DAY 2-BARATANG ISLAND
Early morning, Pathwaysians started off their day by travelling from Port Blair to Rangat, a town in the Middle Andaman. It is 210 km from Port Blair and 70 km south of Mayabunder. The town is well connected by roads and sea routes. After reaching Rangat, we took a ferry to Baratang.
Baratang, less commonly known as Baratang Island, (coordinates: 12°07′N 92°47′E) is also an island in Andaman. It is situated between Middle and South Andaman, approximately 100 km from the capital city Port Blair.
It was very surprising to see how fast the ferry was and systematically available for both vehicles and the public. We travelled via speed boat through the Mangrove forest as the trees were rooted in water. We then descended at Baratang and walked to the limestone caves.
The lime stone caves, full of splendid stalagmites, stalactites and pillar rocks, remain one of the favourite tourist destinations. The trek to reach the caves was adventurous. The limestone caves remain largely unexplored and so it was a unique experience.
In the caves, it was very surprising to see how limestone formation makes many different shapes that may be interpreted as anything from divinities to commonly creatures such as jelly fish. The tour guide explained to us the stalactites and stalagmites features shown by the limestone. He also mentioned the process of limestone topography, also known as Karst topography.
We passed through a village called Nayadera that has about 8 families from Jharkhand area. There is no electricity in the village. We stopped there for a while to interact with the villagers and it was so enjoyable that we even insisted on staying there longer.
On the boat ride back to Rangat we experienced rain like never before due to the islands’ tropical climate.
After this amazing experience, we went to Duragapur-8 to do a village survey on Ranchi and Bangla settlements in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where we met the honourable member of Zila Parishad of Durgapur i.e. Mr. Sonny Thomas. He explained to us the difficulties and the daily life of villagers in Durgapur such as the amenities provided by the government of India. He also told us about the background of their ancestors. It was also shocking to find out about the health facilities that the settlers are provided with; although they seemed to be improving day by day, it is not near adequate at the moment. It was very enriching to know how the islands develop each day.
The major Bangla speaking population came to these islands as per colonisation policy of Govt.of India. They are mostly from East Bengal and surrounding regions of the Indo-Bangladesh borders. They are locally called Bengali settlers and came to the islands after India’s independence.
At the end of the day, it was an amazing experience just to soak in the essence of their lives and be exposed to their lifestyle.
Text : Anmol Jain, Jaspreet Singh Paul and Vaibhav Wadhwa, Grade 11
Early morning, Pathwaysians started off their day by travelling from Port Blair to Rangat, a town in the Middle Andaman. It is 210 km from Port Blair and 70 km south of Mayabunder. The town is well connected by roads and sea routes. After reaching Rangat, we took a ferry to Baratang.
Baratang, less commonly known as Baratang Island, (coordinates: 12°07′N 92°47′E) is also an island in Andaman. It is situated between Middle and South Andaman, approximately 100 km from the capital city Port Blair.
It was very surprising to see how fast the ferry was and systematically available for both vehicles and the public. We travelled via speed boat through the Mangrove forest as the trees were rooted in water. We then descended at Baratang and walked to the limestone caves.
The lime stone caves, full of splendid stalagmites, stalactites and pillar rocks, remain one of the favourite tourist destinations. The trek to reach the caves was adventurous. The limestone caves remain largely unexplored and so it was a unique experience.
In the caves, it was very surprising to see how limestone formation makes many different shapes that may be interpreted as anything from divinities to commonly creatures such as jelly fish. The tour guide explained to us the stalactites and stalagmites features shown by the limestone. He also mentioned the process of limestone topography, also known as Karst topography.
We passed through a village called Nayadera that has about 8 families from Jharkhand area. There is no electricity in the village. We stopped there for a while to interact with the villagers and it was so enjoyable that we even insisted on staying there longer.
On the boat ride back to Rangat we experienced rain like never before due to the islands’ tropical climate.
After this amazing experience, we went to Duragapur-8 to do a village survey on Ranchi and Bangla settlements in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where we met the honourable member of Zila Parishad of Durgapur i.e. Mr. Sonny Thomas. He explained to us the difficulties and the daily life of villagers in Durgapur such as the amenities provided by the government of India. He also told us about the background of their ancestors. It was also shocking to find out about the health facilities that the settlers are provided with; although they seemed to be improving day by day, it is not near adequate at the moment. It was very enriching to know how the islands develop each day.
The major Bangla speaking population came to these islands as per colonisation policy of Govt.of India. They are mostly from East Bengal and surrounding regions of the Indo-Bangladesh borders. They are locally called Bengali settlers and came to the islands after India’s independence.
At the end of the day, it was an amazing experience just to soak in the essence of their lives and be exposed to their lifestyle.
Text : Anmol Jain, Jaspreet Singh Paul and Vaibhav Wadhwa, Grade 11