North Cinque Island, Andaman Islands. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care
Excerpts;
Environmentalist, freelance journalist, photographer and author Pankaj Sekhsaria has spent 20 years studying and fighting for the ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar islands. His first fiction novel ‘Last Wave’ about these islands, published in 2014, is getting released in Goa along with his photo exhibition.
“My research showed that the Forest Corporation was logging timber from inside the Onge Tribal Reserve and that it was also logging timber in excess of what they were supposed to. The petition highlighted these facts and also dealt with the issue of sand mining along the coasts of the islands. We could see that this sand mining was detrimental to the coastal integrity of the islands and also to species like sea turtles who use the beaches for nesting…”
