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Tribal trauma - The Andaman story

Four negrito tribal groups which inhabit the Andaman and Nicobar islands face extinction today due to large-scale developmental activities in the region. PANKAJ SEKHSARIA sounds a note of caution.

THE Andaman and Nicobar islands today are a stark illustration of the problems that tribal groups, who lived comfortably in their natural environment, face when confronted with ``development''. Four negrito tribal groups - the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese inhabit the Andaman islands. Their background and origin is unclear and continues to be a subject of speculation among scholars and anthropologists. Their past remains obscure, the present clearly unpleasant and the future grim, and uncertain.

For the Great Andamanese, the story is all but over. They have been virtually wiped off the surface of the earth. This was the community that was first befriended by the outside world following the establishment of the British penal colony in 1858. The British used the Great Andamanese both for searching the convicts who escaped from the Cellular jail and in fighting other hostile tribes in the islands, particularly the Jarawa. An Andaman home was established to educate and ``civilise'' them.

The results started showing up soon. Isolated for centuries, the Great Andamanese had no resistance against some of the commonest diseases. Epidemics of pneumonia in 1868, measles in 1877, influenza in 1896, and syphillis killed them by the hundreds. Addiction to tobacco and liquor took an additional toll. From an estimated 5,000 individuals in the 19th Century, the population of the Great Andamanese is down to only 28 today and there is really no hope that they will revive. The British can well be blamed for the fate of the Great Andamanese, but the fact is that even after Independence things never really improved.

Independent India's official plan for the `colonisation' of the Andaman and Nicobar islands was put in place in the Sixties. Thousands of settlers from mainland India were brought in, completely disregarding the rights of the indigenous communities.

The 730 sq.km. island of Little Andaman, the only and exclusive home of the Onge, was specially chosen.. It was suggested that large areas of forest be clear-felled for the establishment of settlements, for agriculture, and for large-scale commercial plantations. The timber from the felled forests could then fuel the timber-based units that would be set up to support the settler populations.

Fortunately, the scale at which these developmental activities were planned and proposed could never be attained. A red oil palm plantation was created over an area of 1600 hectares but was never expanded. Logging started and is present even today, but it never really took off to the scale suggested. Whereas 12,000 settler families were expected to be brought into Little Andaman, today the number is only around 3000 families.

Despite this, the damage to the environment has been significant. Deforestation, in particular, has had evident effects. Scientific studies in the late Eighties clearly established that soil erosion from clear-felled forest areas resulted in the death of corals in the surrounding seas. Habitat destruction and excessive poaching by the settlers has resulted in a sharp decline in the numbers of the endemic species such as the Andaman Wild Pig, endangered sea turtles that nest on the island's beaches and the dugong that was once common in the coastal waters. All these creatures are not just vital sources of food for the Onge, they also play an integral role in their culture and society. Their unavailability leaves gaps for the Onge that cannot be filled.

The Andaman Adim Jan Jati Vikas Samiti (The Andaman Tribal Welfare Society), AAJVS, and the administration has also tried to encourage the hunter, gatherer, nomadic Onge to change their traditional lifestyle and move into the settlements that were created for them. It was and continues to be a blatant attempt to get more and easier access to the land and timber resources of the island.

Simultaneously, as a welfare measure, free doles were offered to the Onge by the AAJVS; milk powder, rice, dal, bread, biscuits, even tobacco which was given at the rate of 250 gms for each adult. The Onge have been systematically weaned away from their nutrient rich, traditional diets (but as these natural resources are not available, do the Onge really have any choice but to turn to the government handouts?) and have become increasingly dependent on the government handouts to meet their needs.

The settlers went a step further, introducing alcohol to these people. It is an addiction that has strangled the Onge, making them much more susceptible to exploitation. Precious resources like honey, resins, ambergris and turtle eggs are now exchanged by them for the ubiquitous bottle popularly known as 180.

Arrogance, ignorance and insensitivity characterise the attitude of the dominant civilisation towards the Onge. It is an attitude that prevent us from even acknowledging the great knowledge that the Onge have, leave alone learning from it. The Onge are expert navigators and make excellent, sea worthy outrigger canoes. They have knowledge of a plant that may have a cure for the dreaded disease of cerebral malaria and another, whose extract they use of sedate bees when extracting honey from their hives. Examples like these are fascinating but sadly, today it is the very survival of these people that is at stake. Destruction of their lands and their forests coupled with cultural domination has broken the spirit of the Onge. From an estimated population of 670 at the turn of the century, their number today is only about a hundred and it is anybody's guess how long they will be able to survive.

That brings us to the Jarawa and the Sentinelese with estimated population of 250 and 100 individuals respectively. Both these communities have so far escaped the fate of the Great Andamanese and the Onge because of their extreme hostility and distrust of modern civilisation. Though the Sentinelese are still secure, things are now changing for the Jarawa.

In October, 1997, for the first time ever, the extremely hostile Jarawas came out from the forests to interact with the settler populations. The official explanation was that the Jarawas are facing an acute shortage of food in their territory and it is hunger that has driven them out. It was a very convenient explanation and ignored the policies that the administration has followed over the past few decades. Like the Onge, the Jarawas too have been pushed in from all sides. On the one hand, the AAJVS and the administration tried to befriend the Jarawas, using the friendly `contact missions' to offer them gifts of coconut and bananas, a strategy akin to bribery or even to the practise of scattering grain to ensnare birds.

On the other hand, virtual war was declared on their territory, forests and resources. Large areas of forests were cleared for the settlements of mainlanders. The Andaman Trunk Road was constructed that cut through the heart of Jarawa territory and huge - scale logging operations continue even today, moving further and further into the forest home of the Jarawa. The Jarawas, who once freely roamed the length and breadth of the Andaman islands are now confined to a small 720 sq.km. Jarawa reserve on the western coast.

The area of the Jarawa reserve has some of the best and largest sources of timber that still survive in the islands. With the subversion of their hostility, it is now hoped that it will all become available for extraction. Already mining of sand from the beaches within the Jarawa reserve has begun, something that was inconceivable a couple of years ago.

The settler communities were amused, even excited by the initial Jarawa forays into their settlements. Now they are getting irritated and the Jarawas are increasingly being looked upon as intruders. Conflict situations are on the rise and Jarawas who came out into the settlements have reportedly been thrashed by the incensed settlers.

Settlers have been seen offering tobacco and gutkha to the Jarawas and it is a matter of time before liquor follows. Jarawas, wearing soiled clothes dancing to the tune of Hindi film music, munching away at a packet of uncle Chipps'?. These are not just possibilities. Scenes like this are now regularly reported from the islands and this is only the beginning.

Disease destroyed the Great Andamanese, the Onge are just about surviving, the Jarawas appear to have taken their first step. But the lessons are still not learnt. The Andaman tribes may have survived through the 20th Century, but only just. Considering the present situation, it is unlikely the same will be said of these tribes at the end of the next century.