. It
would be around four months before she resumes her inter-island
services. M.V.Ramanujam was plying between Havelock and Port Blair in
addition to two trips per day that the air-conditioned tin ka dibbas,
called speedboats by the local people.
	 M.V.Ramanujam was the vessel of choice of the tourists and the local
people alike for its cheaper tickets and openness. The tourists could
enjoy the views of the passing coastlines, the flying fish and the
dancing dolphins if they were lucky enough to spot a school. The open
space allowed them to move freely in the ship, catch plenty of fresh
air and generally enjoy themselves.
	 For the local people, it was cheaper and could carry all kinds of
cargo like basketsful of crabs, fowls; goats, vegetables and tonnes of
banana.
	 Both kinds of travellers were happy and contended though it was a
trifle slow compared to the tin ka dibbas. But the advantages far
outweighed the disadvantage of speed.
	 M.V.Ramanujam used to haul over 500 passengers during peak tourist
season whereas tin ka dibba can, at best, carry 100 passengers. The
gap between the fares of the two is enormous, the ratio being 1:5.
	 The average arrival of tourists was 250 per day even after the
torrential rains. But from the very next day when the tin ka dibbas
took over, it has nosedived to 25-30. The reason is simple; there are
local people who must travel for various reasons whatever the fare.
	 The tour operators, the taxi and jeep owners and the lodge and hotel
owners have started missing the services of M.V.Ramanujam badly from
the very next day of its withdrawal. They all are aware of the slump
during monsoon season. But monsoon is yet to set in and their sources
of livelihood have been brutally cut off long before the closure of
the season. And just for want of a suitable vessel to connect Havelock
to Port Blair.

The Light of Andamans, Issue 22, 20 May 2006.

MV Rangat: Passengers held hostage for 12 hours
By Staff Reporter

Port Blair: The Department of Shipping Services runs a number of
ferries from Port Blair to different destinations like Neil Island,
Havelock Island, Strait Island, Long Island,  Rangat and Mayabunder
almost on a daily basis. Havelock Island being a tourist spot has got
two ferries in a day; one in the morning and the other in the evening.
	 On May 09, 2006, MV Rangat was on her scheduled sailing for
Mayabunder at 6 o'clock in the morning. She went upto Ross Island and
her engines developed some snag. She had to return for the
rectification of the defects. As the repair work was going on the
passengers were not allowed to disembark or leave the vessel for the
reasons known only to the master of the vessel.
	 After three hours of struggle she was repaired and sailed again. But
hardly had she crossed Ross Island, some other trouble cropped up and
she had to be attended again. The repairs works went on for another
four hours. But there was no change in the plight of the passengers.
They were not allowed to disembark. When some passengers tried to
disembark and straighten their limbs, the crew intervened and
dissuaded them on the plea that the vessel was about to leave.
Till 6 o'clock in the evening she was under repair and the passengers
were boiling inside the so-called air conditioned passenger hall. The
air conditioners on the upper deck never worked. The lower deck or
berths did get air-conditioners working in the afternoon.
The air conditioning system of about a dozen of such vessels has
failed and it is a torture traveling in these tin ka dibbas. But these
vessels keep on plying violating the provisions of Merchant Shipping
Act for air conditioned vessels.
From 6 am in the morning to 6 pm in the evening the passengers were
treated like those of a hijacked aircraft. Kept under strict guard,
not allowed to disembark or even get down to the jetty. The passengers
consisted of a group of women, children, old and young and all of them
had to survive without food, water or a whiff of fresh air.
The DSS has over a dozen of similar vessels available with it. It is
evident that no other vessel of the same family was available in
working condition to replace the defective one to take the passengers
to Mayabunder.
The ship finally sailed at about 6 o'clock in the evening and reached
Mayabunder at midnight. The Directorate of Shipping Services has a
20-year maintenance contract with Yenmar, the Japanese manufacturers
of the engines.

Dear Biswajit,

I have seen presentations on this type of farming and by what little I
know I think it could be a major pollutant if it is not done properly.
As in any commercial venture the whole logic woould be to increase
yield and not worry about the other concerns.
Has anyone on this list any further info on this, and its exact
proposed location as this could affect the reefs if it is in the
proximaty of the same,

rgds

Naveein O C

From: "Biswajit Mohanty" <kachhapa@...>
  To: <nathistory-india@...>
  Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 6:43 AM
  Subject: Open sea cage farming to start in India


The Hindu  dated 20.5.2006

Plan to launch `open sea cage farming'

Staff Reporter

The project will be a pioneer in opening up the sea for mariculture
instead of exploiting it

Rameswaram: The Central Marine Fisheries Institute has planned to launch
`open sea cage farming' in four months.

Its Director Mohan Joseph Modayil said the project, aimed at doubling the
wealth of finfish and shellfish species, would be a pioneer in opening up
the sea for mariculture instead of exploiting the depleted natural wealth
of sea.

Technologies, expertise and method of farming had been finalised. The
Department of Animal Husbandry and Union Ministry of Agriculture had
agreed to fund the project.

Mr. Modayil had visited many places on the western and eastern coast to
find places for the project. The project was likely to be launched at
Mandapam, Visakapattinam in Andhra Pradesh, Ratnagiri in Maharastra and in
Goa. Scientists, fish farmers and fishermen would be encouraged to study
the project for popularising the open sea cage farming.

Countries such as the US, Norway, Australia, Thailand, Fiji and some other
countries had done the open sea cage farming successfully. Fish production
through mariculture was more in China.

Mr. Modayil said the current rate of India's fish production was between
2.7 to 2.9 million metric tonne a year. However, the country had to
achieve the target of 10 million metric tonne in the next 15 years to meet
the growing demand. Hence, various institutions attached were engaged in
different technologies to multiply the fish wealth.

Mr. Modayil said he along with top scientists of the institute would meet
officials of the Planning Commission in New Delhi shortly to discuss the
plan of action for the next five years. The focus would be to enhance the
wealth of sea.

New techniques, sea farming methods to double the wealth of fish, research
and development, and implementation would be discussed. Ways and means of
developing 11 CMFIs would also be discussed. The action plans were
prepared for improving the marine wealth of Andaman and Lakswadeep
Islands.

MessageDear All,
Please see the following link for an audio interviiew on the Jarawa
situation. Its on Thursday's edition. A short note on the interview is also
pasted below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/outlook.shtml


Crisis for the Jarawa:
A group of anthropologists has issued an urgent appeal on behalf of the
Jarawa tribe in the Indian-owned Andaman islands, who they say are in a
desperate situation. The Jarawa are now down to fewer than three hundred
people and have recently been hit by an epidemic of measles. Anthropologist
Sita Venkateswar tells Heather Payton what she believes should be done to
help them. And Benny Wenda, a tribal leader from West Papua now living in
Britain, describes what happened when his own remote community came into
contact with the outside world.

pankaj

Dear Friends,
The below mentioned report has just been put up on the website of the A&N
administration and can accessed at the link mentioned here.
Pankaj


Findings and Recommendations of DST constituted Scientific Expert Team to
Study Tidal pattern, seismic pattern and submergence to help to locate
resettlement in A&N islands



http://www.and.nic.in/FINDINGS/webpages/frame.htm



Presentation on behalf of DST by
Dr. B.R.Subramanian
Chairman of Team & Advisor
Department of Ocean Development
Chennai

THE DAILY TELEGRAMS
May 19, 2006
Chairman Central Empowered Committee arriving on visit to islands
Port Blair, May 18
   The Chairman of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), Shri P.V.
Jayakrishnan will be arriving at Port Blair on a five-day visit to the
islands from May 19, 2006. On arrival, the Chairman of the Committee will
hold discussion with the Chief Secretary, Commissioners, Secretaries and
HoDs concerned to discuss issues which require intervention of CEC for early
decision at the conference hall of Secretariat on May 19, 2006.
   The Chairman of the committee is scheduled to visit Mayabunder on May 21,
2006 where he will hold meeting with AC Mayabunder, field officers and PRI
members. The tour programme also includes visit to tsunami-affected coast
and shore protection wall site and visit to the site of north-south road and
new proposed road in Campbell Bay on May 22, 2006 and meeting with District
Officers and field officers of various departments and PRI members at
Campbell Bay guest house on May 23, 2006.
   The Chairman of the Committee will also hold meeting with Member of
Parliament and PRI representatives at Megapode Nest on May 23, 2006 and on
the same day, a meeting is also scheduled to be held with Chief Secretary,
Commissioners, Secretaries of the Administration at the same venue.  On
completion of visit, the Chairman of the Committee will leave for Chennai on
May 24, 2006.

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