Tourists & Locals taken for a ride

 

D J Venkatesh

Diglipur, Oct 07: Ross & Smith Islands, internationally acclaimed tourist spot, located in Diglipur Island, has a world class beach, which connects both the Islands in low tide.

But hardly anyone knows that the Ross Island falls under Sanctuary but one part of the Smith Islands, falls under reserve forest while another part is Revenue land, where more than 300 people live.

It seems that the Forest department is illegally and dishonestly collecting entry fees of Rs.50/- from locals and Rs. 500/- from foreigners who are interested in going to Smith Island beach and not interested in Ross Island. Both the Islands are connected only during high tide with a sand bar but during low tide both the Islands remain disconnected.

Smith Island is having a big sandy white beach and for this reason most of the visitors are interested only in Smith Island and 99 percent visitor never enter inside Ross Island. Tourists visiting Ross and Smith often walk on the sandy beach which is a part of Smith Island too. Tourist Boats also drop the tourists only at Smith Island and not in Ross Island.

Boats are also liable to pay Rs. 10,000/- for up to 10 passengers and Rs. 50,000/- for more than 10 passengers annually.

An entrance permit is issued at Aerial bay Jetty by Wild life officials, which clearly mentions that the entry fee is charged only for ‘Transaction of lawful business’ and ‘Tourism’.

A delegation of DARTED on 29th September met the PCCF, who was on a visit Diglipur. “In Smith Island it is clear that there is no question for charging fees but one should take permission to go to the Smith Island as it falls under reserve forest. At the same time the DFO should ensure that nobody should go to the Ross Island. Regarding boats, if there is no regulation on number of boats tomorrow 10s of boats will come therefore we are regulating the boats by charging the fees. Entry inside Smith Island, without permission, is violation of Forest rules. DFO is responsible for at what extent tourism can be allowed and in which areas,” the PCCF told DARTED delegation.

When tourists do not enter Ross Island and Smith Island is a Reserve Forest then it is not clear why the Forest Department is still collecting Rs. 50 from Islanders and Rs. 500 from foreigners.

When DARTED contacted the Assistant Commissioner of Diglipur with the RTI replies regarding Ross, he admitted that this is a clear cut case of unlawful charging by the Forest department.

“We will issue a circular to all the concerned about this and place a display board at Aerial bay that it is free of charge to go to Smith Island. Just permission in form of Application is required to go the Smith Island,” the Assistant Commissioner said.

Hope the Forest Department will soon realise that till now the Department has been charging fees from visitors unlawfully and soon stop charging money from visitors of Ross and Smith Island, which in turn will also help in promoting Diglipur Tourism.

 

Sanjib Kumar Roy

Port Blair, Oct 04: It seems that the Elephant Tusk Case, busted by CID unit, has opened a can of worms.  As per Wild Life Act 1972, section 51 the police department can only detect a wildlife case and seize materials but can’t arrest the accused or run further investigations. The seized materials and accused have to be handed over to Forest Department for further course of action.

In the Elephant Tusk case also the same procedure was followed and all recovered properties along with detained persons were handed over to the Range Officer cum Assistant Wild Life Warden,MayabunderRangeon30/09/12for further action.

Surprisingly instead of keeping the accused for 24 hours (which is permitted in law) before producing to court, the accused were immediately produced to court, from where the accused got bail one by one. Sadly the Forest Department did not even oppose the bail. Why the Forest Department was in hurry in this case?

Not only this Forest Department is now saying that the seized wildlife materials are not Elephant Tusk but probably bones of some whale fish.

When Contacted the Division Forest Officer of Mayabunder Mr. Anish Kalkor said that only after various tests it can be established whether the materials are Elephant Tusk or not. “In my opinion these are not Elephant Tusks. These are probably bones of whale fish. For authentication we have to send these materials to either Wildlife Crime Control, Chennai or to ZSI,” Mr. Kolkar added.

The statement from Forest Department clearly indicates that how serious the forest Department is in this case. Meanwhile, Andaman Sheekha has learnt that an elephant was actually killed atLandfallIslandfor these Tusks and the remains of the body are still there inLandfallIsland. The Administration must constitute a special task force to trace out the body of the elephant atLandfallIsland, which will prove that poaching of elephant is going on in theseIslands. The Administration must take concrete steps to arrest the wildlife offenders. Good efforts of CID unit must not go waste.

 

DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Sep 26: The residents of Diglipur got surprised to spot the Island covered under dense fog on Wednesday at around 8.00 PM. The dense fog brought smiles on the faces of Diglipur Residents.

The vehicles owners were facing difficulties to drive their vehicles as the visibility was down below 25meters.

Talking to Andaman Sheekha the people including the performers of “Maati Ke Rang” who visited the Diglipur Islands from mainland to perform said that they are amazed to see this fog and they enjoyed it.

 

DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, North Andaman, Sept 25: The Judicial Magistrate –I, Mayabunder today sent Nikhil K Roy, a Homeopath of Diglipur region of North Andaman to Judicial Remand for allegedly conducting illegal abortion, without consent of the mother.

Along with Nikhil K Roy, Mr. Saji Samuel, the husband of the victim girl was also sent to Judicial Custody by JM-1, Mayabunder. Both of them will now be in Judicial Remand till 8th October 2012.

Earlier, A & N Police on Monday once again raided the clinic of the Diglipur Homeopath to seize those medicines, which were allegedly prescribed to a lady by the Homeopath last moth for illegal abortion.

Sources have confirmed that even after Monday’s raid Police could not find any such medicines in the clinic of Dr. Roy, however police team was able to recover one tablet and tablet-cover from the house of the victim girl, who has been admitted in CHC Diglipur, as she developed complication after consuming those medicines.

On 22nd September first raid was conducted by police on the Homeopath’s clinic.

According to details the Homeopath was arrested on 21st September 2012 for conducting illegal abortion and initially he was send to Police Custody for three days.

The case became public when the victim mother got some complications, including heavy bleeding, after the abortion.