Accusation Enrages Indian Resort Accuses NGO of Bullying

In a recent press release, Survival International accused the Andaman Islands Barefoot Resort of potentially wiping out a whole tribe. Enraged by the accusation, the Indian owners of the resort have replied to the accusation and riposted with many of its own – accusing the UK NGO of bullying, misleading and headline-grabbing tactics in an effort to get press exposure. Not so much to expose the alleged offence, but more to keep the NGO in funds and supporters.

Survival International’s press release said:

“A luxury resort being built on the Andaman Islands in India is threatening the survival of the Jarawa tribe, who number just 320 and have only had contact with outsiders since 1998.

The Indian travel company Barefoot has started building a resort barely 500 metres from the Jarawa reserve, established by the Indian government to protect the tribe. The hotel is an offshoot of an existing Barefoot resort in the Andamans, whose guests have allegedly included Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet.

Survival campaigner Sophie Grig, who visited the Andamans last year, says, ‘The resort is next to a path the Jarawa use regularly as they hunt and gather in the forest. There is no way Barefoot could avoid putting at serious risk the lives of these extremely vulnerable people, whose existence is already threatened by poachers invading their land and by the road that cuts through their forest.”

The enraged resort owners, proud of their reputation for responsible tourism, have accused Survival International and Sophie Grig of misrepresenting the situation.

They say “Survival International’s press release dated 15 June 2009 is both defamatory towards Barefoot and grossly inaccurate in its content, and is surprisingly ill-researched.”

Some of the factual inaccuracies they allege include:

•    Survival International’s statement of a distance of 500m is blatantly incorrect and would appear motivated to falsely sensationalize.

•    There is absolutely no forest in the immediate area of the resort or beyond the resort for the Jarawa to hunt in or pass through while on hunt. And of course, there is nothing for them to hunt in and around the resort land unless of course Survival International suggests that they should choose to suddenly abandon their traditional ways and take to the hunting of Indian Settlers or gathering of the farm produce of Indian Settlers instead.

•    The Survival press release can be summarized / categorized in our opinion as either wild extrapolations of imagined effect without any linkage to any fact-based cause, i.e. it is misplaced conjecture.

Barefoot also restate their responsible tourism credentials including:
•    Over 85% of our staff are from the local community. Our nature guides are local boys from the Bengali or Karen community. At Colinpur, 100% of the staff are local to the village with the exception of the working director who is from Port Blair, 35kms away
•    It should be noted that we are a concerted employer of disadvantaged peoples: 65% of our total workforce is from Scheduled Caste /Scheduled Tribe categories and 20% are from Other Backward Classes as described by the Government of India
•    All fresh food products – groceries, vegetables, meats and seafood, and essentials are sourced from local shops and markets

•    We use water from a captive in-house source. All our water is drawn from a perennial mountain spring. This feeds into a pond and is then piped for guest and kitchen facilities. So we do not draw from the village piped water supply. We also harvest rainwater – we have two large ponds.
•    We have a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant to provide safe drinking water to guests (and minimise plastic use through mineral water bottles) and to ensure kitchen preparations are done in safe water. Reject from the RO plant is used for gardening and has been tested as 100% safe for the purpose
•    Flush cisterns have been modified to require less water per flush (lowering of float stop position through introduction of a permanently placed foreign object)
•    All kitchen and shower-waste water goes into septic tanks which then leach into the ground through a natural purification process after passing through ‘fat traps’ etc. Thus the ground water gets recharged.
•    We change towels and sheets based on guest request. Guests are advised to place sheets/towels in laundry basket if they want them washed.
•    Most of our food – vegetarian and meats are sourced locally and come from fertiliser and pesticide free sources. We also grow some of our own food in our own farm. Chickens used are free-range, pigs are our own. We do offer organic food to our guests.
•    We compost organic and garden waste. Our food waste is fed into an in-house piggery. We use organic compost in our plant nursery and around trees. We also use elephant dung as an organic fertiliser. The dung comes from our own resident elephant.
•    We have purchased a plastic recycling machine through a director of Barefoot and the same has arrived at Havelock. We are in the process of forming a partnership with the government to devise a comprehensive waste management plan for Havelock Island, and have received panchayat permission for installation of the recycling unit in Havelock – the plant will take charge of all plastic waste on the island, not just from our resort.
•    In January 2006, The Barefoot Group commenced work on building an Environmental Education Center on Havelock Island (now completed). The Environmental Education Center provides education to the Havelock Islanders on the ecology and importance of the marine environment and seeks their
•    Barefoot has planted more than 1000 endemic trees on land owned by it in the Andamans. Of these, at least 400 have survived and are flourishing.

See the spat as it unfolds at rtnetworking.org/ngo/index.htm

Valere Tjolle