Chapter 23 - Transformation of a pristine livelihood in response to development—An overview of the Onge tribal community, Little Andaman Island, India

Abstract

In this present, fast economic world there still exist a few groups of indigenous people who are sustained by their thousand years of traditional wisdom and knowledge. Under the banner of development, several mainstream policies were injected within these pristine communities, without paying any heed to the desires or demands of the traditional communities. This chapter focuses on Little Andaman Island in India, the homeland of the Onge “forest indigenous community.” The government has formulated several developmental strategies without proper groundwork on the island’s resilience capacity and the community’s current life and livelihood. The various cooperative societies, rationing systems, packed food items, and rehabilitated settlements all throughout the island have crippled them from their daily sustenance and have made them greedy and lazy as well. These have affected the Onge people’s daily livelihood patterns and lifestyle, which have made them vulnerable to extinction.