Trinket Island
Trinket Island (29 km²) is part of the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. It is located east of Kamorta island. As of 2001, the Indian census had catalogued 436 persons living on Trinket in four villages: Trinket (population 244), Safebalu (pop. 127), Tapiang (pop. 42) and Hockcook (pop. 23).[1] However, the island's 2013 population appeared to be just 2.[2]
Being an island, Trinket's populace was dependent on the outside world for many goods, including foodstuffs. Until the 1950s they traded whole coconuts and other forest products for imports such as rice, sugar, and clothes. After the 1950s local production shifted toward exports of processed coconut, in the form of copra.[3]
Like the other Nicobar and Andaman Islands, Trinket was devastated by tsunamis generated by the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake. The island, which had a low and flat topography, was severely affected by the powerful waves and by earthquake-caused subduction of 1.5m to 1.75 m (4 ft 11 in to 5 ft 9 in),[4][5] suffering a reduction of its surface area by 19.4%, from 36 km² down to 29 km².[6] Initial reports that the island had been split apart[7] were later confirmed by satellite imagery and onsite surveys.[4][8]
On Trinket, the tsunami left 91 dead or disappeared[6] and the total devastation of the island's communities and economy. Shortly after the disaster, the entire remaining population of the island was evacuated to neighboring islands, principally Nancowry,[9] and Kamorta, where the Indian government built a resettlement village called Vikas Nagar.[2] By the end of 2012, only two people, both returnees, were reported to be living permanently on the island.[2]
References
- ↑ Trinket, at Andaman & Nicobar Police website.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Zoyab, Alaphia. "A house for Mr. Gopinath, and a genset", The Hindu, August 4, 2012.(Entry retrieved 25 sept. 2013)
- ↑ Hobbes, Marieke. Figuring Rural Development: Concepts and Cases of Land Use, Sustainability and Integrative Indicators, Leiden University Press (2010), page 117.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 M. G. Thakkar and Bhanu Goyal, "Historic submergence and tsunami destruction of Nancowrie, Kamorta, Katchall and Trinket Islands of Nicobar district: Consequences of 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake", Current Science, Vol. 90, Issue 7 (10 April 2006), pages 989-994.
- ↑ Bagla, Pallava (28 January 2005). "After the Earth Moved". Science Now.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Anup Kumar Das, "GIS based mapping of Tsunami induced Land Use/Cover change in Nancowry group of Islands, Andaman and Nicobar Islands", in OSTI Newsletter (published by the Ocean Science and Technology for Islands program of the Indian National Institute of Ocean Technology), Issue 10, October 2005, pages 2-4.
- ↑ "Fears Rise for Andaman Thousands", 'BBC News' website, Thursday, 30 December 2004.
- ↑ Image http://www.ircc.iitb.ac.in/~webadm/update/Issue1_2005/Images/Tsunami2.jpg in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (ITTB) Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRRC), Update newsletter, issue 1 of 2005.
- ↑ George Weber (2005), Earthquake and Tsunami: Maps, charts and statistics, chapter 4; published online at "George Weber's LONELY ISLANDS: THE ANDAMANESE; an on-line Documentation on the Andamanese and other Negrito people, and their relationship to the earliest migrations of modern humans; incorporating the web-site of the Nicobar Association" website.
