Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Archives

India’s expert on Coral & Coral reefs

My Father Dr. Reddiah Kosaraju. Andamans & Nicobar Islands. 1977

My Father Dr. Reddiah Kosaraju. Andamans & Nicobar Islands. 1977 Image and Narrative contributed by Raju Kosraju, India My father Dr. Reddiah Kosaraju was a Scientist with a PhD degree in Marine Biology from University of Liverpool (1950s). He was a happy go lucky man, a wonderful person to know, and generous to the core. Over the years he helped quite a number of Indian students who had no monetary support, by sponsoring their education. He was a good swimmer as well as an outstanding chess player and won the Open All England Chess Championship in 1958. After a MSc degree from Agra University (standing second) in 1955 with 'Fish and Fisheries' as a special subject, he became a Research Assistant in SERI in Dehradun, and then worked as a lecturer teaching Zoology in Andhra Christian College, Guntur. Thereafter he went to study in Liverpool, England on his own, and completed a PhD degree in record time of only a year and half. He discovered new breeding grounds of edible bivalves (marine mollusks) in U.K and his works on ‘Parasitic cope pods of Bivalves’ were featured in several reputed foreign journals. He then returned to India and joined as a Pool Officer in Annamalai University. In 1960, after a posting as Zoologist in Shillong, he was transferred to Southern Regional Station, ZSI (Zoological Survery of India), Madras (now Chennai), as officer-in-charge. During this tenure, he added several specimens of birds and mammals, and laid the foundation for a scientific museum at the Station. In view of his expertise on corals and coral reefs of India, he also fulfilled a special task of locating corals of medicinal importance around the Andaman &…

Off the coast of mainland India, a rare Indian tribe became our friends

My sister and I with children from the Ongee tribe. Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar. Circa 1960

My sister and I with children from the Onge tribe. Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar. Circa 1960 Image and Narrative contributed by Late. Anand Halve, Mumbai India is more varied and diverse than reflected in the languages on Indian currency notes or in the number of states and Union Territories on our map. This is a piece about a group of ‘Indians’ that will probably vanish before most Indians ever even hear of them. The Ongee or Onge tribe, are one of the indigenous Andamanese tribes. A negrito tribe of the Andaman Islands. Petite and superficially 'African' in appearance, dark skinned and peppercorn hair, they are still genetically different from most modern African people. Until the late 1940s, the Onges were the only permanent occupants of Little Andaman, the southernmost island in the Andaman group of 324 islands. The Non-Onges began to settle on Little Andaman in large numbers in the early 1950s. Among the earliest visitors - in the early 1960s - was a seven year-old boy (me) and his six year-old sister Jyoti. My father, Bhaskar Halve was posted as the Deputy Commissioner of the administration of the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar. His job took him to study various islands in the Andaman & Nicobar group, and we were only too happy to tag along. The Onges are a traditionally nomadic hunting and gathering tribe. I recall stories told to us by the sailors who visited the islands where the Onges lived. The Onges were masters of the bow - I recall watching an Onge spear a fish through the refracted sea-water with his arrow. I recall stories of a strange plant whose leaves…

All translations are machine generated, hence they are not 100% accurate.