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DAILY FROM KOLKATA PORT BLAIR • SILIGURI

VOL VII ISSUE NO 357 PAGES 6 PORT BLAIR • FRIDAY • NOVEMBER 21, 2014 Rs 2.00

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THE ECHO OF INDIA

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EVENTS TODAY

Celebration10th Foundation Day of Mahatma Gandhi Interna-tional School at 5.30 pm inBRAIT Auditorium

Specialist ServiceSuper Specialist fromKolkata will be renderingtheir services at GB PantHospital in Room No. 6 &17

SDPSkill development pro-gram by A&NI KVIB withSBI R-SETI in collabora-tion with GramPanchayat at Collinpur

Circuit CourtConcluding Circuit Courtat Port Blair

EDT ProgramEntrepreneurship develop-ment training UNDERPMEGP at SBI R-SETI10am

Martyr's DayMartyr’s day celebrationof Shri Guru Teg BahadurSahib at PoliceGurudwara, at 0800 hrscommencing with AkhandPath.

 Villagers oppose crocodile sanctuary at Loha Barrack, authorities refuse to budgeRAZIA BEGUM

PORT BLAIR, NOV 20/-/ The croco-dile sanctuary declared at Loha Bar-rack , Chouldari in a sea area of 22 sq.kms stretching from wandoor toKhurma Dera in 1983 is in the eye of astorm with the villagers, especially thefishers opposing the Forest Depart-ment’s decision to promote crocodiletourism in Wandoor area . PanchayatPradhans of Tusnabad and Chouldari,Mohan Halder and Subhash Dey re-spectively leading the protest accusethe authorities of not taking the stakeholders into confidence before arriv-ing at a final decision. “The Fore st De-partment authorities have gone aheadwithout seeking suggestions and objec-tions from the villagers about the set-ting up of a crocodile sanctuary to at-tract tourists. They have not weighedthe pros and cons. Without fencing thearea, the crocodiles will be free tomove anywhere. They have glossed

over the fact that the croc attacks areon the rise. The dead ly crocs can beseen moving into paddy fields and at-tacking cattle at Tusnabad. Ironically,the forest officials in their wisdom

have advised the villagers not to ven-ture into their paddy fields if a nallahcrosses through the fields,” thePradhans said. The fishermen in thesetwo panchayats whose survival de-pends on fishing are adversely af-fected. Overlooking their traditionaloccupation, the administration has de-cided to encourage them to go for otherincome generating activities such asbasket making, garment making, sew-ing, printing, fabric painting, leaf plate making, rope ma king, poultry,piggery, inland fishing and improvingalternate programmes like Apicul-ture, Horticulture, Mushroom cultiva-tion etc. which is not at all satisfactoryfor them. There have been many in-stances of croc attacks on humans.Even the Jarawas are reported to havecomplained of their people beingkilled by crocodiles while trying tocross nallahs. These dangerou s crocsare now seen all over includingWandoor jetty, Corbyn’s Cove etc.

Some crocodiles have now taken shel-ter in check dams at Tirur, Sona Pahad,Ferrargunj and one crocodile wascaught while entering in M.E.S. Dam atChouldari in 2012. A crocodile wasseen roaming in nallah opposite toNayasahar drinking water project re-cently. They are also seen atChouldari, Sippighat, Dhanikhari,Marina Park, Radha Nagar beach,Tusnabad to Tirur area, Namunaghar,Saithankhari, Stewartgunj, Baratang,Shoalbay, Wrightmayo, Chidiyatapuand elsewhere at Urmilapur, Bakultalaand Kaushalya Nag ar.

“BEWARE OF CROCODILES” wit-nessed at all the tourist spots indicatethe increasing dangersd of croc at-tacks. Something drastic needs to bedone to prevent the deadly attacks,”demanded the Pradhans who led adharna in front of Mini Zoo here on19th Nov to oppose the setting up of crocodile sanctuary at Loha Barrack.“Sanctuaries should be confined to a

restricted and barricaded area wherethe crocodiles should be driven tofrom paddy fields, nallahs and revenuevillages,” Tusnabad Pradhan said. Ac-cording to PCCF (Wild Life), Mr. G. N.Sinha, “Crocodile is not a harmful ani-mal. It’s an essential part of thebiodiversi ty. Allowing fisherman forfishing at the sanctuary area is a viola-tion of law. Fisherman can move toother areas for fishing which is not ina sanctuary. Alrea dy many peoplehave started moving to other places forfishing. It is not a big i ssue; for conser-vation and development there shouldbe balance on both the side. It is a re-pository of both terrestrial as well asmarine flora and fauna. The pristinetropical evergreen forests, luxuriantmangroves, sandy beaches which arefrequently visited by marine turtlesand creeks harboring salt water croco-diles make it a unique marine sanctu-ary.” “People of North Wandoorpanchayat and Chouldari have al-

ready opted for other income generat-ing activities. Forest department isfocussing on eco tourism and peoplewill be asked to come and learn moreabout this and get benefitted,” headded. In the year 2011, Department of Environment & Forests mentioned in anotification that they have taken up amassive programme of wildlife con-servation and management in theAndaman & Nicobar Islands and es-tablished a number of wildlife Pro-tected Areas i.e. Sanctuaries and Na-tional Parks. To reduce the negativeimpact of local people on bio-diver-sity as well as negative impacts of Pro-tected Area on livelihood of local peo-ple and to increase opportunities forlocal participation in protected Areamanagement, the former Lt. Governorhad constituted the Eco- DevelopmentCommittee (EDC) for the purpose of protection and development of wild-life protected areas (Sanctuaries andNational Parks)

Unauthorized construction at South Point to be demolished 

PORT BLAIR, NOV 20/-/ An unauthorizedbuilding is under con-struction on plot bear-ing Survey No. 2614/25situated at South Pointvillage, Ward No. 16

over CRZ-I Areaswhere the constructionactivities are bannedby the Hon’ble HighCourt vide CAN No- 073of 2004 with RVW No.2003 dated 07/09/2014.The Port Blair Munici-pal Council issued or-der for demolition,vide No. 6225 dated 10/11/2014 and has also

asked SHO for lodgingFIR against the violator.It is informed to the

general public that

similar action will beinitiated in all un-au-

thorized constructions

since they are not in ac-cordance with the law

and also pose a threat to

public safety. Any per-

son under taking build-

ing activity must follow

law mandatorily and in

case of any violation ac-tion will be taken as per

municipal building ByeLaws 1999.

 Warsi Brothers to perform tomorrow PORT BLAIR, NOV 20/-/Renowned Qawwal WarsiBrothers will perform on22nd November 2014 at ITF

Ground during Virasat – aCultural Festival being or-ganized by the Departmentof Art & Culture on 22ndand 23rd November 2014 atITF Ground at 6 p.m. in as-sociation with INTACH,Cultural organizations,Eastern Zonal CulturalCentre and Department of Tourism. Warsi Brothers,Grandsons of PadamshreeAziz Ahmed Khan Warsiare famous Indian Qawwals

consisting of brothersNazeer and Naseer AhmedKhan Warsi, along with ac-companists. Their ances-tors were royal classicalsingers of King Nizam of Hyderabad and the MughalCourt. They are recognisedspecially for their tradi-tional Sufiana Qawwali,Ghazal, Thumri, Bhajanand Classical BandishWarsi Brothers jointly re-ceived the Sangeet Natak

Akademi Award for theirContribution to Qawwali.During the two-day festi-val, a choreographic pres-entation by artists of theseislands will be presentedon 22nd November 2014 be-fore the Qawali presenta-tion. Flea Market wouldalso be organized by the De-partment of Tourism as anadditional attraction dur-ing the two-day culturalfestival.

Reports hint at intrusioninto Sentinelese Island 

Tribal right's body raises voiceEOI CORRESPONDENT

PORT BLAIR/KOLKATA, NOV 20 /--/Banned waters aroundthe island of theuncontacted Sentinelesetribe in Andaman are

gradually becoming atarget of fishermen, ac-cording to claims of aninternational tribalsright's body. SurvivalInternational, the glo-bal body for tribal peo-ple's rights, today is-

sued a statement claim-ing they have receivedworrying reports thatrecently a person wasfound on a part of the is-land, close to the area of the protected tribals.Stephen Corry, director

of International Sur-vival, said: "The onlyway the Andamaneseauthorities can preventannihilation of anothertribe is to ensure thatNorth Sentinel Island isprotected from outsid-

ers." When contacted,Andaman and Nicobar'stribal welfare secretaryTheva Neethi Dhas ad-mitted that some poach-ers used to go to the

coastal areas but theywere never close to theparts of the island in-habited by theSentinelese.

"The tribals are veryhostile and they will killanyone who reaches the

island. So there is noquestion of anyone go-ing close to them," Dhassaid. Thought to be di-rectly descended fromthe first humanpopulations to emergefrom Africa, Sentinelese

have probably lived inthe Andaman islands for

up to 60,000 years andhave absolutely no con-tact with the rest of theworld. Due to their com-plete isolation, they arelikely to have no immu-nity to common diseasessuch as flu and measles

and the chances of thembeing wiped out by anepidemic are very high.The global body alsoraised its voice demand-ing an end to the allegedintrusions into the areasinhabited by the Jarawa

tribe. (With agency in-puts)

More Local News on page-3,4 & 5