WWF-India's National Nature Camping Programme - Andamans Report
Background
The first marine camp under the NNCP banner was held in the “emerald isles” in the Bay of Bengal. This camp was organised as one of the objectives of the NNCP which is to cover the various habitats and ecosystems as completely as possible – in this case, the target ecosystem was the marine ecosystem. The camp was conducted by the field director –nature camps, WWF-India, and was held between 22nd and 27th Jan 2007. Fourteen persons attended this camp.
The Andaman & Nicobar Islands
The Andamans and Nicobars are an archipelago of some 572 islands and islets stretching more than 700 kms north to south, of which some 36 alone are inhabited. The entire group is actually a submarine mountain range strung out from Burma across to Indonesia, the emergent tops of the seamounts forming the islands. Most of the islands are clothed in dense forest right down to their shores, and are surrounded by rich beds of coral. The islands boast of about 58 species of mammals, 246 birds, 83 reptiles, 10 amphibians, 750 fish plus innumerable invertebrates, both terrestrial and marine, including 179 species of corals, and more than 100 species of orchids. The original human inhabitants are of 6 different tribes – the Great Andamanese, the Onges, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese from the Andamans, and the Nicobarese and Shompens from the Nicobars.
The Campsite
The campers were put up at the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team (ANET) premises in Wandoor, in the South Andaman island, a well-wooded premises in an isolated spot close to a mangrove swamp bordering the seashore in the south-western corner of the island. The premises are gently undulating with a large flat expanse and is home to many insular creatures. The living structures are tastefully built of locally available natural material and are fairly widely separated from each other connected by rough paths winding through the dense groves of trees. The present director of ANET is Mr. Harry Andrews, whose goodwill and enthusiasm made this camp possible. The site is managed by Saw John Aung, who ensured that everything was organised and set for the camp group.
The Camp
Camp began on the 22nd morning. The campers were picked up from the airport and settled in their quarters. After breakfast, the party headed towards the nearby beach, for the boat which would take them to their first marine rendezvous – the Mohaderra coral beach.
Mohaderra – (22nd Jan)
The sea was a little choppy once the boat entered the wider bay and the ride became bumpy with the prow of the fibreglass boat rising high in the air as it rode the waves. After alighting on the beach, the campers were taken out in the same boat to the coral beds where they were taken in threes, including the two children, on floats and snorkelling gear into the sea to view the coral. The sight that presented itself was magnificent with brilliant coral of all shapes, sizes and colours growing to substantial heights on the sea floor below. After taking in their fill of the corals, the campers clambered up back into the boat, mesmerised and elated with the sights they had never seen before, while another three took their turn. After all had had their turns, the boat headed back to the beach for packed lunch, some exploration and photography, and the party returned to campsite. After tea followed by dinner later on, the elated campers turned in for their first night at this insular marine camp of WWF-India.
Mount Harriet National Park – (23rd Jan)
The next morning, after an early bed-tea, the group, led by John, left for Mount Harriet National Park, a road journey of more than an hour, stopping en route for breakfast at a wayside dabha. At Mount Harriet, the campers split and trekked through the forest along different paths to experience the insular wildlife and vegetation there. At lunchtime, they regrouped at the Forest Rest House garden, then relaxed for awhile before departing for Bamboo flats from where a ferry was boarded, along with the vehicles, to Chatham island wharf, which cut short the road journey back to camp.
On the way back, the party stopped at a point to view damage to the land and vegetation by the recent tsunami-cum-earthquake, which casued the land here to sink, bringing in a permanent flood of sea water which killed off all the vegetation. Here the campers were rewarded by the sight of two white-bellied sea eagles perched on the black, rotting mass of tree stumps standing in the earthquake-formed lake. The evening was free for the campers some of whom wandered off down to the beach and along the road for birdwatching and photography.
Chidiyatapu Bird Sanctuary—(24th Jan)
The next morning, after an even earlier bed-tea, the group got into the vehicles for the ride to Chidiyatapu, meaning ‘bird rock”, which, because of its position, witnesses both the sunrise and sunset, said to be enchanting as they occur on the seascape. Stopping to pick up breakfast at a small wayside dabha, the group reached the chosen area well in time for the birds, for which the area is famous and thus named. This time, Ms. Aparna Singh, the education officer at ANET, accompanied the group.
At Chidiyatapu sanctuary, Aparna led the group along a broad trail which curved its way through good forest and yielded scores of birds – red-breasted and long-tailed parakeets, scarlet minivet, drongos, imperial green and grey-fronted green pigeons, emerald dove, vernal hanging parrot and others. Further down, some enclosures housing spotted deer, sambar, hog deer and Andaman pig were seen. Reaching the beach, the party stopped for breakfast, where a white collared kingfisher and rufous woodpecker presented themselves. At the end of the road, the sea was littered with huge fallen trees, courtesy the tsunami, but the water here was a brilliant turquoise blue and many of the campers slashed in while others wandered further along the beach. Here, different types of mangrove roots were seen: stilt roots, knee roots (which stuck out of the sand like bent knees and spiky pneumatophores which grew out of the sticky sunstratum for breathing. A group of mudskippers was also seen – dainty little frog-headed, air-breathing fish which merrily skipped along the water’s edge, finally hopping out onto exposed rocks.
After spending some time at this spot, the group trekked back to the entrance of the sanctuary, encountering fairy bluebirds, minivets, alexandrine parakeets, white-bellied sea eagles, and many butterflies including wanderers, orangetips, great orangetips, clippers, niggers, psyches, grass yellows, gulls and unidentified blues, on the way.
Redskin island: Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park -- (25th Jan)
The next day, after breakfast, the group drove the 4 kms to the Wandoor Jetty from where ferries operated by local people under an eco-development scheme, took visitors to the coral-ringed islands in the marine park. On reaching Redskin island, the ferry stopped some 200 metres away and the visitors, including the campers, were taken in glass-bottomed boats across coral fields to the island shore. Through the glass bottom, the campers saw stands of coral with fish and other sea creatures swimming around them. Once ashore, the campers donned diving masks supplied by WWF-I and explored the clear shallow waters in the tourist zone of the beach. Here the field director pointed out to little goby fish which lay in or near burrows under seaweed at the bottom, and fished out a sea cucumber from the bottom for everyone to handle. The sea cucumber is a cucumber-shaped animal related to starfishes and sea urchins, and moves slowly along the seabed using hundreds of tiny suction tube-feet. These tube-feet could be felt by some of the campers when they handled the animal, which also ejected a thin stream of water when lifted out of the water, crumpling and reducing in size.
After some time at the island, the boatmen herded the tourists into the glass-bottomed boats and transported them back to the ferry which returned to Wandoor Jetty. At the jetty, a large, colourful parrot fish was seen dead on the sand by moored fishing boats, indicating that non-targetted fish were senslessly discarded on the shore – an unnecessary waste of life.
On the way back to base camp, a large, 5-foot long water monitor was seen, dead, on the road with its front legs tied against its head. This blatant act of poaching of a Schedule 1 animal was a clear indication that local folk flout protection rules in the Andamans.
In the evening, at base-camp, the field director delivered a slide-show on snakes, which covered the natural history and diversity of snakes, snakebite and antivenine, followed by the inevitable questions and clarifications on the subject.
26th Jan
At another spot on the southern tip of South Andaman, a concrete pier ending in a higher platform has been constructed amidst coral beds. As it was intended to visit the spot at low tide, the campers were roused very early, served bed-tea and departed for the site. Stopping enroute for breakfast, the group disembarked at a barricade on the forest-encroached road which bordered the mangrove-lined seashore, and trekked some 3 kms to the pier. Along the road, which was heavily breached and cracked in places due to the tsunami waves, the group encountered many birds and butterflies, and finally reached the pier, to find that the low tide period had passed and the tide was now rising. Undeterred, the group crossed the tsunami-damage pier which had tilted to one side, and clambered onto the trellis-legs of the platform which were heavily encrusted with bivalves and barnacles, from where a fascinating sight presented itself.
The submerged legs of the platform were festooned with coral-red and moon-white seafans -- animals shaped like a japanese fan made of lacy net material. These creatures are related to coral and, like coral, are permanently adhered to the substratum of their choice, filtering microscopic food from the surrounding seawater. Several sea-lilies (also animals) shaped like flowers atop long, slender stems along with feathery anemones, were also observed. The rich beds of coral were swirling with butterflyfishes of the most incredible shapes and colours. A mighty grouper (a large rotund fish) stared goggle-eyed from below at the marvelling campers, slowly sliding away under the jetty after awhile. The highlight was a colourful (and venomous) scorpion-fish (also known as turkeyfish or lionfish), which crawled along the legs of the jetty using its leg-like belly-fins. This inaggressive and slow-moving fish is striped with maroon, mauve, white and black markings and this, coupled with its finger-like pectoral fins and dorsal spines flayed out, gave it the appearance of an aquatic, mobile, multi-petalled flower. Scores of swifts had built their nests against the underside of the jetty platform and hurtled in and out between the legs of the jetty, chirruping and twittering incessantly.
Climbing back to the tilted pier from the platform legs, the campers found that the tide had risen further and the pier was now partly inundated. Kneeling gingerly, the campers donned the diving masks and put their faces into the water – to be met with an awesome sight of vast coral beds stretching and disappearing into the blue distance of the water. The water was alive with coral, seafans, seaweed and, of course, fish. Parrotfish of various species and colours scraped at the algae growing on the coral, while the scorpion fish crawled or floated about warily. Schools of other fish circled about or swam past in formation, including a school of surgeon fish, brilliant in their purple and yellow liverly. A cloud of sparkling, tiny fish (probably fry -- infant fish) repeatedly appeared and disappeared. Two large bluefin jacks, with opulent bluish bodies and brilliant turquoise fins and tail did a repeated beat in front of the submerged campers who gaped through their masks at the scenario, popping their heads every now and then out of the water to take a breath or exclaim at something or the other, before dunking their heads in again. Another highlight was the appearance of a stonefish – a relative of the scorpionfish and also venomous – which lay quietly on the sea bottom under the watching campers. This fish is camouflaged with colours and protruding appendages which blend in perfectly with the surrounding rock, coral and seaweed.
Finally, after taking in their fill of the underwater world, the camper withdrew to shore, changed and headed back to the vehicles, taking in the birds and butterflies on the way. After lunch at basecamp, half the group departed to Port Blair for an extra day’s stay while the rest stayed back at ANET for the night and departed next morning (27th Jan) for Chennai.
The first marine camp under the NNCP banner was held in the “emerald isles” in the Bay of Bengal. This camp was organised as one of the objectives of the NNCP which is to cover the various habitats and ecosystems as completely as possible – in this case, the target ecosystem was the marine ecosystem. The camp was conducted by the field director –nature camps, WWF-India, and was held between 22nd and 27th Jan 2007. Fourteen persons attended this camp.
The Andaman & Nicobar Islands
The Andamans and Nicobars are an archipelago of some 572 islands and islets stretching more than 700 kms north to south, of which some 36 alone are inhabited. The entire group is actually a submarine mountain range strung out from Burma across to Indonesia, the emergent tops of the seamounts forming the islands. Most of the islands are clothed in dense forest right down to their shores, and are surrounded by rich beds of coral. The islands boast of about 58 species of mammals, 246 birds, 83 reptiles, 10 amphibians, 750 fish plus innumerable invertebrates, both terrestrial and marine, including 179 species of corals, and more than 100 species of orchids. The original human inhabitants are of 6 different tribes – the Great Andamanese, the Onges, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese from the Andamans, and the Nicobarese and Shompens from the Nicobars.
The campers were put up at the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team (ANET) premises in Wandoor, in the South Andaman island, a well-wooded premises in an isolated spot close to a mangrove swamp bordering the seashore in the south-western corner of the island. The premises are gently undulating with a large flat expanse and is home to many insular creatures. The living structures are tastefully built of locally available natural material and are fairly widely separated from each other connected by rough paths winding through the dense groves of trees. The present director of ANET is Mr. Harry Andrews, whose goodwill and enthusiasm made this camp possible. The site is managed by Saw John Aung, who ensured that everything was organised and set for the camp group.
The Camp
Camp began on the 22nd morning. The campers were picked up from the airport and settled in their quarters. After breakfast, the party headed towards the nearby beach, for the boat which would take them to their first marine rendezvous – the Mohaderra coral beach.
Mohaderra – (22nd Jan)
The sea was a little choppy once the boat entered the wider bay and the ride became bumpy with the prow of the fibreglass boat rising high in the air as it rode the waves. After alighting on the beach, the campers were taken out in the same boat to the coral beds where they were taken in threes, including the two children, on floats and snorkelling gear into the sea to view the coral. The sight that presented itself was magnificent with brilliant coral of all shapes, sizes and colours growing to substantial heights on the sea floor below. After taking in their fill of the corals, the campers clambered up back into the boat, mesmerised and elated with the sights they had never seen before, while another three took their turn. After all had had their turns, the boat headed back to the beach for packed lunch, some exploration and photography, and the party returned to campsite. After tea followed by dinner later on, the elated campers turned in for their first night at this insular marine camp of WWF-India.
The next morning, after an early bed-tea, the group, led by John, left for Mount Harriet National Park, a road journey of more than an hour, stopping en route for breakfast at a wayside dabha. At Mount Harriet, the campers split and trekked through the forest along different paths to experience the insular wildlife and vegetation there. At lunchtime, they regrouped at the Forest Rest House garden, then relaxed for awhile before departing for Bamboo flats from where a ferry was boarded, along with the vehicles, to Chatham island wharf, which cut short the road journey back to camp.
On the way back, the party stopped at a point to view damage to the land and vegetation by the recent tsunami-cum-earthquake, which casued the land here to sink, bringing in a permanent flood of sea water which killed off all the vegetation. Here the campers were rewarded by the sight of two white-bellied sea eagles perched on the black, rotting mass of tree stumps standing in the earthquake-formed lake. The evening was free for the campers some of whom wandered off down to the beach and along the road for birdwatching and photography.
The next morning, after an even earlier bed-tea, the group got into the vehicles for the ride to Chidiyatapu, meaning ‘bird rock”, which, because of its position, witnesses both the sunrise and sunset, said to be enchanting as they occur on the seascape. Stopping to pick up breakfast at a small wayside dabha, the group reached the chosen area well in time for the birds, for which the area is famous and thus named. This time, Ms. Aparna Singh, the education officer at ANET, accompanied the group.
At Chidiyatapu sanctuary, Aparna led the group along a broad trail which curved its way through good forest and yielded scores of birds – red-breasted and long-tailed parakeets, scarlet minivet, drongos, imperial green and grey-fronted green pigeons, emerald dove, vernal hanging parrot and others. Further down, some enclosures housing spotted deer, sambar, hog deer and Andaman pig were seen. Reaching the beach, the party stopped for breakfast, where a white collared kingfisher and rufous woodpecker presented themselves. At the end of the road, the sea was littered with huge fallen trees, courtesy the tsunami, but the water here was a brilliant turquoise blue and many of the campers slashed in while others wandered further along the beach. Here, different types of mangrove roots were seen: stilt roots, knee roots (which stuck out of the sand like bent knees and spiky pneumatophores which grew out of the sticky sunstratum for breathing. A group of mudskippers was also seen – dainty little frog-headed, air-breathing fish which merrily skipped along the water’s edge, finally hopping out onto exposed rocks.
After spending some time at this spot, the group trekked back to the entrance of the sanctuary, encountering fairy bluebirds, minivets, alexandrine parakeets, white-bellied sea eagles, and many butterflies including wanderers, orangetips, great orangetips, clippers, niggers, psyches, grass yellows, gulls and unidentified blues, on the way.
Redskin island: Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park -- (25th Jan)
The next day, after breakfast, the group drove the 4 kms to the Wandoor Jetty from where ferries operated by local people under an eco-development scheme, took visitors to the coral-ringed islands in the marine park. On reaching Redskin island, the ferry stopped some 200 metres away and the visitors, including the campers, were taken in glass-bottomed boats across coral fields to the island shore. Through the glass bottom, the campers saw stands of coral with fish and other sea creatures swimming around them. Once ashore, the campers donned diving masks supplied by WWF-I and explored the clear shallow waters in the tourist zone of the beach. Here the field director pointed out to little goby fish which lay in or near burrows under seaweed at the bottom, and fished out a sea cucumber from the bottom for everyone to handle. The sea cucumber is a cucumber-shaped animal related to starfishes and sea urchins, and moves slowly along the seabed using hundreds of tiny suction tube-feet. These tube-feet could be felt by some of the campers when they handled the animal, which also ejected a thin stream of water when lifted out of the water, crumpling and reducing in size.
After some time at the island, the boatmen herded the tourists into the glass-bottomed boats and transported them back to the ferry which returned to Wandoor Jetty. At the jetty, a large, colourful parrot fish was seen dead on the sand by moored fishing boats, indicating that non-targetted fish were senslessly discarded on the shore – an unnecessary waste of life.
On the way back to base camp, a large, 5-foot long water monitor was seen, dead, on the road with its front legs tied against its head. This blatant act of poaching of a Schedule 1 animal was a clear indication that local folk flout protection rules in the Andamans.
In the evening, at base-camp, the field director delivered a slide-show on snakes, which covered the natural history and diversity of snakes, snakebite and antivenine, followed by the inevitable questions and clarifications on the subject.
26th Jan
At another spot on the southern tip of South Andaman, a concrete pier ending in a higher platform has been constructed amidst coral beds. As it was intended to visit the spot at low tide, the campers were roused very early, served bed-tea and departed for the site. Stopping enroute for breakfast, the group disembarked at a barricade on the forest-encroached road which bordered the mangrove-lined seashore, and trekked some 3 kms to the pier. Along the road, which was heavily breached and cracked in places due to the tsunami waves, the group encountered many birds and butterflies, and finally reached the pier, to find that the low tide period had passed and the tide was now rising. Undeterred, the group crossed the tsunami-damage pier which had tilted to one side, and clambered onto the trellis-legs of the platform which were heavily encrusted with bivalves and barnacles, from where a fascinating sight presented itself.
The submerged legs of the platform were festooned with coral-red and moon-white seafans -- animals shaped like a japanese fan made of lacy net material. These creatures are related to coral and, like coral, are permanently adhered to the substratum of their choice, filtering microscopic food from the surrounding seawater. Several sea-lilies (also animals) shaped like flowers atop long, slender stems along with feathery anemones, were also observed. The rich beds of coral were swirling with butterflyfishes of the most incredible shapes and colours. A mighty grouper (a large rotund fish) stared goggle-eyed from below at the marvelling campers, slowly sliding away under the jetty after awhile. The highlight was a colourful (and venomous) scorpion-fish (also known as turkeyfish or lionfish), which crawled along the legs of the jetty using its leg-like belly-fins. This inaggressive and slow-moving fish is striped with maroon, mauve, white and black markings and this, coupled with its finger-like pectoral fins and dorsal spines flayed out, gave it the appearance of an aquatic, mobile, multi-petalled flower. Scores of swifts had built their nests against the underside of the jetty platform and hurtled in and out between the legs of the jetty, chirruping and twittering incessantly.
Climbing back to the tilted pier from the platform legs, the campers found that the tide had risen further and the pier was now partly inundated. Kneeling gingerly, the campers donned the diving masks and put their faces into the water – to be met with an awesome sight of vast coral beds stretching and disappearing into the blue distance of the water. The water was alive with coral, seafans, seaweed and, of course, fish. Parrotfish of various species and colours scraped at the algae growing on the coral, while the scorpion fish crawled or floated about warily. Schools of other fish circled about or swam past in formation, including a school of surgeon fish, brilliant in their purple and yellow liverly. A cloud of sparkling, tiny fish (probably fry -- infant fish) repeatedly appeared and disappeared. Two large bluefin jacks, with opulent bluish bodies and brilliant turquoise fins and tail did a repeated beat in front of the submerged campers who gaped through their masks at the scenario, popping their heads every now and then out of the water to take a breath or exclaim at something or the other, before dunking their heads in again. Another highlight was the appearance of a stonefish – a relative of the scorpionfish and also venomous – which lay quietly on the sea bottom under the watching campers. This fish is camouflaged with colours and protruding appendages which blend in perfectly with the surrounding rock, coral and seaweed.
Finally, after taking in their fill of the underwater world, the camper withdrew to shore, changed and headed back to the vehicles, taking in the birds and butterflies on the way. After lunch at basecamp, half the group departed to Port Blair for an extra day’s stay while the rest stayed back at ANET for the night and departed next morning (27th Jan) for Chennai.
