The Vulnerable Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A Study of Disasters and Response

This first full-length book addresses disasters in the context of vulnerability of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that comprise 572 islands in the Bay of Bengal. It looks at the disasters that the islands have experienced in the last 200 years and analyzes major disasters since colonization by the British.

Raising some critical questions, this book attempts to understand the overall profile of disasters – the facts, causes, damage, response and recovery – in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It discusses earthquakes, cyclones, tsunami and epidemics, as well as impacts of World War II, the penal colony and the post-Independence resettlement on the tribal population. The work will serve as a rich resource with its detailed tables, figures, maps and diagrams; appendices; and database ranging from travelogues, Census of India reports and fieldwork to Right to Information (RTI) petitions that collect hitherto unknown facts.

The book will be useful to students of geography, disasters and disasters management, climate and environmental studies, history, sociology, island and ocean studies, and South Asian studies.

Punam Tripathi is an independent researcher and has a PhD from the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. Previously, she was Assistant Professor, Salesian College, Siliguri. Her research interests and publications focus on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Her articles have been published in Population Geography: A Journal of the Association of Population Geographers of India and Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.