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The Indian Supreme Court is currently considering whether a controversial tourist resort in the Andaman islands should close. The resort is near a forest reserve, which is home to the endangered Jarawa tribe. The BBC's Geeta Pandey, who has visited the area, reports from Delhi.
Jarawas
Jarawas resemble African bushmen in appearance (Photos: Survival International)
A handful of Jarawa tribesmen recently broke into a house in the village of Mathura in the Andaman islands. They left after taking away rice, sugar and coconut.
The first people to successfully migrate out of Africa, the Jarawas came to the Andaman islands 60,000 years ago.
Essentially hunter-gatherers, the tribespeople have traditionally survived on the raw meat of wild boar.
But in the 1970s, a road (the Andaman trunk road or ATR) was built, cutting through the 1,000 sq km forest reserve in which they live. It has brought momentous change to their lives.
"Till as late as the 1980s, the Jarawas would kill people if challenged or threatened. But in the 90s, they started to come out of the reserve and now they have developed a taste for cooked rice and sugar," says Govind Raju, editor of The Light of Andamans newspaper. |
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