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A LEARNING EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF ISLANDS
ANDANAM & NICOBAR ISLANDS FIELD TRIP
20TH DEC-26TH DEC, 2014
GEOGRAPHY, ESS, EVM & GP
This December(2014), a few Pathwazians from 9th and 11th grade, boarded a plane to Port Blair in the Land of Islands, Andaman’s with eager spirits, anticipating the chance to explore the exotic group of islands, which number 552 in total! In a matter of one week, it was unbelievable that we managed to capture the true essence of an entire Union Territory which is a tourist hot spot and is well known for its environmental offerings to the rest of the world.
We began our fieldwork with a visit to the monuments with great historic significance in Andaman – one of which was the Cellular Jail where we were given a tour of the Gallows and prison cells which housed Political Prisoners of the late 19th Century and is more popularly known to the world as ‘Kaala Pani’ which literally translates into ‘exile’. We also saw a light and sound show regarding the same, where the prison ground spectacularly turned into a theatre. We also visited the Tsunami Memorial which commemorated the Tsunami that had wreaked havoc in the A & N islands on 26th December 2004, a decade ago.
Andaman has several geographical wonders as well which we were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to see, namely the limestone caves of Yeratta and the mud volcano of Jol Tikrey. The mud volcano and limestone caves contributed greatly to the coursework and internal assessments that the students were collecting data for, as we gathered information pertaining to the mud’s mineral content, the preparedness of village communities which live in areas of active natural hazards and the social impact of tourism there.
We met several significant people in Andaman’s society such as Ms. Ratna Kanan, Chairperson of RWA of Andaman & Nicobar Islands who enlightened us regarding the current social issues in Andaman, as well as the measures taken to create awareness about them. Mr. Sonny Thomas was another person we were glad to have encountered as he was the head of the Zila Prashad and was instrumental in setting up some of our surveys in the villages for Bengali Migrants. Bengali migrants have settled in the Andaman for the east Bengal early 1975. He informed us of the difficulties faced by the Bengali Migrant villagers in their daily life such as the amenities provided by the government including the health facilities and accessibility of drinking water.
We also had the tribal groups of Jarawas and Ongis on our list, but we couldn’t manage to get a glimpse of them! The rarity of this experience cannot be emphasized enough as the Jarawas are an elusive tribe which is hidden in the jungles of North and Middle Andaman, who do not keep contact with other humans and continue to live as a small tribe of hunter-gatherers, glad in their isolation. Perhaps, this is the very definition of a ‘tribe’, someone who is not in the mainstream. It is very easy and rather disturbing to see how, Indigenous tribes are being affected by the advances of urbanisation, in today’s world.
Fortunately the Karen community, who settled in the Andaman’s from Myanmar, proved to be much more interactive and we conducted many productive surveys in their village. We had a special session with a Youth Pastor there from whom it was learnt that 12 families of their tribe had come settle here in 1925 and has expanded to 200 ever since. The data related to the people and their lives was just as valuable as the environmental data collected in the river study, a coral study and even tests of pH and soil temperature in mangrove cultivation were conducted! We later walked through the Dhani Nallah, the longest mangrove walkway in India! There was a vast variety of mangrove trees to observe and study, such as Black Mangroves with Red Flowers, Palm Mangroves, and Cedar Mangroves etc. It was interesting to know that the roots of Mangroves have adaptations like Pneumatophores and Stilt roots which make them true survivors in this saline environment.
And while the flora of the islands was gorgeous, the fauna was not neglected either, as we went to the Progeny Farm, where much was learnt about bee-keeping and how it is being promoted as a source of livelihood to supplement the family income. We also encountered elephants which were domesticated for felling and dragging logs through forests and realised that this practice is rampant in these islands. We visited turtle nesting grounds, one in Diglipur and another in Rangat, with hopes of encountering a nesting turtle but were unfortunately unsuccessful. However we did learn about the important role of the forest officials there who have the special task of taking care of these eggs in the specially designed hatcheries.
We met not only the protectors of the biodiversity and animal species in Andaman but even our defending forces, on Christmas Day, as we were guided by Commander Rath, Education Officer in the Indian Armed Forces, through a tour of two naval warships INS Cheetah and Investigator.
We celebrated Christmas by praying at the Stella Marie Church and also paid a visit to the Murugan Temple. We wanted to give back to society as well, so we spent time with orphans in the Mother Teresa Home and gifted them school bags which we specially bought from Delhi. Though the trip was extremely in hectic and packed with data collection, we had some fun trips too where we went to the beach at Ross & Smith and the Water Complex at Port Blair where we attempted a ‘sea walk’. The sea walk was a guided activity in which we were taken to the depths of the sea and were able to walk on the sea floor, as we enjoyed corals, anemones and fish which were teeming all around us. Later, we went souvenir shopping to Aberdeen Bazaar as well.
And though we did not wish for it to, the week did indeed finally come to an end and so it was with a sorrowful heart but with great memories that we left Andaman and returned to Delhi only richer with our experience!
A fabulous exposure to a lesser known part of India, this fieldwork exercise with a team of 20 students led by our able faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Bhagirathy Jhingran & Guru Charan Kumar, brought to the fore, the richness of our country and the diversity which adds to our strength as a nation. The chronology of events reminds us of the events which shaped this part of the world in space and time. We explore these worlds through the eyes and minds of young scholars, in the hope of finding eternal relevance, which will guide our future! We appreciate differences, we adapt, we contribute and we learn to blend with the landscape, as true IBDP and IGCSE scholars who are curious and want to make an impact in the world in which they live. We learnt the rigors of research and data collection, as we prepared ourselves and went into unknown territories, looking for both Physical and Human Data. We tried to put the pieces together, to appreciate various disciplines, in the real world, only to unravel that, Life is ‘trans-disciplinary’!
A great exercise in scholarship and research, we will carry this fieldwork assignment as a trendsetting one, in our lives as budding scientists and professionals who will soon be making sense of this world, even as we eke out a decent living while creating an impact on our world, along our own Pathway!
Text: Shivangi Sikri, Grade 11 & Bhagirathy Jhingran
Editing: Cathy Anubha Banerji
Photographs: Nainka Kumar & Abhinav Adlakha, Grade 11 &
K.Guru Charan kumar
Graphic Design : K.Guru Charan kumar
ANDANAM & NICOBAR ISLANDS FIELD TRIP
20TH DEC-26TH DEC, 2014
GEOGRAPHY, ESS, EVM & GP
This December(2014), a few Pathwazians from 9th and 11th grade, boarded a plane to Port Blair in the Land of Islands, Andaman’s with eager spirits, anticipating the chance to explore the exotic group of islands, which number 552 in total! In a matter of one week, it was unbelievable that we managed to capture the true essence of an entire Union Territory which is a tourist hot spot and is well known for its environmental offerings to the rest of the world.
We began our fieldwork with a visit to the monuments with great historic significance in Andaman – one of which was the Cellular Jail where we were given a tour of the Gallows and prison cells which housed Political Prisoners of the late 19th Century and is more popularly known to the world as ‘Kaala Pani’ which literally translates into ‘exile’. We also saw a light and sound show regarding the same, where the prison ground spectacularly turned into a theatre. We also visited the Tsunami Memorial which commemorated the Tsunami that had wreaked havoc in the A & N islands on 26th December 2004, a decade ago.
Andaman has several geographical wonders as well which we were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to see, namely the limestone caves of Yeratta and the mud volcano of Jol Tikrey. The mud volcano and limestone caves contributed greatly to the coursework and internal assessments that the students were collecting data for, as we gathered information pertaining to the mud’s mineral content, the preparedness of village communities which live in areas of active natural hazards and the social impact of tourism there.
We met several significant people in Andaman’s society such as Ms. Ratna Kanan, Chairperson of RWA of Andaman & Nicobar Islands who enlightened us regarding the current social issues in Andaman, as well as the measures taken to create awareness about them. Mr. Sonny Thomas was another person we were glad to have encountered as he was the head of the Zila Prashad and was instrumental in setting up some of our surveys in the villages for Bengali Migrants. Bengali migrants have settled in the Andaman for the east Bengal early 1975. He informed us of the difficulties faced by the Bengali Migrant villagers in their daily life such as the amenities provided by the government including the health facilities and accessibility of drinking water.
We also had the tribal groups of Jarawas and Ongis on our list, but we couldn’t manage to get a glimpse of them! The rarity of this experience cannot be emphasized enough as the Jarawas are an elusive tribe which is hidden in the jungles of North and Middle Andaman, who do not keep contact with other humans and continue to live as a small tribe of hunter-gatherers, glad in their isolation. Perhaps, this is the very definition of a ‘tribe’, someone who is not in the mainstream. It is very easy and rather disturbing to see how, Indigenous tribes are being affected by the advances of urbanisation, in today’s world.
Fortunately the Karen community, who settled in the Andaman’s from Myanmar, proved to be much more interactive and we conducted many productive surveys in their village. We had a special session with a Youth Pastor there from whom it was learnt that 12 families of their tribe had come settle here in 1925 and has expanded to 200 ever since. The data related to the people and their lives was just as valuable as the environmental data collected in the river study, a coral study and even tests of pH and soil temperature in mangrove cultivation were conducted! We later walked through the Dhani Nallah, the longest mangrove walkway in India! There was a vast variety of mangrove trees to observe and study, such as Black Mangroves with Red Flowers, Palm Mangroves, and Cedar Mangroves etc. It was interesting to know that the roots of Mangroves have adaptations like Pneumatophores and Stilt roots which make them true survivors in this saline environment.
And while the flora of the islands was gorgeous, the fauna was not neglected either, as we went to the Progeny Farm, where much was learnt about bee-keeping and how it is being promoted as a source of livelihood to supplement the family income. We also encountered elephants which were domesticated for felling and dragging logs through forests and realised that this practice is rampant in these islands. We visited turtle nesting grounds, one in Diglipur and another in Rangat, with hopes of encountering a nesting turtle but were unfortunately unsuccessful. However we did learn about the important role of the forest officials there who have the special task of taking care of these eggs in the specially designed hatcheries.
We met not only the protectors of the biodiversity and animal species in Andaman but even our defending forces, on Christmas Day, as we were guided by Commander Rath, Education Officer in the Indian Armed Forces, through a tour of two naval warships INS Cheetah and Investigator.
We celebrated Christmas by praying at the Stella Marie Church and also paid a visit to the Murugan Temple. We wanted to give back to society as well, so we spent time with orphans in the Mother Teresa Home and gifted them school bags which we specially bought from Delhi. Though the trip was extremely in hectic and packed with data collection, we had some fun trips too where we went to the beach at Ross & Smith and the Water Complex at Port Blair where we attempted a ‘sea walk’. The sea walk was a guided activity in which we were taken to the depths of the sea and were able to walk on the sea floor, as we enjoyed corals, anemones and fish which were teeming all around us. Later, we went souvenir shopping to Aberdeen Bazaar as well.
And though we did not wish for it to, the week did indeed finally come to an end and so it was with a sorrowful heart but with great memories that we left Andaman and returned to Delhi only richer with our experience!
A fabulous exposure to a lesser known part of India, this fieldwork exercise with a team of 20 students led by our able faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Bhagirathy Jhingran & Guru Charan Kumar, brought to the fore, the richness of our country and the diversity which adds to our strength as a nation. The chronology of events reminds us of the events which shaped this part of the world in space and time. We explore these worlds through the eyes and minds of young scholars, in the hope of finding eternal relevance, which will guide our future! We appreciate differences, we adapt, we contribute and we learn to blend with the landscape, as true IBDP and IGCSE scholars who are curious and want to make an impact in the world in which they live. We learnt the rigors of research and data collection, as we prepared ourselves and went into unknown territories, looking for both Physical and Human Data. We tried to put the pieces together, to appreciate various disciplines, in the real world, only to unravel that, Life is ‘trans-disciplinary’!
A great exercise in scholarship and research, we will carry this fieldwork assignment as a trendsetting one, in our lives as budding scientists and professionals who will soon be making sense of this world, even as we eke out a decent living while creating an impact on our world, along our own Pathway!
Text: Shivangi Sikri, Grade 11 & Bhagirathy Jhingran
Editing: Cathy Anubha Banerji
Photographs: Nainka Kumar & Abhinav Adlakha, Grade 11 &
K.Guru Charan kumar
Graphic Design : K.Guru Charan kumar
