after the tsunami

Its golden-white sand, blue enigmatic skies & aqua-green sea is a potential haven for tourists in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. So it goes. Tourism in the islands is Zero. Much of the golden-white sand is now under water, the clear skies give a mocking sneer, not a breeze ripples the dead sea. The once evergreen mangroves now stand as tall brown skeletons looming over the eerily silent sea. And tourism doesn’t exist because the government won’t allow it to.

“Literacy amongst the residents is almost a hundred percent.” The administration will tell you. The truth is, after all that education, the islands end up with rickshaw drivers with BCom degrees and housemaids with BA qualifications. There aren’t enough job opportunities here for them.

The truth is, in the name of national security, preservation of the tribes and non-commercialization of the islands, they’ve been kept successfully hidden and under-developed.

The tsunami mercilessly destroyed mangroves, wiped out coconut trees, canoes, livestock and livelihoods, erased the existence of many homes and lives. Thousands of settlers perished, with not a trace of their villages that once stood guarding the shores. Plantations were made barren by the salinity of 15meter waves that just swept over the Nicobar islands as if they weren’t even there.

Amidst all this, something went terribly wrong from the Andaman administration’s side.

In Hutbay (Little Andaman), it took almost four days for any sign of relief to show up after the Tsunami hit.

The Port Blair government guest-house garden was lit magnificently for our Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, while not a spark of electricity was provided for the Ravindra Bangla Vidhyalay Relief Camp on the opposite side of the road. Organised by Anil Goel, vice president of the Rotary club of Port Blair, not a grain of rice, nor a morsel of food was provided for them by the Andaman administration. Asked when the camp was set up, Anil declares proudly, “26th December at 2 pm.” And gobbles his paan. Did the government contribute any funds for it? He laughs. “Administration failed 100%.” Eighty tourists found food and shelter at that camp run solely by the two gentlemen. When the numbers went up to two thousand people, he started getting funds from concerned individuals and friends willing to donate. Was he going to claim compensation? “No no no,” he frowns, “See, I am a very selfish man. I get a lot of self-satisfaction for what I have done.” He tells me in Hindi.

Goel was actively involved in the construction of 500 tin-can setups ordered by the government as temporary shelters for the tribals and settlers in Hutbay.

The roofs are tin, the walls are tin, the windows are tin, the doors are tin, and the frames are metal. They neither provide privacy to the women, nor enough air circulation due to their back-to-back formation. They’re heaven as compared to the slums of Bombay but the people they’re being built for aren’t exactly slum-dwellers. “I wouldn’t live in them,” Says Shobha Banerjee who lost her Rs18 lakh bungalow on 26th December 2004, for which she received a Rs.2000/- compensation from the L.G.’s relief fund.

Three months after the Tsunami and the fishermen of Hut Bay still haven’t been provided with fishing nets. The fishermen were the worst affected. Their houses and boats were all on and along the coast. Everything was destroyed. At least 500 fishermen suffered severely. What did the government do? Instead of providing them with Bonga Dongies, built from a single log of wood, the government, instead, provided them with fiberglass motorboats that they are now selling off to whomsoever quotes the right price.

Another problem that a well known source who is also a member of the RSS pointed out, was that the Lieutenant Governor, Professor Ram Kapse would hold a meeting with all the NGOs (around 230 NGOs) and he would just announce, for instance, ‘We need mosquito nets!’ so every NGO present is working out a way to get a minimum of 2000 mosquito nets each. As a result, they’re all gunning for the same materials, resulting in an overflow of supply. Mosquito nets were soon sold in the markets at buy-one-get-one-free discounts. Instead of allotting specific necessities to specific parties, it was all kept generalized and hap-hazard. The source also affirms that the administration has failed and should be punished. Not just suspended or transferred, they should be very practically punished for their crime of ineffectiveness.

Assistant Commissioner, Rajesh Kumar, from the Andaman administration stands in defense. “A total of 75,000 applications have arrived for compensation from Port Blair itself.” Of course, we all know that at least 72,000 of those applications are a hoax. Port Blair was one of the least affected places. “How is the government supposed to identify the fraud from the really affected so quickly?” He also tells me the government does work, it just takes time.

The Andaman government was neither prepared nor equipped for the Tsunami. “It was a complete shock for the government.” Says Rajesh. They didn’t know how to react to something of this scale and while they were sitting in their offices, trying to figure out what a Tsunami was, the Indian Navy had already reached Sri Lanka and Indonesia after covering almost every single Island in distress from the Andaman and Nicobar chain. “You see,” Rajesh explains that the defense has a way of hogging the limelight while the “Government likes to keep a low profile.” He goes on to explain; so whatever work the government does is not boasted about to the media. Besides, the government doesn’t really trust the media. When a news channel came to the islands, they made a couple of boys unbutton their shirts and pat their bellies crying out for food, says an outraged Rajesh.

That still does not explain the inefficiency of the government. Three months later and the government is still telling the people that compensation is on its way. Mr. Ram Lal lost his entire sawmill with merely a hint of it left behind. He was given a cheque of Rs.150/- as compensation. “It’s being investigated, says the asst. commissioner. It’s being investigated? When was the last time I heard that? Oh that’s right, the last time I heard that was when the Asst. Commissioner was asked about a particular Ms. Charity who received a cheque of Rs 2/- as compensation. “It’s being investigated,” was his response.

“The DC, Mr. Joshi, was transferred out after crates of fresh water were found stacked in his office instead of him distributing it to the people who needed it” says Shobha Banerjee. There were reports that the police stole relief material from the jetties itself from in front of the people who it was sent for. Mrs. Banerjee also tells me that the police were reported to have been washing their faces and brushing their teeth with bottled mineral water while the settlers had nothing to drink. What of that?

“It’s being investigated,” says the asst. Commissioner.

This piece was written three months after the tsunami.