Resilient tourism infrastructure for Andaman and Nicobar Islands

um so a very good evening to one and all today is the last day of the webinar sessions that we are having as a part of the anderman state learning week uh the state learning week is from 18th now till 24th of march it has been extended for a day but however today will be the last uh uh last day of the webinar sessions that we are handling and we are in the last uh uh webinar session and before i go to the webinar session today i would like to first and foremost i would like to introduce everyone to this uh mission karmogi and its core component the igod platform and we have successfully hosted 14 webinars and we have expected immense participation from the uh government of andaman as well so before i go ahead let me introduce the speaker uh professor dr sanjukta maduri is with us she is a highly accomplished academician with over 39 years of experience at the prestigious school of planning and architecture new delhi she has been the professor of urban planning at uh uh school of planning and architecture delhi and has consistently demonstrated leadership through her numerous roles within the institution including the former positions of head of the department urban planning and regional planning and dean and she has vast experience in the fields of urban planning environmental planning disaster studies uh etc and i can go on and on about ma'am uh but she has two online courses on swam platform that is the city and metropolitan planning and also the urban disaster risk and disaster mitigation so ma'am i hand over the session to you okay uh good afternoon to all thank you mission karum yogi for inviting me uh and i will share my screen and uh give me a moment i have to share my screen is my screen visible yes ma'am okay so uh we come to resilient tourism infrastructure for andaman and nikobar islands now uh basically anaman and nicobar islands if we see um what are the characteristics of anaman and nicobar islands we see that it has natural assets there are beaches there are mangroves forest reserves coral reefs marine life there is historical and cultural assets there are historical sites um the and then there are indigenous tribes and traditions then arts and crafts crafts festivals cuisines museums and cultural centers so there's a diversity and a various varied uh resources or assets which andaman and nikovar islands have so there are v various things which one the jail which was very well known for from many i mean from a decades back so therefore there are lot of many assets which the which andawar and nikovara islands have or what we call as the tourism resources so uh with this when we see what it is the picture the glimpses of andamana nikawar islands we see that there are lot of you know tourism tourism is a major economic activity in uh in um these islands and there is natural assetbased tourism there's adventure sports there's a visit to historical sites uh people experience local culture their traditions cuisines handiccraft crafts and um who are the stakeholders in these in in this industry what we call as tourism today we call tourism as an industry so what is this uh who are the stakeholders so when we see we have the stakeholders we have the first the tourists of course of all age groups income groups and gender we have local communities which is includes the indigenous population then urban authorities the municipalities the rural authorities then uh of course we know that there is north and middle and south anamans and there are various the whole the islands are divided into various parts and they have their inherent uh characteristics but over as an overall understanding we we know that the these are the they are these are the stakeholders then hotel and restaurant operators tours and travel operators service providers law enforcement agencies police security personnel so all these and there are others which are part of which who are the stakeholders in this uh tourism industry so when we talk of um tourism we see that tourism has been uh tourism infrastructure what goes with tourism when we talk of stakeholders with and tourism we also um discuss at the same time that what are what is what comes under tourism uh infrastructure so we have accommodation we have transport we have tourists have to move they have energy we have water we have waste management which needs to be uh taken care of telecommunication is required health care is required safety and security are required so all these becomes a part of the tourism infrastructure uh and especially for islands when uh especially for andawan and nikovara islands which are also connected to the global what we'd say the other islands of the global south so it has a very uh strategic location and from all over the um other islands and other mainland areas people come to and therefore there are there are waterways there are airways there are roads uh which um are part of the um movement um pattern of the of u uh in these islands for the tourists so when we look at the the um challenges which faces what this what this industry of course tourism industry have you as as we already know that where there are various islands which are today talking of you know capac talking of carrying capacity because they are saying like canary islands they are saying okay you you know we have to talk of we cannot let tourists this these many tourists come in so they they are people are talking of carrying carrying capacity based tourism but let us u i'm really not focusing on the carrying capacity based tourism because uh let us see how this tourism is uh getting affected or what are the challenges of tourism today so especially from the disaster and the climate point of view so my perspective is the disaster and the climate point of view so earthquakes tsunami cyclones heavy rainfall floods active mud volcano sorry there's a typo it's a mud volcano which is a part of the characteristics of anaman nikar island sea level rise changing temperatures landslides so all these are i mean there are multiple hazards and uh as well as the risks are also that much high-c because if the capacity is not there if if we do really do not have the capacity to combat these multi- or this multi-hazard uh profile of the of these islands then uh we the risk mounts and so therefore we can see that there are the uh different types of uh um challenges which from the disaster and climate change point of view which these islands face and if we can see that there are lot of uh um impacts i'm really not going into those numbers but because generally um in such in islands the the deaths the uh coastal areas they they are more vulnerable people are more vulnerable and their livelihoods the infrastructure everything is are more vulnerable especially for islands now if we really look at the um uh tourism as an economic activity what sort of challenges it faces we can see that there's because of those of those um uh problems which i said related to disaster and climate change there's destruction of natural assets historical and cultural assets on which the tourism is based so ultimately if we do not if we do not um take initiatives for protecting our our tourism infrastructure or our or our assets then uh the uh uh tourism cannot be sustained so when we talk of sustainable tourism we need to uh know on which basis or or on what basis the what what is the premise of the of tourism so if we lose the promise then we cannot sustain our activity so basically climate change and all uh and disaster has affected this and there have been deforestation coral reef damage impact on biodiversity threat to the tribals or the indigenous population the waste management is a problem freshwater retention problems are there basically because of the salinity in the water then encroachment on the crz and the vulnerable areas because a lot of development basically encroaches on the crz or it comes up on the crz and on the vulnerable areas so one has to see that it is from a holistic viewpoint we have to really get a comprehensive viewpoint into understanding the situation um from in its totality so when we find out that there are so apart from um hazard there are vulnerabilities and the risks which are and there are impacts and these sort of changes are happening in the islands now the international mandates if we see at the sustainable development goals the sai framework and the paris agreement sustainable development goal 9.1 it has said that we should develop quality reliable sustainable and resilient infrastructure including regional transboarder infrastructure to support economic development and human well-being because it is ultimately if we have um resilient infrastructure or uh then sustainability we can achieve sustainability so uh that's one of the sdgs now sai framework which is mainly related to disasters which has talked of adopting and priority two has talked of adopting and implementing national and local disaster risk reduction strategies which is aimed at strengthening the economic social health and environmental resilience so um both these sdgs and the um sai framework has talked of resilience and how we can achieve resilience paris agreement which basically for climate change it has cop21 talked of combating climate change and unleashing actions and investments towards a lowcarbon resilient and sustainable future so strengthening the ability to deal with the impacts of climate change so when we know that we uh international mandates we all know that these mandates have been there we are we have to uh align with these mandates we have to work towards achieving these mandates so keeping these in mind we see that what uh what is the need for this climate resilient infrastructure when i said that a tourism infrastructure is getting affected there are challenges so what is what is the need why why do we have to do it so basically sustainable tourism as we all know it will lead to continuous prosperity sus sustainability talks about continuity so continuous pro from today to tomorrow so it there's a continuity so it leads to continuous prosperity whereas resilience involves managing the stresses or the shocks or unexpected events that disrupt the infrastructure and most of these hazards are many times unexpected though we may have early warning systems but they are they are just um addressing only a part of that entire situation so therefore there are unexpected events that are that disrupt the infrastructure and why and resilience why resilience as a tool resilience is fundamental to supporting sustainability in tourism by protecting tourism infrastructure as well as natural resources maintaining biodiversity and not only in u pro uh this um resources and biodiversity but also in livelihoods so uh so so that that means it is um the people are also impacted if we really um uh work towards resilience so that that's the therefore the need is if we really uh look at it the the population or the uh people the resources the infrastructure they are all linked together and um this is how uh they are all a uh an integrated system and if any part of the system we uh disrupt then the entire system gets disrupted so that we all know so um but if we really look at the um uh if we continue with the need we see that if we ensure climate change resilience of infrastructure it will help as i said earlier it will protect lives and livelihoods then it will reduce direct losses as a result of extreme weather events it will play a key role in meeting the mitigation targets of the paris agreement as uh uh pointed out before and it will meet the development goals so and of of course the development goals are uh towards work towards should work towards sustainability so s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s sustainable developing goals and if we really look at the um um the premise or the pillars we can see that there are um for climate resilient infrastructure or if we really work want to work towards it we should have risk mitigation and climate resilient policies because there are already risk which is which is already there risk is risk is uh continuing so how do we mitigate the risk and and m uh and for existing development and for future development can how do we make those future development resilient so risk mitigation and climate resilient policies because we should start with the policies because what is our policies if if for a city if for a for an area if for a region our policy is what is what are the overarching goals and principles is it that we should we should have uh resilient development we should have resilient uh and part of resilient development is also part of resilient infrastructure is a part of resilient development so therefore we this uh uh policies should be the starting point and then we come down to the integrated risk reduction and climate resilience strategy now from the policies we come to the vision and the objectives when we know that there are goals and principles so from there we translate it into a vision and objectives so which is and where we try to integrate the risk reduction and climate resilience so instead of looking it in silos that whether we are in um many a times we just look at the resilience part and we really don't look at the risk reduction part but here um the need of the hour is to integrate both risk reduction and climate resilience strategy and therefore translate it in terms of vision and objectives from there ultimately whatever we do has a manifestation on ground on land therefore special plan or the infrastructure plan or development plan land management uh that is basically uh relating to utilization of land and space to support the goals and strategy so whatever we have identified how do we plan it out on the on the ground should we build on areas which are vulnerable or not suitable for development or should we um protect our areas which need conservation so there are questions like this and keeping those visions and objectives that objectives may be protection of uh areas which need conservation objectives can be u not uh developing on areas which are non-developable so keeping these in mind the plan is needs to be prepared and land needs to be managed and which talks of when we talk of land management we talk of land uh um disposal land development land disposal so all these are parts of land management and therefore um uh uh land assembly so all that comes under land management infrastructure projects ultimately when we have the plan we have to execute the plan so when we execute the plan the infrastructure projects which uh are timebound initiatives for implementation of the plan so sort of a a sequence is there and which i i'll come later but the process but these are some of the pillars or the uh on which the climate resilient infrastructure is based though um risk reduction is not in uh written here in the title but risk reduction and climate resilience should go hand in hand so when we come to the uh climate resilient infrastructure for sustainable tourism uh climate proofing the existing systems today already we have uh the existing systems which are vulnerable so there are um what are the tsunami and the disaster risk reduction strategies there are various local oral traditions as early warning systems there are indigenous communities there these are some case studies from where we can draw upon from best practices how they survived the 2004 tsunami uh due to the small oral tradition which uh taught people to flee to higher ground when the sea suddenly recede so therefore there are c there are certain um ways or methods by which we can say which are the traditional approaches which we can follow then there are naturebased solutions naturebased solutions which are mangro forests and coral reefs which are maintained by traditional coastal management systems they act as natural barriers so if we um if we build upon if we uh um disrupt our mangroves so then we are uh definitely we are making us vulner ourselves vulnerable to more and more storm surges and erosion and uh um tsunamis so therefore mangro forests and coral reefs they basically act as our our shield so understanding these so therefore protection of these areas or what we call as ecotones these are basically the ecotones which need to be protected the cushions which need to be which which acts as our as our uh as i said as our shield so uh this uh uh bas basically we climate proofing our existing systems then uh we have uh the uh tsunami and the um the sorry that's so then we have the accommodation when we talk of accommodation when i said that to tourism um infrastructure or um has accommodation as a part of it because tourists needs to come and stay so if we really look at the um what sort of accommodation uh can um be uh resilient so therefore if we really look at indonesia's traditional architecture how they what they have done if some best practices because i drew upon some best practices to understand that whether we can really learn from example so indonesia's traditional architecture what they did is that they they built on stilts to withstand floods earthquakes they use flexible materials like wood and bamboo so basically the vern vernacular architecture on which but u many of times we uh we uh forget this ver vnacular architecture and we go with modern um materials and not so sustainable materials then there are elevated wooden structures that reduce earthquake impact and allow flood waters to pass underneath so accommodations can be designed be on the principles of vernacular architecture so now we go to the next is the uh our flood and tsunami mitigation now there are um many a times we see that uh how would the people move if the if the transportation system gets flooded then how would the people move from one place to another so therefore elevated transportation systems many metro and rail lines which are built above the floodprone zones then there are flood barriers seaw walls and flood barriers so uh coastal expressways and railways are protected by them then water resistant subway networks tokyo has is a very good example how tokyo subway systems have flood doors and pumping stations to prevent the water ingress so how one can uh really um uh address this uh flooding flood and tsunami uh the situation of flood and tsunami is through these the movement pattern how we can ensure that movement continues how we can ensure that the water gets um diss the water the flood water gets dissipated and flood water does not accumulate so therefore all these the subways how they can be water resistant so this this is um uh how we can go into flood and tsunami mitigation now there are uh there's another thing which we call as green infrastructure now green infrastructure is development of green spaces the parks the gardens where we like a sponge they will absorb rain water they will uh uh they will um regulate temperature they'll become heat sinks because um heat sinks are so green areas are not just uh uh absorbing rain water but also they are adding adding as or acting as heat sinks and also they're improving the air quality so um how do you how do we plan when we plan um apart from conserving our areas vulnerable areas apart from um uh not developing on vulnerable areas uh we where do we provide these green spaces how many do we provide how do we plan out for them so these are basically required for um for the purposes of planning or if you want to work out a master plan for the entire um islands then we have the energy efficient technologies and renewable energy sources use of renewable energy sources solar panels wind power hydro power smart lighting so all these can be uh um used and um uh developed or existing infrastructure can also be made smart to in many cases existing infrastructure can be upgraded new infrastructure can be um built with these principles in mind then we come to the if we see here uh the transport systems the disaster resilient transport networks tokyo tokyo has a bus network a train network and a road network so how they what they did they they tried to go in for multimodal transport networks so if there is a if there is a which ensures alternative routes if there is a damage somewhere then how can we uh the the with the principle of the the people have to move so the show must go on so in such situations the how do we uh go in for by how do we bypass the entire problem so therefore ensuring alternative routes in case of damage then uh underground elevated expressways tokyo have deep underground expressways raised highways so to mitigate flood and seismic risk then there's a multi-hazard adaptation when we said that how do we one part of our of when we talk of uh infrastructure climate resilient infrastructure one is uh how do we adapt and uh second is how do we uh with the existing infrastructure how do we adapt and the second part is that how do we build new which which are which are more resilient so multi-hazard adaptation so infrastructure is not just designed to not just for earthquakes but also typhoons heavy snow and tsunamis but then um for all weather conditions basically for all weather conditions then promoting lowcarbon transportation that is electric vehicles public transportation cycling to reach tourist destinations so the entire the entire uh um islands can can sort of um think of providing i mean why why only why only um cars why only why why to increase the carbon emissions if we have to go in for low carbon then we have to switch over from or trans transition to electric vehicles or public transportation or cycling so then we come to the water and the waste which are very important because as i said earlier tourism infrastructure water management when tourists come in water water how do we provide for water how do we manage the waste so protection of water sources for access to safe and clean drinking water basically uh for islands as i said earlier that uh safe and uh portable water is a problem so therefore how do we protect the water sources um so that one can have safe and clean drinking water and how we can uh save have water saving technologies water efficient fixtures rainwater harvesting wastewater treatment systems gray water recycling to conserve water resources there's this balanese sub system which is a unesco recognized water management system that prevents soil erosion and ensures water resilience for tourism landscape because uh we have to also think that it is not only the urban areas which we are to think about but we have to think of the entire the other rest of the um um island which is the rural part of the island also so how does one manage water there because water is required for for uh farming and for various purposes then uh development of drought resistant infrastructure and water management systems then comprehensive waste management plans includes including recycling and composting programs to minimize pollution so how do we uh how how does one go about managing the waste because lot of when tourists come in one of the impacts which the tourists leave is or uh which which is visible is the waste and the uh visible non-visible but invisible but uh vis there are a lot of plastic wastes which are which are visible and then so therefore wastes need to how do we recycle how do we how do we manage the plastic waste is becomes a very important um area for um the uh for islands then we uh there are cultural uh heritage which is um uh as we know that um the in especially in nikov islands also there's a cultural heritage as i was referring but this is a case of borovador temple where how cultural heritage can be maintained as a tool for resilience there are uh tourist attractions where which integrate traditional water management to prevent damage because so that the cultural or all the buildings the old buildings they do not get they do not get damaged because these are the assets so how do we protect our assets one is providing water to people and one is protecting the cultural herit protecting the um built heritage from from maybe too much of water or heavy rainfall and then um uh what is this intangible knowledge for crisis record after disasters community tourism communities use traditional storytelling and rituals to rebuild social cohesion and um attract visitors so this is one of the very important storytelling is also a part in uh which is also a part of the traditions in andaman island sorry so now we come to uh the master planning part you know we have talked of you know sectors water waste uh and then how do we go into those sectors of development but then really when we transport energy those are the se development sectors which but but if we really want to put them under a comprehensive planning head if we really want to have a a master plan which is all we call as a um tourism development master plan so which has a vision for if we can see here indonesia this is a this is a case of indonesia which has done this uh sustainable tourism as res recovery and resilience strategy where they have national they had a they have a 15-year uh time period for 15 year time period a tourism development master plan which and for which the vision which i was referring to earlier the vision is of sustainable tourism and how and that sustainable tourism which is expected to support recovery from disasters and um like touris um tsunami and we already in the middle we had pandemic also in this time period and enhance the resilience of tourism areas so therefore how do the how do we plan out so what what has been done so basically sustainable tourism is seen as a way to improve the current approaches to tourism development and how we build greater resilience in the sector so when we talk of tourism we if we see that tourism master plan if we may see that there are areas when we can plan out we can look at silos and we can say okay this site we have to develop but then how does it connect how does it fall as an as a how does it fit into the total picture of a master planning uh for these entire islands how does it where so it's better to come from the what we call as the whole to the part so holistically looking at the what sort of infrastructure the the um islands require what sort of in infrastructure the island has have and what is the um challenges which they face and how they um what can be done to it as a part of the entire master planning strategy or master planning basically so uh if we see here there this indigenous land use planning and zoning as as i was talking about zoning like coastal regulations zone is also a zone where we we say that we should not build we have our regulations and uh um so uh we have crz 1 2 3 all that various uh um um u we have these various recommendations or guidelines for these various areas uh and then uh so um there are this sec sacred and no build zones so which i was referring to that the there's a philosophy which they had um that which balances tourism development with nature how to maintain green spaces i was referring to the green spaces and how did to protect water bodies so therefore how uh the um can these areas become no build zones we say that these are no zones we protect them we preserve them we conserve them because these are areas which are basically the assets on which tourism is built people are going to these island or people visit to um also there's nature-based tourism is there then coastal and mountainous risk awareness communities follow age-old zoning practices they avoid construction too close to active volcanoes there are mud volcanoes in uh anaman and nicawar island so uh one should not build too close to these active volcanoes or tsunami prone beaches so how do we identify so the first thing what we basically when we say master planning the first thing is to map and we map special that's why i said special planning if we have to do a special planning we need to map which are the vulnerable areas which are areas which need uh which are the no development zones so mapping becomes our first priority if we really we have to say that where to build infrastructure where not to build the infrastructure so one has to and where uh these no build zones also what sort of infrastructure do they require do they also require some sort of infrastructure infrastructure not only are all these we require some sort of infrastructure in the no build zones also so therefore um protection the the uh how do we protect our mud flats all all these um um naturebased solutions are there so therefore one has to uh go accordingly then community-led special local knowledge there is lot of uh you know traditional knowledge which are there of hazard pony areas which um one can one can integrate the sustain this traditional knowledge uh of sustainability and if we see here these are the three there's this human being there's this um god and environment how what is the what are the three happiness causes and how uh they um uh conceptualized these uh areas which are um they permeate subac members they provide a strong interconnection between the material and the spiritual aspects of daily activities so the these these sort of uh approaches we uh need to um embibe so that we can uh we can uh have a cake and eat it too that means we can we need we can have development also and we can uh also protect our environment so that is what the sustainable development has talked of that how do we u have de development and environment going hand in hand so how do we do so with least or with minimum impact how we can have uh development and how we can um have those development which can be um the uh infrastructure development which can be which can um which can resist or absorb the shocks and get back to the previous uh pre- disaster state uh situation so when we come to this management and governance if we really look at management and so ultimately when we show that what needs to be done but then uh how do we go about it man how do we uh is there any relationship between uh can we do we need to manage and govern climate resilient infrastructure yes definitely we u we need to maintain manage and monitor the existing infrastructure we need to have infrastructure development which is resilient built into all stages of the project project life cycle when we i said that we should go in from policies to u strategies to plans to projects so resilience have to be also built into the stages of the project life cycle and then resilience in the institutional and governance frameworks it is all the stakeholders i i was referring there's a type t type here again stakeholders collab when we i say that there are a lot of there are stakeholders i referred to the stakeholders earlier so but then stakeholders uh if we if all the stakeholders work to in silos uh in um uh work with with without collaboration or without coordination with another stakeholder then we cannot achieve anything so it's basically uh working as a team working collaborating coordinating then only we can achieve or uh we can um basically the climate resilient infrastructure or climate what we call as development because infrastructure is a part of development then public private partnerships how we can um include the private partnerships here uh the local community before i come to this awareness the local community why i've um highlighted this because local community involvement and engagement is needed for traditional knowledge we can um one can um involve them and we can uh empower the communities there can be community based tourism there can be skill development there and awareness of the people capacity building there are many cases when i said that that vulnerability hazards are there it is a multi multi-hazard situation context um the islands and then the um vulnerable the resources are vulnerable or the assets are natural assets all the heritage historical culture they are all vulnerable people are vulnerable communities are vulnerable so how do we and then um the u their exposure is there so really when we look at disaster and climate change uh uh the understanding of the disasters and climate change so we also look at the capacities so do we have the capacity to ward off so that capacity will help us to become more resilient so capacity building becomes a very important and capacity building for various stakeholders are different so capacity building of of a community of individuals of organizations they are so how do we go in for capacity building this becomes very important so uh so now we go ahead with the next which is a community- based tourism and resilient practices which i was talking of that government that local pe people how they so what are the rituals and local wisdom traditional ceremonies where they reduce um ecological pressure on tourism infrastructure by enforcing a full shutdown once a year so how do how do they how do they go ahead how do they mitigate climate action so how do they prevent so basically with sustainable forest management as i said if you really uh have to have um if they have sustainable tourism then how do you protect your resources s for sustainable forest management how they prevent and reduce deforestation uh forest restoration biodiversity conservation local community productivity and um where there can be participation of indigenous people and then there are a lot of you know there's prohib there should be prohibition of failing of trees division many times there are proision prohibition but there is no monitoring that whether this prohibition is being maintained or not where there are prohibition um who is looking into the fact that yes they are uh the the enforcing basically enforcing the prohibition so then division of forest utilization regulation of the use of forest products all these are activities that destroy forest and animals so there are ways there are customary laws for sustainable tourism and there at various islands traditional laws they regulate tourism activities to protect natural and cultural heritage from overdevelopment too much of development too much of pro infrastructure provision is also not good so whether it uh when as i said uh carrying capacity is is a tool or one needs to consider carrying capacity uh for uh development but um but uh uh here i have not really um uh looked into that because i was looking into the climate change and so here if you see the public awareness and preparedness disaster response i didn't focus on the curriculum then uh public awareness and prepar preparedness there are disaster response drills uh there is awareness how to generate awareness evacuation routes what can be the evacuation routes the signages the smartphone apps alerts so there are ways by which one can uh one can um make aware the people and train them and u in uh increase their capacity for protecting for self-help so if we come to the process how do we achieve the climate resilient infrastructure the process so as i said the policies and the visioning and the objectives database generation we really many a times we we want to achieve this but uh we uh there are these steps which we need to go have which is database generation and these data is the climate and disaster data which areas if especially if we if we look at the special context of this climate and disaster data we know may know that yes so many people have died or so many people have lost livelihood but where can we map can we have a special context of this data and look at okay these areas have been affected most or these are the people who have been affected most uh then available tourism resources where do we have how many of them where are they so therefore mapping this database generation in terms of special and non-special information becomes very very infor a available tourism infrastructure what are the what is available right now what we require for the future because when we talk of sustainability we also know that sustainability or um sustainable development is also looking at the future so what sort of in the future for the future what do we how do we uh or what needs to be done in the future so how much should we provide how many uh towers maybe how many telecommunication towers should we provide where should we provide so all these become so therefore without a basic data uh we cannot forecast or we cannot estimate so therefore database generation is required there are many more the many more data uh uh which would be required but this is sort of uh uh giving just a glimpse of that then the assessments what sort of assessments we need to do we need to do a hazard vulnerability exposure and capacity assessment that which areas maybe the north and are they are they um do they have more capacities or the middle anamans or the south because the port bl is the south and we uh we um uh assume presume that south maybe is better off than not maybe north and we we do not know unless we we really work out we assess and therefore you know so which is not based on presumption but a scientific assessment then a risk assessment which is about environmental and social risks then the uh what we call as the um impact assessment many a times impact assessments are not worked out so the environmental impact assess assessment the social impact assessment when we today social impact assessment is a part of l the land acquisition and which i said land management which is a which because a part of land management is land acquisition development and disposal so when we really look at these three areas so social impact assessment is very much required and what the land suitability for infrastructure development we have to work out the land suitability for the island specifically which are the zones which are which to be buildable which are not to be buildable so all that land suitable so mapping we and these are also these assessments are also and terms of special assessments need to be done special as well as non-special so then we come to the that would bring us to the issues and the and i've not written that but uh and to the potentials where we can we need to develop and therefore uh potential areas for future development we one should identify if we really have to have a master plan then one should look at which are the potential areas for future development and then um how much how much population what's or how much tourist population it can it can uh um it can hold so carrying capacity all those assessments need to be done and then planning strategies for existing infrastructure that is adaptation and for new development the risk reduction and climate resilience institutional and community and individual capacity building and also innovation how we can we can really have innovate innovations and smart uh smart uh infrastructure when we talk of climate resilient we can use the smart technologies and the uh innovative technologies in the process in this strate as a part of the strategy so therefore when if you really look at the process of mainstreaming we have the vision we have generation of database we have analysis and we have strategies for risk reduction preparedness and resilience so i would end here thank you for your attention uh yeah thank you uh so much ma'am it was uh a very nice uh session for all of us uh i request my team to please share the um qr code um one second yeah so uh yeah my team is going to share the qr code um so before that um i have few questions in my mind um uh one such is ma'am uh i understand a lot of uh crucial role is being played by the local communities uh in the island in preserving the environment as well as contributing to the uh uh income of the uh of the government so how do you think the government should facilitate uh this process of involving the local community participation in preserving the environment as well as the tourism there are various you know very good examples of of people of commun uh urban local bodies or rural bodies which engage with the population they there are various modes of doing it either you have a plan or you have a project take it to the people understand what that whether that project is really would be beneficial or not to the that means you are you are bringing in a lot of transparency and trust otherwise something happens and then so you know many a times what happens is that between the um govern between the people who are governing and the people who are governed there's a lot of issues of trust so the more the what we call as good governance that if you have transparency if you uh go to the people if you take their suggestions if we really go their public parties if we have a plan suppose we have to have a master plan so in that uh or an infrastructure development plan so if we really take it to the people and say that see these this this is where we want to do it and these are the problems may they may i mean it may come from them that see here these are not critical the critical infrastructure may be something else so there are areas where one can engage with the people either you bring the people to you or you go to the people so there are ways by which by small public meetings by by um going to um having um you know high footfall areas putting up the plans or take going to the going to this villages so there are various modes there are various best practices which uh all over the country where people have been or what we call as inclusive inclusivity we have one has ensured inclusivity uh in plans uh on various parts of the world not only in absolutely yes uh ma'am one more question so um as a country how are we aligned in terms of disaster risk reduction uh given the context of this entire framework work um disaster risk reduction we have our we have the um our um act we that every every uh we we need to have a disaster risk reduction plan every um uh state from from the state or ut we need to have disaster waste reduction plans but then you know we also have a legal this is a legal um i i will say a legal path and but then there's also a legal path of master plan master plan is also legal but then if two legal two laws go side by side uh can can we really uh show do they look eye to eye or do they not look eye to eye because many a times or what we should what we should do is that how do we mainstream this when we know that there is another act and then there are two acts so whether these two acts there are should conflict or they should come together and for a shared cause that is we have to reduce so there are lot of lot of uh initiatives but our main hindrance i think is that there are these two things which go so from the dr point of view we may do some things but from the master plan point of view we may do something but why not mainstream it so these sort of initiatives need to be that's why i said that integration or comprehensivity is required right uh we have one more question from uh the audience what lessons from successful management of maharkum 2024 can be applied in developing resilient tourism infrastructure in the islands ensuring sustainability disaster preparedness and efficient resource management would you like to you like actually um basically what see when when a large amount of people gather in one area of course kum was um kum was did not look at carrying capacity but generally there are islands which are looking at which that's why i said kum kum was not did not really think of i mean was not an platform for really looking at carrying capacity but but um there are islands all over the world you know which who are talking of carrying capacity but lessons that i'm not really now the i'm coming to your question that the the lessons learned from comb can be water management how did we how did we manage the water water for such a because water in islands really fresh water is a problem there are saline water intrusion in our in our coastal areas also there is saline water intrusion if you withdraw too much water all saline water will get into your groundwater so therefore you know water portable water how do we manage portable water that becomes a very big issue for if we have too many people in our in the islands first of all as tourists or whatever this then the waste how do we manage i i referred to the plastic waste when the tourists comes in the today the seas are getting affected by plastic waste it is come as a separate issue nowadays you know plastic waste are being researched that how do we manage our plastic waste and then what can we really do to the other waste the the swage what or or what we call as water the wash sector the water the sewage and the drainage part how do we really look at the drainage of the of the uh island so those lessons we have to uh learn from basically the from kum the water and the waste how do we really when so many people come in it is really a big task to to manage the water avail uh to ensure water availability as well as manage the waste you know the swage the all the waste which are which are also the waste which are which are the garbage what we call as the garbage so that is also one one know of the things which need to be done and accommodation regarding accommodation when we really as as i said vulner because the um the or the priag of of which the islands face so learning from that the context you know there's something called a contextual applicability contextual that means the context is um is different i mean it did doesn't didn't have have the multiple hazard which island faces so apart from what the kum had or the the solution which the kum the good solutions which came from the kum we have to add on the the context of the islands so it is not that we can just do a copy paste we cannot we have to apply to that context that yes this is uh in this context we have to apply the the good principles of on which the on which the services were delivered right right so thank you ma'am thank you that brings us to the end of the session and thank you for such a uh uh informative session that you have conducted today and uh on behalf of karmogi barat and the government of andaman uh i thank you a lot for accepting and taking time for us that brings us to the end of all the webinars that we have conducted so we have conducted successfully 15 webinars as a part of the state learning week of and months uh however these uh lectures are still available as recordings on the ico platform so people who have not been able to attend this live can always go back to the platform and watch the recording and still get the certificate out of this so uh we have two more days of learning week left which gives you a lot of time to complete your courses so please make sure that you complete uh the courses and the four hours of learning that is mandated and being monitored by your respective department thank you so much and uh thank you so much ma'am once again and thank you all for joining and thanks mishma for inviting me again again thank thank you ma'am

2025-03-29 08:00

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