India's 'human safaris' banned, as fight for tribal rights goes on

India’s Andaman Islands, situated in the Bay of Bengal, are surrounded by crystal waters and a sparsely populated coastline, and are home to lush forests – the perfect tourist destination. But recent scandals on the island have concerned international activists.

Each year, thousands of tourists pay tour operators on the archipelago to catch a glimpse of the native semi-naked and naked Jarawa tribesmen and women - the main attraction for most tourists, despite several laws (beginning in 1956) banning tourists from coming too close to the protected tribe.

Then, last year, a tourist video of tourists ordering semi-naked women to dance went viral on the Internet, spurring national and international condemnation – and a new interim law, which was actually enforced on the island, starting last month.

It appeared to be a win for both activists and the tribe. But with a growing tourism industry the mainstay of the archipelago, the battle might not be over. India’s Supreme Court asked the island’s authorities to decide this month whether the small tribe, which is believed to be descendants of the first people to move from Africa to Asia, should be forcibly assimilated in the mainstream society or remain in isolation.

Activists argue that forced assimilation is an infringement of the tribe’s rights, and is unnecessary.

The decision whether the Jarawa will join mainstream society should not rest with the Islands' authorities, says Sophie Grig, of the UK-based indigenous rights advocacy group Survival International.

“It must be up to the Jarawa to decide how they want to live their lives – it is not a question of isolation or mainstreaming, but of the Jarawa making their own choices about their lives and their future,” says Ms. Grig.

For centuries, the Andaman Islands were hardly visited by anyone other than the prisoners sent to serve their time there, and the guards who ran the prison. It has only been since the 1990s that mainland Indian tourists started flooding the Islands, which are now home to some 380,000 people.

In the 1970s the government of the Andamans began the construction of a 230 mile-long road to connect Port Blair, the largest town, and capital of the territory, with Middle Andaman and North Andaman Islands to supply essential provisions and medical facilities to the settlers in far-flung areas. Activists warned then that the road, which cut through thick forests inhabited by the Jarawa, could have devastating consequences for the isolated tribe, not accustomed to outsiders and susceptible to disease.

When the Andaman Trunk Road was finally opened in 1998, the tribe’s men shot arrows at the passing vehicles and even killed some settlers, showing anger at the intrusion.

However, as the hostility to outsiders, especially among younger Jarawas, has begun to wane in recent years with more exposure to visitors via the road, tour operators also grew bolder about offering more interactions to clients, putting the tribe at risk. Various rules were placed on the frequency and number of vehicles permitted on the road at a time. Still, in 2002, after pressure from activist groups such as Survival International, India’s Supreme Court ordered the road be closed to tourists.

But Andaman authorities did not enforce the court order to close the road, as it saw the road as a lifeline for settlers.

"I think the real reason they haven't done it [before],” says Grig, is because “it's not popular with the settlers on the Andamans, and the tribes are a small population with no power or influence. The administration claims that the road is a lifeline but it's only a lifeline because they haven't put an alternative route in place."

Last month, amid fallout from the viral video of the tribeswomen dancing, Survival International wrote to the Supreme Court urging "immediate action" to have Andaman authorities enforce the past orders. Two weeks later, the court ruled that the "disgraceful" Jarawa tourism must be halted immediately. This time, the Andaman authorities closed the road to all tourist vehicles last month.

1 | 2

Next