Barefoot Andamans response to Survival International campaign

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2. RESPONSE TO PRESS RELEASE OF SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL DATED 15 JUNE 2009 REGARDING PROXIMITY OF A BAREFOOT RESORT PROPERTY TO THE JARAWA TRIBAL RESERVE

Section 1:

Factual inaccuracies in survival international’s press release

Section 2:

Barefoot’s position on subjective aspects of the press release

Section 3:

Substantiation of barefoot’s claims to ‘sustainable and socially responsible tourism development’

Section 4:

Chronological sequence of events

Section 5:

Summary of barefoot’s disagreement with the andaman administration: ground realities of our fight against a bullying system

SECTION 4:
CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

May 2004: Royal Hospitality Private Limited, a New Delhi based company, acquires land at Colinpur (Survey No.104). This plot of land and Survey No.130 belonging to a Mr. K.Vijayan are situated closer to the tribal reserve than Barefoot’s reforestation land, which is in turn a distance away from Barefoot’s resort. Both these lands mentioned above belonging to 3rd parties are themselves a good distance away from Barefoot’s resort (but are still more than 1.5 kms distant from the Tribal Reserve themselves and across two creeks – See Appendix I).

Sept 2004: Barefoot commences acquiring land at Colinpur (further away from the tribal reserve than the land of Royal Hospitality Pvt Ltd, but contiguous to it). This land (13 acres in total, with an option on a further 5 acres in Survey Nos 105, 106, 107, 108), was bought as paddy land and arecanut plantation from local farmers, and dedicated by Barefoot to a reforestation exercise using only endemic tree saplings acquired from the local Forest Department, as part of Barefoot’s commitment to making a positive environmental impact on all localities in which it is present. There have never been any commercial activities by Barefoot on this land. The closest point of this landholding to the Jarawa boundary is approximately 1.5 kms. There is zero development/ construction/ tourism on this land and this land is NOT contiguous to the Barefoot Resort, which happens to be also located, however, at the same village; i.e. the Resort’s location is even further away from the Jarawa Reserve than the reforestation plot along a beeline or by footpath. The only activity in the last 5 years in the above mentioned landholdings has been tree planting, disturbed by the tsunami of December 2004 and recommenced from 2007.

November 2006: Barefoot acquired land in Survey No.118, at a distance from the reforestation land which had prior approval and was commercialized for tourism purposes by the Andaman Administration. This land is 3.2kms approximately from the Tribal Reserve and it is here that the resort is located. Every year, during the tourist season, Barefoot erects tents at the location (six in total) for tourists, who have zero interaction with or access to Jarawa, who do not themselves visit the location.

October 2007: The Administration came out with a targeted Notification on 30 Oct 2007 and a Stay Order solely targeted against Barefoot on 6 Nov 2007, which has been subsequently successfully challenged in court and the Order and Notification both set aside. It should be noted that no due process was followed by the Administration in bringing out the order or notification in its haste to single out and unfairly target Barefoot.

October 2007 till date: There has not been a single instance of guest interaction with nor access to Jarawa from guests staying at the Barefoot property. The same will not be tolerated or encouraged by Barefoot and Barefoot does not provide any opportunity to its guests to indulge in the same. Any suspicious and illegal activity in this direction would, by Barefoot policy, be reported to the police and said guest be made an example of.

October 2008: Barefoot writes to the Andaman Administration after winning the court case, reiterating its verbal offers in writing, to incorporate any project level safeguards the Administration wishes to incorporate; in the absence of this Barefoot continues to be self regulating even without legal compulsions. There is no response from the Andaman Administration.

April 2009: After winning the subsequent appeal, Barefoot writes again to the Andaman Administration reiterating its offer to incorporate any project level safeguards the Administration wishes to incorporate; in the absence of this Barefoot continues to be self regulating even without legal compulsions. There is still no response from the Andaman Administration.

June 2009: Survival International issues a press release after insufficient ground work in establishing the facts of the matter