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© Salomé/Survival |
A new baby has been born to the Onge tribe of the Andaman Islands. The
Onge's numbers have plummeted in the past century and their birth rate
is very low, so the birth, which brings the population to 97, is a
cause for hope.
The Onge people, who like the other isolated tribes of the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands survived the tsunami of December 26, left their coastal
settlements when the tsunami struck. They have set up temporary camps
in the forests of their island, Little Andaman. The tribe once
inhabited the whole of Little Andaman, but the island is now also home
to thousands of Indian settlers, and much of it has been deforested.
The Onge have complained that wild pigs, which a man must kill in order
to marry, are now scarce.
