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Story Publication logo September 23, 2024

The Quaint Island and a Fierce Battle for Survival

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Off the southwestern coast of India, the Lakshadweep archipelago faces an unprecedented crossroads...

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An Indian Ocean Sweetlip in lagoons surrounding Agatti in India. Image by Alvin Anto.

Despite facing climate challenges, Lakshadweep shows resilience through community engagement

Lakshadweep’s ecology has been imperilled by heating seas and a string of tourism projects. HT, in a series supported by the Pulitzer Center, looks at the changes that have hit the vibrant archipelago off India’s southwest coast.


Kavaratti/Agatti—Some island communities are resilient with strong social safety nets and social capital that support responses to severe impacts of the climate crisis, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its chapter on small islands in its sixth assessment report on Adaptation, Impacts and Vulnerability released in 2022.

Not everything about the climate crisis story is gloomy or devastating; some also set an example in resilience and human perseverance. “This is in part due to a need for a better understanding of the limits to adaptation and of what constitutes current resilience and/or successful adaptation in small island contexts,” IPCC said.

This report flagged that small islands are increasingly affected by temperature rise, tropical cyclones, storm surges, droughts, changing precipitation patterns, sea level rise, coral bleaching and invasive species, all of which are already detectable across both natural and human systems.


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Lakshadweep is witnessing almost all of these. And, it's also true that in many ways the coral atolls are resilient because of progress on basic indicators.

In part 1 of the series, we pointed that Lakshadweep has a literacy rate of around 93.71%; a human development index of 0.75 compared to 0.6 for India as a whole; a gender ratio of 945 females out of 1,000 males; and lower income inequality than others.

“We have lived in harmony for many years now. There are no crimes on these islands. Everyone goes on about their business. But once people from the outside come here, and if there is a tourism boom like elsewhere, we may not be able to preserve our identity,” said PA Abdul Salaam, a retired school teacher.

To be sure, the islanders are not averse to tourism. After all, it will generate the much-needed revenue for the territory.

The locals insist on being a part of planning for Lakshadweep’s future, with help in saving it for posterity.

“The way forward is in the PPP (public private partnership) model. Involve the locals in your plan, in how you construct resorts, where you construct and how you run them. That way the population benefits, islands have a chance of surviving, and the government can ensure the economy does not struggle,” said K Ali Koya, a former sub-treasury officer in Agatti.

But, “climate justice” should be central to planning for Lakshadweep, said Harjeet Singh, global engagement director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and an expert on Loss and Damage principles.

“True climate justice means ensuring that island communities are both protected from climate impact and fully involved in decision-making processes. If we fail to balance development with sustainability, we risk deepening the vulnerability of these communities and the ecosystems they depend on,” he said.

“While the government aims to promote tourism and infrastructure development in Lakshadweep, we must acknowledge that these islands are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Development cannot come at the expense of these fragile ecosystems,” he said.

Community-based adaptation depends on sociopolitical context within which the communities operate, including land tenure and ownership, gender and decision-making processes that operate on the ground, IPCC said, pointing out examples where it has failed.

In Pele Island of Vanuatu, for example, implementation of community projects experienced significant failures due to elite capture of project management, internal power dynamics within communities, and different priorities of communities living across the island. These need to be studied in context of Lakshadweep.

Based on the climate justice principle, Lakshadweep should have adequate funds to adapt to extreme heat, coral loss and disasters, and to develop climate-resilient tourism. Some islanders have found ways to ensure environment friendly development, like building resorts using concrete stilts that prop up tiny cottage-like rooms made out of polished bamboo on the beach, away from the lagoon.

Further, experts said, the government must find ways to regulate tourism and related activities, adding that principles of marine protected areas with rights for islanders to use lagoons may help.

“This can be a win-win situation where the registered fishermen can be trained in those areas. We make them the guardians of protected marine areas, this will give them employment and a sense of belonging …. designate areas where no activity is permitted, but some areas where exploration, fishing, swimming is allowed. Make it participatory, where they derive benefits from small scale fisheries and also in terms of being trained in protecting these areas along with guiding tourism,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

On ways to protect ecosystems like the coral reefs in Lakshadweep, M Rajeevan, former secretary in the ministry of earth sciences, said, “Very simple. Don’t damage them. Let them be.”

Efforts to protect the corals, and in fact marine biodiversity, must begin at the global level, said Alvin Anto, senior researcher at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute. “Yes, these waters are Indian territory. But the oceans are fluid. If we want to save these corals, there need to be global interventions,” Anto said.

Arresting the rise of global temperatures is the “ultimate requirement” for saving the corals, said Hans-O Poertner, marine biologist and lead author of IPCC WGII AR5, chapter on Ocean Systems.

“It may be possible to buy some time for coral reefs regionally by reducing other stressors like pollution or eutrophication or human disturbance and destruction but stopping or even reducing climate change is the ultimate requirement for their large-scale survival,” he said.

Severe coral bleaching, together with declines in coral abundance, has been observed in many small islands, especially those in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Whether Lakshadweep will withstand new policies and climate crisis will become apparent soon. 

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