Army officers ‘battle’ with precious corals in Andaman

Col Shakti Banerjee of the Wildlife Protection Society of India believes the Indian Army is a highly-disciplined force. It is eco-friendly too, with an eco-cell at the army headquarters, entrusted to look into all ecological relationships the army may have. He advises that all ecological violations be at once reported to COAS Gen VK Singh. With proof, of course! The immediate provocation for this advice is a complaint from the ecologically fragile Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Local media reports say that a group of army men from the Defence Service Staff College, Wellingdon, in Tamil Nadu who had come for a two day visit to the islands, destroyed coral reefs on Havelock Island’s Elephant Beach.

The contingent was 380-strong.

Some say as many as 450 officers were on the visit. They came in chartered aircraft from Coimbatore.

There was no checking to see if they carried away any schedule1 species or anything (such as corals) that is banned from taking out from these islands.

The officers reached Port Blair on March 27 and returned to the mainland on March 29, as part of their routine six-monthly exercises.

All of them held ranks of major and above. They went to Havelock by MV Makruz, a luxury catamaran belonging to M/s MAK Logistics Pvt Ltd (capacity 250), over two days. Two batches, of about 150 men each, went to Havelock first on the 27th and the second time on 28th.

Local forest officers in charge of coral protection told the media in the Andamans that the men were under the influence of alcohol when they went snorkeling. It was during these snorkeling expeditions that they uprooted corals, danced and posed on them and even threw corals at each other.

On being stopped by the forest guards (about 2-3 men), the army officers threatened them by pulling their ranks in the Indian Army.

“It is further learnt that even dinghy operators and the local people of Havelock pleaded them from getting away from the corals but the officers did not pay heed to their requests,” the Andaman Chronicle reported. There are also reports by independent conservation groups that often army personnel and their family picnic on the Wandoor beach and drive right up to the ship(s) inside the port.

Which serving forest guard on duty on an Andaman beach will provide proof about the army’s violations? Does the Indian Army have a system like the Supreme Court, by which it can suo moto recognise an offence and order a corrective initiative, a standing instruction to senior level officers not to destroy corals? The Army headquarters must know whether a contingent from Tamil Nadu visited A&N in the last week of March. And which high-ranking officer could claim that the officers were having mock-fights with the endangered corals?

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When higher rank army men go on rampage there is no stopping. And 2 ~ 3 forest gaurds can certainly never contain a real army of high rank officials.

There are widespread training and refresher courses conducted to defence cadres periodically by experts such as Dr. Johnsingh in various wildlife hotspots. This measure not only imparts awareness among them but also helps in use of forces when poaching and similar incidences get out of control. The training and awareness measure should of course be increased manifold across the section of defence men if these incidences are to reduce.