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Sustainable livelihoods: tribal island ecosystems
Professor Janki Andharia, Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India
D
isasters have an enormous impact on people’s liveli-
hoods – and their livelihoods also often determine
their abilities to cope with disasters. Regeneration and
enhancement of livelihoods in post-disaster situations remains a
fundamental challenge, especially on small islands. In a country
like India, it is essential to focus on issues of equity, social
justice and ecological security in the process. A critical objective
in the post-disaster transition phase is to restore livelihoods in
a way that reduces vulnerability and makes communities more
resilient when faced with possible new disasters.
Vulnerability of small islands and their indigenous
communities
Small islands are particularly vulnerable to a number of natural
hazards, which are further aggravated due to human efforts at devel-
opment. Moreover, islands have large coastal zones which make
them increasingly vulnerable to coastal erosion, floods and some
of the most devastating hydrometeorological and geological disas-
ters such as cyclones and earthquakes. Many islands are of volcanic
origin and are located on plate boundaries, as a result of which they
experience frequent earthquakes. Islands also tend to have fragile
environments and economies and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
(A and NIs) are a case in point.
During the earthquake and tsunami of 26 December 2004, the
southern group of islands – the Nicobar Islands, declared a Tribal
Reserve – was worst affected in terms of human casualties and
loss of forest, plantations and public amenities. The destruction
on the islands was compounded by their relative isolation in both
geographic and administrative terms. It was against this backdrop
that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) took up the chal-
lenge of working on relief support, assessments and local capacity
building in close collaboration with the local authorities of the
islands.
Located in the Bay of Bengal, the A and NIs cover an area of 8,249
sq km. They lie in a Zone V seismic category, experiencing intense
tectonic activity and therefore highly prone to earthquakes. These
572 islands of volcanic origin are formed by a sub-marine mountain
range and are located between the latitudes 6° to 14° North and
longitudes 92° to 94° East. The Indian Ocean is dominated by the
presence of mid-ocean ridges where the Indo-Australian and African
plates are moving away from the Antarctica plate along the ridges.
On average, the Indo-Australian plate moves below the Eurasian
plate at around 70 mm per year. Along the Andaman-Sumatra Sunda
trench, the Indian plate is subducting below the Burmese plate.
Often, however, the plates become locked and move very little for
many years, causing pressure to build up. When the accumulated
pressure is suddenly released, a major earthquake results. This is
what happened in December 2004 below Sumatra.
The A and NIs experience vulnerability caused by
their small size, insularity and remoteness (they are
over 1,000 km from the Indian land mass). The capital,
Port Blair, is 1,255 km from Kolkata and 1,190 km from
Chennai. On the other hand, the northern end of the
islands lies just 193 km away from Cape Negrais in
Myanmar and Sumatra, the closest landmass, is 145 km
away from the Nicobar group of islands at the southern
end. Of the total 572 islands, only 36 are inhabited.
Citizens face problems including high external trans-
port costs, time delays in importing goods, reduced
quality of information flow and poor governance
and monitoring mechanisms. The islands experience
chronic difficulties maintaining adequate water and
energy supplies.
The original inhabitants of the A and NIs are the Onge,
Sentinelese, Jarawa and Great Andamanese of Negroid
descent in the Andaman Islands, and the Shompen and
Nicobarese of Mongoloid descent in the Nicobar Islands.
The communities have lived here for 20,000 years, but
their collective population (excluding the Nicobarese)
has decreased to 500 in the last 150 years as a result of
colonial policies and the modernization activities of inde-
pendent India. Outbreaks of measles and other diseases
have wiped out large numbers of these tribes.
Tribal communities live in highly diversified and
varied environments, adopting simple technologies.
Typically, use of natural resources is largely sustain-
able with no over-exploitation. The communities live
in a synergistic and symbiotic relationship with nature.
(The Nicobarese, for instance, despite being coastal
communities, do not carry out fishing as a source of
commercial livelihood, but only for subsistence.) Their
deep relationship with nature has helped maintain their
ecological environment despite centuries of habitation.
Sustainable livelihoods
Indigenous communities depend on habitats such as
forests for sustenance, but livelihood patterns are chang-
ing as access to environmental resources is decreasing.
Therefore there is a need to look not only at the physi-
cal environment, but also at the mediating factors that
impact livelihood patterns and their sustainability. These
include social relations, institutions and organizations
and the axes of inequalities in society (significance of
caste, class, gender, religion, age and ethnicity) that
inhibit or facilitate the exercise of choice by individu-
als or households. Interplay of these factors produces a
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