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A heightened concern for coral reefs came up when a few environmental NGOs, a hospitality group teamed up with teachers and a raft of students for a five-day workshop at Havelock, discovers Amit Sengupta
Did you know that Andaman & Nicobar has more than 240 kinds of recorded coral species? Did you know that the island just in front of Havelock is Rani Jhansi Marine National Park? Did you know that this year has been declared as the ‘International Year of the Reef’? However, coral reefs of the islands are under various degrees of threat such as siltation, sand mining, agricultural runoff and damage due to fishing and tourism activities. Leave apart, global sea temperature rise.
FLASHBACK: September 14: I was not aware that such a crucial workshop was going to be organised at Havelock on marine and coastal ecosystem in South Asia and Indonesia. My friend Chanchal Singha Roy, a teacher in Government Senior Secondary School, Havelock informed me about it and asked me to join in as a participant. It was jointly conducted by Andaman & Nicobar Environment Team (ANET), Centre for Action Research on Environment Science and Society (CARESS), Chennai, Department of Environment and Forest and Barefoot Seacology Centre from September 17-21 in and around the lush environs of the tourists destination. I decided to join in as I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to study about mangroves, ecosystem and coral reefs.
As I landed up at the Barefoot Seacology Centre, teachers of Government Senior Secondary School---Anita Sharma, Kokila besides Chanchal Singha Roy—teamed up with 41 student of their school for the workshop. All of us (Dr Vineeta Hoon, Dr Hemal Kanvinde, CARESS, Tasneem Khan & Natasha, ANET were guiding us through for the training) headed for the mangrove training. Here we were told about different species of the tree besides glancing a peek into their habitat, their advantages and role in our coastal ecosystem. As it went over, the trainers leaded us for Kayaking (all Kayak boats were provided free of cost by Barefoot Ecotour) into the seawaters of Havelock. I was also a part of the tour (you can imagine my excitement…) and managed to do it twice.
In the same evening, DFO, Havelock division, Mr BP Yadav joined us to give an insight into the forest resources of the islands. “You must be surprised to know that the price of a tree during 1980s was around Rs 25 lakhs. It can be easily judged that nowadays a price is something less than a crore. The Rani Jhansi Marine National Park consists of three islands covering an area of 136 sq km,” said the DFO in an interactive session with the students and teachers at the newly built Seacology centre, just beside Havelock jetty. The students then got engaged in drawing and painting about the marine ecosystems, mangroves and snorkeling. All the paintings were to be exhibited on Sunday.
The next day was of utmost excitement the team of ANET and CARESS was taking us through a half an hour journey by dingy to Elephant Beach (I didn’t knew such a beautiful place exists in our islands). Purpose: Snorkelling and glass-bottom view of coral reefs. All otf us went there in two separate dingies from the Havelock jetty beneath a shining sun (the day before had already ruined our programme as there were heavy showers throughout the day). All the students including the teachers were given an opportunity of snorkeling for around 30 minutes each. I rather chose the glass bottom view exploring myself to a rich variety of corals and under water fish.
CUT TO SEPTEMBER 21: The exhibition starts. Students keep rolling in the Seacology centre. They had put together really wonderful sketches in expressing their concerns about the danger to coral reefs and marine pollution. Speaking on the occasion, principal, GSSS, Havelock, Mr BD Sharma said: “The workshop could have been done at a much larger scale. All of us aware of the global climatic rise and its impact it could have for us in the Bay of Bengal. Lot of Mayabunder corals got destroyed during Tsunami and further by humans. Tourists shouldn’t be allowed to touch the corals and step on the sea bed.”
Meanwhile, DFO, Mr BP Yadav mentioned: “The much needed effort by ANET, CARESS and Barefoot is appreciable. The enforcement of law is not going to solve global warming. This workshop has taken care to orient our students and teachers towards the environmental crisis we are facing today. It has proved that ‘Seeing is believing’ and ‘learning is fun’. We are committed to protect the environment but we cannot do it alone. We need the support and cooperation of the people towards this protection and conservation.” CARESS and ANET later in the exhibition gave away certificates and prizes to all students teachers. (Report filed after coming back from Havelock. Photographs by Amit Sengupta)
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