Before the polls, Andaman MP Bishnu Pada Roy spoke of mainstreaming
the Jarawas and throwing their sanctuary open to settlers. Now he is all set to
deliver on his promises.
Remember the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) that shot
to infamy in 2012 when a British publication reported how local touts and policemen conduct human safaris in the Jarawa
reserve in Andaman where tourists “toss scraps of food to half-naked tribal
people and order them to dance”?
More than a decade ago, the Supreme
Court had ordered closure of the illegal road – NH 223 – cutting through the
Jarawa reserve. The 2004 Jarawa Policy also called for a supplementary route to
reduce traffic on the ATR. Subsequently, March 2015 was set as the deadline for
opening an alternate sea route between Port Blair and Baratang.
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| Andaman Trunk Road. Pic: AD Blasoni/Survival |
The
highway is still very much operational ferrying tourists, the A&N
administration is in no hurry to develop the alternate sea route and now local
MP Bishnu Pada Roy has announced plans for widening of the ATR and constructing
two new bridges to facilitate more traffic through the Jarawa reserve. The BJP
MP also promised to bring the Jarawas into the mainstream and ease restrictions
in the buffer zone around their reserve to allow commercial activities.
Only
this January, President Pranab
Mukherjee cautioned against attempts at assimilating the Jarawas into
the mainstream. “Though they (the Jarawas) do not know what Parliament is and
what is the job of a Member of Parliament, it is his job to protect them in
their own environment and in their own circumstances. In the name of so-called
development, you should not completely destroy them,” Mukherjee urged the
sitting BJP MP at the inauguration of the Andaman & Nicobar Tribal Research
and Training Institute in Post Blair.
In
the past, such attempts at assimilation have led to the complete disappearance
of entire tribes and communities. Forced settlement destroyed the Great Andamanese
tribes that are represented by no more than 53 survivors today. In 2010, we
lost Boa -- the last member of the Bo, one of the 10 Great Andamanese tribes --
and with her the knowledge and language of her people. A few months earlier,
another ancient language of the archipelago – Khora – passed with Boa’s
neighbour Boro.
The 400-strong Jarawas are also going the way of their
ancient, almost-extinct neighbours—the Great Andamanese and the Onge. The
Sentinelis are the only exception, thanks to the impregnable coral reefs that
make landing on their little island treacherous and to the tribe’s belligerent
response to outsiders. They survived the 2005 tsunami on their own even though
their island was tilted by the onslaught.
The mainstream has not bothered to learn from the wisdom of
these ancient people who have survived in one of the world’s most hostile
places for over 30,000 years. Instead, the sole inhabitants of the archipelago
till about 200 years ago have been reduced to less than 0.1 per cent of the
present population by rapid extermination and influx of settlers.
Sadly,
the political consensus in the A&N today is to pack the Jarawas off to some
islet and open up the lush reserve, the last repository of natural resources
here, to the hungry mainstream. Be it BJP’s Roy or his predecessor Congress’s
Manoranjan Bhakta, local MPs have always championed the cause of easing the
restrictions in and around the Jarawa reserve.
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| Jarawa women. Pic: Survival International |
This
January, eight Jarawa girls were
abducted by a group of settlers. Then, local media quoted a
Jarawa youth complaining about poachers who routinely enter the reserve to
lure Jarawa women. “The outside boys pressure them to do a lot. They pressure
them with their hands and fingernails when the girls get angry… They have sex
with the girls… They drink alcohol in the girls’ house. They sleep in the
Jarawa’s house. They smoke marijuana and then chase the girls,” he said, naming
the offenders.
But
instead of booking even those caught red-handed under the Protection of
Aboriginal Tribes Act (1956) that denies bail, the authorities easily let the
culprits off. For the record, the population of
the Great Andamanese collapsed due to a range of alien ailments — syphillis,
measles, influenza — contracted on an epidemic scale from early batches of
convicts jailed on the island and their equally wayward custodians.
Incidents of confrontation between the Jarawas and settlers
who live close to the reserve are becoming frequent. The conflict began long
back when the Jarawas raided orchards owned by the settlers who had encroached
upon Jarawa forests. Between 1998 and 2004, the interaction became somewhat
friendly when the Jarawa youth learnt to barter honey and venison for alcohol
and tobacco. During this period, all government hospitals bordering the reserve
opened special wards to treat Jarawas for infections.
Fortunately, the ancient tribe decided to retreat to their
forests after 2004. But the new addicts still depend on the outside world for
their fix. As long as the highway keeps bringing the increasingly-less-alien
world deep inside their shrinking sanctuary, they will remain vulnerable to
exploitation, sexual and substance abuse and diseases.
While
the global community is anguished, the local administration seems to have
decided the Jarawa’s fate. Earlier this month, Theva Neethi Dhas, secretary,
Tribal Welfare and Shipping, A&N, washed his hands of the
alternate sea route, describing it as a commitment of the Centre. And Lt.
Governor AK Singh conceded that “there are no boats to spare for the route”
even if it is accomplished.
With
the BJP MP keen to deliver on his poll promise of plundering the tribal
sanctuary in the name of mainstreaming the Jarawas, only an immediate central intervention
can safeguard them. Hopefully, Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram will take note
and alert the prime minister.
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