Andamans tribes: after the tsunami
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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.
The Onge of little Andaman Island call themselves ‘En-iregale’, meaning ‘perfect person’. They were decimated following contact with the British and the Indians, their population falling from 670 people in 1900 to around 100 today.
The Onge live on a reserve less than a third of the size of their original territory. Little Andaman is now also home to Indian settlers, and much of the island has been deforested.
The Indian government tried to force the Onge to work on a plantation in return for food and housing, in a form of bonded labour, but this was unsuccessful. Today the Onge are largely dependent on government rations.
Being able to hunt wild pigs is essential to the Onge, as according to their customs men cannot marry until they have killed a wild boar. Now, however, the Onge complain that outsiders are hunting all their pigs; this is contributing to an already low birth rate among the Onge. Survival is campaigning for their land to be protected from outsiders.
