'Human safaris' to the Jarawa
Although India’s Supreme Court in 2002 ordered that the highway through the Jarawa’s reserve should be closed, it remains open – and tourists use it for ‘human safaris’ to the Jarawa. Poachers also enter the reserve.
In 1999 and 2006, the Jarawa suffered outbreaks of measles – a disease that has wiped out many tribes worldwide following contact with outsiders.
Of the four tribes of the Andaman Islands, colonization proved most disastrous for the Great Andamanese. When the British arrived there were more than 5,000; today, only 56 survive.
The Great Andamanese were originally ten distinct tribes, including the Jeru, Bea, Bo, Khora and Pucikwar. Each had its own distinct language, and numbered between about 200 and 700 people. They are now collectively known as the Great Andamanese.
The Bo were the last of the ten tribes to come into contact with the British, just before the 1901 census. Disease, brought by the colonizers and passed on via the other Great Andamanese tribes, had already decimated the Bo, and they numbered only 48 at the time of contact.
Hundreds of Great Andamanese were killed in conflicts with British settlers, as the tribes defended their territories from invasion. The British then changed their tactics and set up an ‘Andaman Home’ where they kept captured Andamanese. Many more of the tribe died from disease and abuse in the home, and of 150 babies born there, none survived beyond the age of two.
In 1970, the remaining Great Andamanese were moved to the tiny Strait Island by the Indian authorities, where they are now largely dependent on the government for food, shelter and clothing. Abuse of alcohol is rife among the surviving Great Andamanese.
