The document discusses deforestation in the Andaman Islands of India. [1] Historical colonization and the timber industry drove initial deforestation. [2] Government policies encouraging migration and timber subsidies have continued deforestation. [3] Consequences include soil erosion, landslides, and threats to the indigenous Onge tribe. Sustainable solutions proposed include limiting migration, removing timber subsidies, education programs, and improving tribal rights.

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

2. 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.

3. Where are the Andaman islands?

4.  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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

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

10. With thanks to the follow people for the use of the
images
www.flickr.com
www.cia.gov
www.tourism.andaman.nic.in
www.commons.wikimedia.org