Andaman

Andaman - the land of the seas and blue sky was always on my "to visit" list. After much thought, we decided to go there with the help of a travel agency. I couldn't believe i was visiting an island which is very much part of India. I always had a feeling I was going to another country since Andaman is an island and is not a part of mainland India. The common language of people in Andaman is Hindi, though there is a mix of Teluguites and Bengalis in this place. The hindi is similar to how south Indians speak. 

Port Blair, the capital is the place where the cellular jail aka Kala Pani stands in all its glory. i was poignant during my visit to the cellular jail. The light and sound show was haunting. After exploring some beaches in the southern Andaman, we decided to visit the north part of Andaman (Diglipur). The route was through the Andaman trunk road the lifeline of Andaman. En route, we saw the controversial Jarawa tribe families walking along the road. I dare not touch my camera since i was aware of the situation there prior to my visit. I had seen enough news and read articles on the Jarawa tribe. The vehicles entering the forest area had enough police escorts till we reached a particular stretch. We were not supposed to stop in between till we reached the exit check post gate.

Diglipur was a total different experience. The resort where we stayed was next to Kalipur beach, the place where olive ridley turtles lay their eggs. Midnight, there was a bang on the door and the resort owner called us to the beach to watch the turtle lay the egg!! (sorry we intruded into the turtles privacy) The night was pitch dark and we were shivering in the cold. We covered ourselves with blankets and set out to watch the turtle using torch light. We neared the beach and saw a huge turtle digging the sand to lay her eggs. There was only a single turtle and we were considered to be lucky since we got to see at least one. More than watching the turtle, i enjoyed the dark black sky with numerous stars twinkling in all its glory. What a sight! After some time, the turtle, left the beach and entered the waters. The caretaker re-dug the whole place and removed all the eggs and stored them in a basket and labeled them and moved it to an isolated area in the beach premises to prevent it being destroyed by predators. After they are hatched they would be released into the waters. We returned back to our rooms. Next day we decided to see the beach in the morning. As we reached the beach i saw a huge board which read "beware of salt water crocodiles, were spotted in this place a few days ago"! My heart skipped a beat, since it was the same place we visited the previous night to watch the turtle!! Then we got to visit the Ross and Smith islands (twin islands) which was magical. Clean pristine white sand beach, never have i seen a beach like this! There is a sand bar, beaches on either side, amazing.

We returned to Port Blair by the sea plane. It is very expensive for the people who are not locals. It was a good experience, Just that we were flying pretty close to the land unlike other planes. I got to take a lot of photos and the best shot has been the cellular jail aerial shot! The next stop we decided to visit was Havelock islands. There we met a person by name Ramu who owns a shop which sells shells and other items. we started conversing with him and during the conversation he told us a lot about what he feels for this place. Havelock was one of the places where tsunami had stuck but did not cause much damage. He told that he felt bad that the mangroves were cut so that tourists could have a better view of sunrise/sunset. Probably this could be one of the reasons for the loosening of sand and water entering into the island. He also told that Andaman belongs to the tribal people and they have all right over this place. The tribals were harassed by the police and these guys used to go to the tribal huts when they had gone hunting to rob the amber! Also some of these tribal women were raped by the forest police. It was really disgusting to hear all this from this simpleton who knew very much about nature and the fury of the nature as compared to any of the educated indian. Hats off to him. He has a backyard and grows most of the vegetables there and is very much self-sustained. Ramu told us that since tourism increased, the locals left their jobs of cultivation and started joining the hotel industry. Though tourism is the main revenue of this island, the very tourism is spoiling the whole island!! Sometimes i feel i should not spoil the serenity of any place by visiting them. Ramu felt that excessive tourism has spoilt the island and in future there would be no tourists since enough damage would be done by that time. The locals would suffer since they would not have any jobs and nowhere to go. As i left Havelock, i had mixed feelings. As tourists we need to be more responsible and not play with the ecosystem of any place. We visited a few shops in Andaman and in one shop there was a lady. I was talking to her generally and was really surprised when she told that any woman in Andaman could walk freely in the middle of night with even the jewelery on !!  Nobody would bother them. Also in the beaches there are no lock rooms. Even if you leave your things there is absolutely nobody to touch it. Truly a honest place except wondering why the tribals are troubled. Nicobar which is not allowed for tourism is another story. As we know most of Nicobar was damaged after the psunami. But the Nicobar tribals are considered far superior and get immediate posting in andaman. i saw lot of policewomen incharge of the traffic signals. Indeed a bold tribe! 

PS: Visited in Jan 2012