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Farwa Imam Ali
Chennai, Oct 18: For the dwindling Jarawas -- Negroid aborigines inhabiting the jungles of South and Middle Andaman Islands -- a visit to the `civilised world' is turning out to be one long nightmare. At home in the rainforest, where they have lived at peace with nature for centuries, the tribe is slowly losing out in the survival game. Threatened by `modern civilisation', whether the Jarawa live to see the next millennium remains a big question.
The tribe -- it numbered around 1,000 about 15 years ago -- is down to 300. Anthropologists fear the remaining could soon become extinct, thanks to poor immunity to `imported' diseases like measles, influenza and pneumonia. The fear is not unfounded for a measles epidemic reduced the Andamanese who numbered around 5,000 in 1887 to half that number. Now a measles epidemic has already broken out in the tribe. Last week, over 59 were hospitalised.
Dr Sehgal, Director, Indian Council of Medical Research, Andaman Islands, concedes, ``Diseases such as measles can wipeout an entire community since it is highly infectious. For the Jarawas, who have remained in isolation for aeons, there is every likelihood they will manifest other modern infections when they return to their forest habitat.''
Dr N Ali, Director, Health Services, who is treating the Jarawas, defends the government, saying: ``There is no guarantee the Jarawas have not suffered from a similar epidemic earlier.''
While the government is treating the Jarawas infected with measles as they emerge from their cover, the main issue, that of closing the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR), to save them from extinction, is being ignored. The road, say locals, has cost the tribe dearly. The Jarawas, who resisted felling of trees to make way for the road, were allegedly silenced.
A villager in Kadamtala says: ``When the ATR was being built, the Yatrik Force in charge of its construction fortified their camps using camouflaged, high-voltage live-wires. Hundreds of Jarawas, who came in batches to drive away the trespassers, wereelectrocuted. This is a small place and nobody raised a noise fearing for their lives. Since there is no official record, the administration got away. But we know it happened.''
Tragedy befell the tribe when, in 1971, the government decided to build the ATR which connects Port Blair and Mayabunder, ignoring the expert committee report tabled by the then Director of ASI, Prof S C Sinha and the concern expressed by various NGOs that the decision would endanger the Jarawas.
``What did not happen in the past, may not happen in the future,'' states N C Ray, Secretary, Tribal Welfare, defending the government's stance. ``The road is the island's communication lifeline. The next best alternative then, is to limit contact between the Jarawas and the outsiders, which we are doing.''
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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