The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : `Adopt bottom-up plan for Andaman development'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 29, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

`Adopt bottom-up plan for Andaman development'

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: : M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, National Commission on Farmers, has said the action plan for the development of post-tsunami "New Andamans" submitted to the Centre has stressed that planning and development should be based on "bottom-up approach" involving the elected representatives and captains and members of the tribal councils.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the plan of the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation suggested that community food and water banks be set up immediately, as the situation in the South Andaman and the Little Andaman could result in transient hunger spots and starvation deaths.

Prof. Swaminathan said capacity building in all aspects of disaster management and in the development of bio-shields, bio-villages and village knowledge centres was an urgent task. "It is suggested that a crash programme of capacity building for 500 women and 500 men master trainers be initiated immediately." The plan for "New Andamans", as described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after his visit to the earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged islands, would not only address the steps for equipping the country to face similar calamities with greater confidence and competence, but also the strategies for strengthening ecological foundations, sustainable management of natural resources and redesigning farming and fishing systems best suited to the island's ecosystems.

P.C. Kesavan, who led a team of scientists to the Andaman and Nicobar islands, said: "The calamity has caused extensive damage to agricultural fields, coconut forests, fishing ponds and lagoons. Thus the food security base for both the settlers and the natives was severely eroded."

Setting up of community water banks, managed by women self-help groups, cultivation of paddy in places where it was a choice from the ecological and economical points of view and establishment of small farm horticultural estates were suggested for the water-starved North Andamans.

For the South Andaman, inundated with seawater, establishment of mangrove bio-shields and integrating it with sustainable aquaculture were recommended. The plan suggested that coconut nurseries for replanting be raised within the island.

The overall situation on the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands required that people be given multi-fortified salt to fight micronutrient malnutrition. Anbarasu, Deputy Commissioner, Nicobar, highlighted the rehabilitation measures taken up by the administration in three stages.

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