Andaman

This is about the travel to A&N islands, which what I had perceived vs what was in was way too different I am sure many might have already gone to A&N islands. This is for those are yet to visit.

Well, Port Blair is at least *15-20 years back in time* in terms of development/infrastructure to be a capital; poor tourism development; non-professional water-sports facilities (in & other islands). No great stay Hotels (The ITC Fortune itself is a sub-standard one to be an ITC Hotel); Poor telecommunication (and so the internet); Non-professional Travel agencies and lack of English penetration (if you depend only on English); pathetic food in most islands with no great wine shops. On top of these, the sea-shores in Port Blair are with full of crocodiles, unfit for swimming. Anyone who lands in Port Blair would quickly get annoyed with all the above.

However,

All these annoyances are only until you start exploring the islands. The stunning places around the islands; the flora; the fauna; land-forms; sea-scapes; geological formations; Original population (the tribes) would make you to deeply realise that Andaman does not require any (so called) digital developments. Simply to say in one word, these islands are not just an yet another tourist spot, but a *National Treasure*. While saluting the Nature for what She has carved in these islands, it also gets hammered into our skull that we, humans are "significantly *insignificant*" in-front of nature.

I can't write all about Andaman, because our trip was only 9 days with very few places/pockets explored that include only northern part of Andamans (Neil; North-Bay; Havelock; Jolly buoy; Viper, Barra ton islands). There are 576 land pieces in A&N strip, while only 36 where inhabited (including tribes) and other islands are completely virgin. As per Jerard, Southern part (Nicobar) of land pieces are relatively much closer to Nature. I would point very few aspects (Not the places) that excited me.

The flora

I really got stunned with the vegetation. Generally, ever-green *rain forest* throughout northern islands, highly dense with less than 20% light penetration; typically, with mangroves on the sea-shore followed by dense canopy of various species; tiered as broad-leaved plants in the bottom; various climbers/creepers; shrubs and trees of >30m height. It is so dense that, it is hard to even enter & walk inside. At a closer watch, I was amazed at the *local adaptations* of various of plant species. Few species were of introduced including coconut, Areca Nut, Casuarina, Rubber, Albizzia, Pepper, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cinnamon here at various time points by British/others. Other than introduced plantations (for commercial exploitation), most forest in different islands, just reminded me the tropical rain forest that I saw in Brazil, except the height differences. None of the places, public were allowed to go into the forest (that’s the reason, the forest remain as forest). The coconuts were of giant sizes. Although Govt has taken necessary steps, the virginity of these forests would slowly deplete with the rapid development of tourism.

The seascape

The greenish bluey (deep blue) water near sea-shores is still in my eyes. Nowhere in peninsula India, we could see such deep colors in coast. The crystal-clear water on sea-bed with sand and coral and the unique aspect / angle of light makes it to start with greenish (in shallow place) and gets to blue as the depth increases and goes deep blue in far. This is a spectacular visual treat in most of the islands. I have taken pictures of these in multiple time (morning 5am to evening 5pm) and different height from eye level to 250m above ground in different islands. It gets most beautiful between 11am to 3pm due to bright sunlight. Port Blair coast does not have these colors.

Coral Reefs

The coral in Jolly-buoy island is the world’s second most beautiful coral reefs as we were told (First is in Australia). 1000s of reef formations, all of them are amazing to look at the live environment. Corals are usually in the shallow, clear, sunny and slightly agitated water. We don’t have to go inside the water to see this. There is boat equipped with glass lens in the bottom, so we could see all the coral reefs and 1000s of diverse ecosystems by sitting in a small boat. These visual is something, which I have not seen in even Nat Geo TV channel. This is 100 times more spectacular than what one would normally see in scuba diving or sea-walking. Happy to see that the system did not allow plastics (even the water bottle) into this island (hence it is clean). This island is maintained with no shops.

Limestone caves

Another unique spectacular is the calcium deposits formed as sedimentary rock with an amazing abstract pattern. Travel generally isn’t only about the destination, but the journey too. Reaching these caves involves long drive through a dense forest; pass by ferry boat; journey by speed boat through long river; walk through the mangrove forest; followed by an ever-green forest; and slowly we enter through the caves, where the solid wall gradually starts. Then we walk through the rocky grooves and enter into limestone caves. Amazing formations. Hard to explain. One has to see. It is bit dark, l would only suggest a traveler to take a LED head-light to fully visualize this (mobile phone torch may not be enough). We need Vengadesh to write about this.

Original Population

We could see only a population called "Jarawas". I shall write about this tribes later as there is something serious, we all need understand, acknowledge, digest and be responsible.

It was 2002, I had an oppurtunity to analyse the the world population which included the Andaman tribes. The sampled genome segments were Y chromosomal DNA sequences and ITS 16s / 18s regions of various DNA sequence length. Those days, whole genome sequences were not available/affordable. The analysis took about two months of continuous computational run, because the parsimony algorithm compares every DNA base by base in all permutations across the samples and arrive at the maximum likelihood groups. The results indicated significant two clades (with >85% bootstrap significance) of African and Andaman tribe lineages, showing these two tribal groups could possibly be the putative original ancestors of Homo erectus, while all other world populations were falling within these two groups. From this time onwards, I was very curious to see these Andaman tribes (having present in our country), but never got an opportunity

While going to a place called Baratang island, we could see a tribal group called Jarwas. Almost Jet-black coloured, medium height; seems very dosail, with belly, not really fit for serious hunting; came close & looked for chips/biscuits/etc. Later we figured out, these tribes are gradually being domesticated (with food/dress/medicals), hence gradually loosing their vigor and adaptation (epi-genetic depression or negative adaption, we call).

There are more than 7 distinct identified tribes in various islands and they don't inter-mingle (அங்கேயும் ஜாதி பிரச்சனை) or inter-mate. Jerard mentioned that, although "potential" females are polygamous, the number of these potential females are very few (2 to 3) per group and further reducing, hence the chances for them to survive for few more generations are close to zero. In addition, in the name of "helping", our so called "civilized" population does all counter productive activities, ultimately reduce their adaptability / vigour and hence their survival. The islanders like "Sentinels", who still resists to be friendly with civilized people might survive longer. All other tribes would quickly become extinct.

Just to give a simple example, A&N islands are with tropical weather and these tribes have been well adapted for 10,000s of years to live without dress. Our people have started giving them cloths, which not only reduces their adaptation to weather, increases their susceptibility to biotic stress and their dependence to us. In the recent 300 years, we have killed (been killing) them enough to be vanished from earth. Currently they are very few in each groups (30 to 50, may be).

Although we can be proud that our country has the *parents of human race*, survived with originality, we are the one who have been killing them. If we really want to help (or respect) them, *just leave them alone*.

Travel Plan

Like I mentioned, A&N Islands is not just a tourist spot, it is a place to be felt, realised, amazed and be proud of. There is nothing much to see in Port Blair. Most spectaculars are around different islands and a day visit to each island will give you only 30% of what it is. It needs stay in each island (at least for a day or two); go around at different time (from morning 4.30am onwards) to feel what that place is. Andaman travel plan should be very robust with compromises. Having positioned far-away from main land; the travel might be slightly more expensive, but it makes sense (for the money spent), only if you spend at least for 10 days to see 10% of few segments of these islands. As Jerard suggested, I would visit again to Nicobar Islands, 3 years from now (2022), which as per him, is relatively more beautiful than northern parts. In Nicobar, tourism is yet to be developed.

A&N Islands is a treasure, about which every Indian should be proud of...! More than that, this treasure badly needs to be maintained. Tourists (and the tourism) needs to be very responsible. Having N.Modi opened up the International gateway last week, Andaman’s tourism would rapidly develop, but continue to deteriorate from its originality.