A 2 Geography : Deforestation in India. Case Study :What are the causes and consequences in the Andaman Islands ? Chris Dunstan Cynffig Comprehensive School A 2 Geography : Deforestation in India. Case Study :What are the causes and consequences in the Andaman Islands ? Chris Dunstan Cynffig Comprehensive School

A.What has caused the deforestation in the Andaman islands? 1. Historical reasons  With India gaining Independence from the British in 1947 there was a colonisation scheme for the islands with thousands of people brought from mainland India, increasing demand on resources.

Where are the Andaman islands?

 The abundant forests and the timber within it became the source for the generation of both income and employment.  Today, the timber based industry in the Andamans comprises of two government saw mills, some small private saw mills and furniture making units and three private plywood units

Other causes of deforestation  2. Strategic location of the islands. The island chain is located in the Bay of Bengal, close to countries in South East Asia and north of an important commercial shipping lane. One strategy of the Government of India is to strengthen its claim over the islands has been to encourage more and more mainlanders to settle in the islands.  3. A lack of respect or acknowledgement of the life and culture of the ONGE tribe who are the original inhabitants.  4. Economic policies; such as the subsidies offered to the timber based industry.  5. Industrial and consumer demand; such as the increasing demand for plywood from the markets of mainland India.

B. What have been the consequences of the deforestation?  The people who have suffered the most in these islands are the indigenous communities for whom the forests are home.  Soil erosion has increased due to increased runoff and less interception  Higher water levels in local streams  Increase in landslides  Short term gain, but long tem economic and environmental loss

Impact on the Onge tribe Impact on the Onge tribe  The Onge tribe have been driven away from what was their homes and forced to move deeper into the forest.  With poaching of their food sources like the wild pig, survival is becoming difficult for them.  Roads that are bull dozed in the forest to carry out the logging operations give the settlers greater and easier access to areas that were inaccessible.  This has facilitated greater poaching, but also made it much easier for the settlers to move further into the forest to establish settlements

C. Sustainable solutions to deforestation  1.The government to discourage the migration of people into the islands from mainland India.  2. Removal of subsidies that make the plywood industry a viable and profitable venture and create alternate sources of wealth and employment.  This can include encouraging of fisheries and redeployment of people inside the forest department for conservation and wildlife protection activities.  3. Education and awareness programmes in the islands about the fragility and importance of the islands and the real cost of the forest destruction and to provide positive incentives to encourage conservation.  4. Improving the rights of the tribals and making settlers aware of their sustainable lifestyles. This is important because the indigenous tribes are very small and the dominant population in the islands is settlers from mainland.

 5. The Green India Mission aims to increase India’s forest cover from the current 22 percent to 33 percent.

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