Katchal island

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Key findings-

• The NASA Earth Observatory depicted tidal wetland loss from 1999 through 2019 in orange colour.
• After the magnitude-9.2 Aceh-Andaman earthquake in December 2004, the islands experienced up to 3 meters (10 feet) of land subsidence.
• This submerged many mangrove ecosystems, resulting in a loss of more than 90 percent of mangrove extent in some areas.
• Some 27 per cent of the losses and gains were directly caused by human activity.
• Other causes of wetland change were sea level rise, shoreline erosion, storms, altered sediment flow and subsidence.
• The study also found that outside of Asia, tidal wetlands in Africa had the highest ratio of loss to gain, most severe in Nigeria, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.
• The mangrove cover on Katchal will not come back. But in other places, mangroves have reappeared since they propagate themselves through propagules.
• A propagule is a vegetative structure that can become detached from a plant and give rise to a new plant. Examples include a bud, sucker, or spore.

About Katchal island-

• Katchal Island was previously known as Tihanyu.
• It is approximately 1,600 km away from mainland (India) and 305 km south to capital Port Blair.
• The hills of Katchal are composed of calcareous sandstone and marble slates.
• It is home to both indigenous and non-indigenous people.
• Katchal is inhabited by Nicobari Tribes and Migrated Tamilians.
• It is the largest island of the central group of islands.
• Languages spoken in Katchal are Nicobarese, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Santali.
• After the tsunami almost all the tribal chiefs and their heirs were killed, leaving the tribes virtually headless.
• Katchal Island belongs to the township of Nancowry of Katchal tehsil.
• Due to the remote location and lack of exposure with the rest of the world, outsiders economically exploited the innocent islanders for a long time.
• To stop their economic exploitation, the Government of India declared the Nicobar Islands an Aboriginal Tribal Reserve Area (ATRA) on 2 April 1957.

• This made the Nicobar Islands inaccessible to outsiders and currently even Indian nationals need a special tribal pass to visit the islands. 
• Only Government Servants (outsiders) posted to Katchal Islands are allowed to stay on the island.

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