Andaman Natives Face Extinction - BBC website

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Extinction threat for Andaman natives

By Subir Bhaumik

BBC News, Port Blair

 

After decades of efforts to bring the tiny population of what some

anthropologists call " Stone Age aboriginals " into the mainstream, the

administration in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands has finally

decided to leave them alone.

" It will now be our avowed policy to minimise unnecessary and

inappropriate contact between the primitive tribes and settlers [from

Indian mainland], " says Uddipta Ray, tribal welfare secretary in the

government.

" Only a few officials in our administration will have access to the

aboriginal habitats to protect them from poaching and illegal

intrusions by the settlers.

" We will ensure their food security, the security of their habitats,

we will encourage them to pursue their traditional lifestyle, there

is no question of imposing any outside culture or beliefs on them, "

Mr Ray told the BBC.

'No immunity'

Only around 900 of the aboriginals, belonging to five tribes, are

left alive in the archipelago, down from around 10,000 a century ago.

Their dwindling numbers were blamed initially on British colonialism

and then on Indian " friendly contact " policy which led to their

intermingling with mainland settlers, exposing them to diseases from

which they had no immunity.

The Great Andamanese - the most assimilated of the aboriginals - have

suffered worst, their numbers now down to 36 from 5,000 a century

ago.

Their chief, Jerake, is battling death in a hospital now.

The Onges, taught to eat Indian food and speak Hindi like the Great

Andamanese, are down to around 98 people.

Ripped open

" The less contact we have with them, the better is their chance for

survival, " says Dr Ratan Chandra Kar, whose services in saving the

Jarawa tribe from a measles epidemic in 1998-99 have been highly

acclaimed by the authorities.

" Every time a primitive tribe has developed much contact with the

settlers, they have been hit by epidemics. "

The Jarawas, hostile until about a decade ago, were befriended

by " contact parties " who landed on their beaches with gifts at

regular intervals.

But their forest habitat was ripped open when the 340km Andaman trunk

road was constructed through it to connect south Andaman with the

north of the island.

The Andamans' new chief secretary, DS Negi, in a book about the

archipelago, has described the construction of the trunk road as " an

act of monumental folly " .

The road has not been closed despite a Supreme Court order.

The settlers from the mainland, mostly Bengali or Tamil speakers,

threatened to launch a protest campaign if that happened.

'Minimum intervention'

Mr Negi told the BBC there is a police presence to keep away poachers

and tour operators bringing visitors to gape at naked Jarawas.

Offenders have been warned of stern legal action.

Colleagues say Mr Negi is the driving force behind the " minimum

intervention " policy.

Some officials argue the policy would be strengthened if visiting

VIPs from Delhi were prevented from " Jarawa visits " .

It was even suggested that a fence be constructed on both sides of

the trunk road.

That was turned down by the authorities for financial and ecological

reasons.

The Sentinelese tribe numbers between 250 and 300 people, and their

habitat in North Sentinel island, west of Port Blair, is very

inaccessible.

" We did send a team there to assess tsunami damage but we are not

interested in pursuing any further contact with them, " says Mr Ray.

'Resource base ruined'

For decades, anthropologists, environmentalists and health experts

have severely criticised the administration for trying

to " mainstream " the aboriginals.

Sita Venkateswar, known for her work among the Andaman tribes, calls

the government's contact policy " internal colonisation and calculated

ethnocide " .

" Indian policy drove a race of energetic hunter-gatherers to

sedentary habits, destroyed their social structure, introduced group

rivalries through selective patronage and exposed them to disease by

giving them Indian food, tobacco and alcohol, " she says.

Officials in the Andaman-Nicobar tribal welfare department agree with

her in private. They admit the much-publicised beach landings with

gifts to " contact " the tribes were a great mistake.

Those contacts may have made the tribes less hostile to settlers and

the administration but they led to more and more encroachment on

their habitat.

" Sense is now dawning on the administration and it is a good thing if

they leave the aboriginals alone, but it may be far too late to save

them from extinction, " said one official in the Anthropological

Survey of India.