New Delhi: THE dugong, a massive sea mammal often mistaken by sailors as the mythical mermaid, has most of its last viable populations in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The population here too, of these slow breeding, 13 feet long animals, is only 25-30. Now, there
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a popular tourist destination in India. This has meant a slew of proposals to expand and intensify tourism, huge investment in infrastructure, improved connectivity and relaxation on Leave Travel Concession (LTC) for domestic tourists. However, these plans are not based on how tourism impacts the Islands.
Indiscriminate quarry operations are on at full swing in the South Andamans, where a 3 square kilometre (sq km) stretch houses as many as 35 quarries. With a lot of rebuilding and reconstruction work
R K Bhattacharya Former director, Anthropological Survey of India, and member of the Expert Committee appointed by the Calcutta High Court. In the report submitted to the court in 2003, he says:
When the tsunami waves lashed the eastern coast, the Government of India seemed as much at sea as the people affected by the disaster. Information just did not move out of Delhi to the disaster areas.
Former president A P J Abdul Kalam on Friday said, there would be a 250 MW nuclear power station on one of the islands exclusively for the Andamans. He was at the national seminar on security and development of the islands under the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC).
Providing relief after a disaster like the December 2004 tsunami is a great challenge, especially in archipelagos far away from the mainland. But the administration of the Union territory of the
