India Andaman Jarawa tribe in 'shocking' tourist video

[Pioneerfirst]

Authorities on India's Andamans archipelago have been asked to explain a video showing naked tribal women dancing for food.

The video was obtained by a British reporter who wrote an article on "trusting members of the Jarawa tribe being exploited by tourist safaris".

Tribal affairs minister KC Deo described the video as "obnoxious" and "disgusting".

Tribal rights groups have been calling for operators to stop such tours.

The video has caused shock and anger in India.

"It's one of many videos that are in circulation," Observer reporter Gethin Chamberlain told the BBC.

Mr Chamberlain thinks the video was shot about two to three years ago after a police officer was bribed to take tourists into the reserve.

His story in The Guadian newspaper says that the reclusive Jarawa tribe is about 400-strong and has only recently begun taking the first tentative steps towards a relationship with the outside world.

The allegations have been strongly denied by the director general of police on the islands, Shamsher Bahadur Deol.

He said that the man seen on the video is definitely not a policeman.

"I can say that 100% and I have looked at the video clip very, very closely," Mr Deol said.

He said the video must have been shot about 10 years ago because the tribespeople that come near the road today are never naked, as they were earlier.

He said it was not possible for the police to stop the Jarawas from coming to the road. Vehicles are only allowed in the area in convoys with a police escort.

Mr Deol said that about 1,000 arrests had been made in the past five years of people trying to make contact with the Jarawas.

"But it's impossible for them to catch everyone," he said.

The Andaman trunk road was built in the 1970s, cutting through thousands of acres of forestry reserve in which the Jarawas live and leading to tourists and settlers encroaching onto their habitat.

Reports say that some tour operators offer tourists the opportunity to interact and photograph Jarawa tribespeople even though this is illegal.

Verge of extinction
Experts estimate that the Jarawas - essentially hunter-gatherers - came to the Andamans 60,000 years ago.

They are just one of several indigenous tribal groups living in the Indian Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Short, with dark skin and curly hair, they resemble African bushmen in appearance. Today, however, the tribe is on the verge of extinction.

Tribal rights activists say immediate measures must be taken to prevent any further decline in their numbers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16501134

 

[Filmmaker]

Link please ?

 

[Pioneerfirst]

The Jarawa
Poachers threaten survival of Jarawa tribe
The Jarawa chose to resist contact with all outsiders until 1998. Now, they are under serious threat. Poachers are camping for days at a time in their forest, and local authorities have defied an order from India’s supreme court to close the road that cuts through the Jarawa’s reserve.

In 1999 and 2006, the Jarawa suffered outbreaks of measles – a disease that has wiped out many tribes worldwide following contact with outsiders.

Jarawa - Survival International

 

[Roybot]

Posted already.

 

[ares]

It was a decade old video..which recently came to lime light on the web.

 

[Yeti]

been posted already how many more times now?

 

[Pioneerfirst]

these people are separated from the rest of the world almost 60,000 years ago,
they should not come in to contact with rest of the world as they do not have immune system as we have,
The diseases which do not harm us,can even kill them and as they live in tribe system so all 300 can be wiped out in days only.

---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 PM ----------

been posted already how many more times now?

I am a webmember of survival international and follow such news but never came across it.
The link is from BBC so even BBC never knew it earlier as they have published it today.

 

[Filmmaker]

these people are separated from the rest of the world almost 60,000 years ago,
they should not come in to contact with rest of the world as they do not have immune system as we have,
The diseases which do not harm us,can even kill them and as they live in tribe system so all 300 can be wiped out in days only.

---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 PM ----------



I am a webmember of survival international and follow such news but never came across it.
The link is from BBC so even BBC never knew it earlier as they have published it today.

I think Yeti was saying that this news have been posted before on PDF

 

[Yeti]

Tribal affairs minister KC Deo described the video as "obnoxious" and "disgusting".

Whole of India is shocked at this video and this type of antics can't ever happen again.

 

[A1Kaid]

There's actually more than one video clip out, it may be from the same original video, but two different clips. Interesting tribe these people are.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

It's an honor to have these tribes in India.

They should be left alone to themselves.

 

[Pioneerfirst]

I think Yeti was saying that this news have been posted before on PDF

please quote,

I was emphasising that its an important issue and India and Indians should be proud of having them.

 

[Pioneerfirst]

There are five small traditional hunting-gathering tribes, the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese on the Andaman islands and the Shompen on the Nicobar islands.

During the nineteenth century, while the British succeeded in bringing around the ten Great Andamanese after several years’ efforts (involving the use of force and blandishment), the eleventh tribe in the Great Andaman area (South Andaman to be precise) continued to remain highly suspicious of the settlement and the settlers. They were what are known as the Jarawa. There were numerous hostile contacts and encounters with them during the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.

http://www.junglelure.com/jarawa.htm


In fact during the 1920s and 1930s the British were obliged to send many armed punitive expeditions to the Jarawa areas in the deep forests on the western coast of South Andaman. The Jarawa themselves found it expedient to spread out to the western coast of Middle Andaman under these pressures.






A special Bush police force was also created to deal with the Jarawa. After 1947 this policy underwent a basic change as the new Indian government, influenced by Nehru’s philosophy, (Pandit 1989:83-92) did not subscribe to the principle of punitive expeditions against tribes except under conditions of overt and conscious violent political rebellions against the legally established government. The situation here is altogether different, as the Jarawa are still not consciously aware of being citizens of the Indian Republic. However various ‘Jarawa incidents’ continued from the 1950s to the 1970s, and they occur even today though to a much lesser extent. These incidents are mostly caused by the fact that the Jarawa feel disturbed by movements and certain activities of outside people in their territory and wish to discourage these by attacking the ‘culprits’ if very much provoked.

Since 1968 much thought has been given to this matter by anthropologists and the A&N administration and certain useful measures have been taken to remove prejudice on either side.



In early 1974 a team succeeded in establishing friendly contact with the Jarawa in Middle Andaman. Since then (over 21 years) many visits have been paid to the Jarawa by official contact parties and friendship has been extended to various groups in South Andaman as well. These visits are made about once a month.

Being under considerable pressure from politically vocal sections of the people, the A&N administration appointed an Expert Committee under Dr S.C. Sinha (anthropologist) to make recommendations regarding the extension of the Andaman Trunk Road alongside Jarawa territory in the South and Middle Andaman.



The committee gave conditional approval for constructing the road. But while the road has been made the conditions important for safeguarding Jarawa interests remain mostly unfulfilled due to difficulties faced by the administration and lack of will. This road remains a big hazard for the survival of the Jarawa. Their population of about 200 has an area of 600 sq km of reserved forest and tribal area. But they are surrounded by more than 105,000 (1981 census figures) settlers. Their territory could be overrun in the coming decades unless very sensible and effective measures are taken to avoid such an eventuality.

 

[A1Kaid]

^ Wow, they don't know they're citizens of the India?! It seems plausible considering how isolated they are. Do they even know a country named India exist? This is one the most remote tribes in the world and have little interaction with the outside world, very fascinating.

I also learned they are considered scientifically to be the darkest skin people on earth, even darker than Africans. They apparently have one language called "Bo" and that is nearly extinct.