Preserving the Jarawa's Future

Abstract

Pallava Bagla's article on the tribes of the Andaman Islands asks whether the Indian government should “isolate” or “integrate” tribal peoples like the Jarawa and the Sentinelese (“Isolate or engage? Indigenous islanders pose challenge for India,” News Focus, 7 July, p. 34). In my experience through my work with Survival International ([1][1]), tribal peoples can only survive if their rights to ownership of their land, and to determine their own future, are respected. In the case of the Jarawa, the Indian government's failure to uphold their rights may lead to the tribe being wiped out completely. Local poachers are invading the Jarawa's forest, bringing disease and violence, and hunting the animals on which the tribe depends. Earlier this year, the Jarawa suffered an outbreak of measles, a disease that has annihilated thousands of tribes worldwide. The legal mechanisms to protect the Jarawa are all in place: Poaching and entry into the Jarawa reserve are illegal, the Indian supreme court has ordered the closure of an infamous road that brings settlers into the heart of the Jarawa's land, and the local administration's own policy states that the Jarawa must be allowed to live “according to their own genius.” However, these measures are yet to be implemented. ![Figure][2] CREDIT: OLIVIER BLAISE Unless India acts now to save the Jarawa, it is likely that they will meet the same fate as their Great Andamanese cousins: dependent on government handouts, riddled with alcohol problems, and reduced to a fraction of their former number. 1. 1.[↵][3]See . [1]: #ref-1 [2]: pending:yes [3]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text