National

We are safe, say Jarawas

JIRKATANG, JAN. 6. Carrying bows and arrows, members of the ancient Jarawa tribe emerged on Thursday from their forest habitat in the Andaman and Nicobar islands for the first time since the tsunami tragedy.

In a rare interaction with outsiders, the Jarawas said all 250 of their tribe had survived by fleeing inland. ``We are all safe after the earthquake. We are in the forest in Balughat,'' said Ashu, an arrow-wielding tribesman.

Even though the Jarawas sometimes interact with local officials to receive government-funded supplies, the tribe seemed wary of visitors. ``My world is in the forest,'' Ashu said in broken Hindi through an interpreter in a restricted area at the north end of South Andaman island. ``Your world is outside. We don't like people from outside.''

There are only an estimated 400 to 1,000 members alive today from the tribes of Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Onges, Sentinelese and Shompens who live on the islands. Some anthropological DNA studies indicate that the generations of tribes may have spanned back 70,000 years. They originated in Africa and migrated to India through Indonesia, anthropologists said.

Government officials and anthropologists believe that ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and birds may have saved the indigenous tribes from the tsunami. Seven Jarawa men — wearing only underwear and amulets — emerged from the forest to meet government officials to say they had all managed to flee to the forest when the deadly waves came. They said they survived by eating coconuts in the aftermath of the tsunami, which killed 901 people and left 5,914 missing on the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Two reporters and a photographer for Associated Press were allowed to accompany officials to an outpost in the isolated northern region.

Ashu, who said he was in his early 20s, gave his name and those of three others of his tribe as Danna, Lah and Tawai. Like many South Indians, they use only one name.

The men stopped an AP photographer from taking pictures. ``We fall sick if we are photographed,'' Ashu said. In the past, tourists who have tried to take their photo had their cameras smashed by upset tribesmen.

When asked how his people survived the tsunami, Ashu just shook his head. He didn't want to talk about it. But he showed off his bow, arrows and a metal box tied around his waist with a thread containing ash with which he smeared his face and forehead during ceremonies.

He gestured with his hands and asked for ``khamma'' — water in the dialect used by the Jarawas — and drank from a bottle offered to him. When asked what they typically eat, Ashu said pork and fish caught with their bows and arrows. ``And we like honey.''

He said tourists sometimes throw packages of cookies at them from buses. ``We don't like when tourists throw things at us. They should give it in our hands,'' he said. Also, the packaged food upset their stomachs, he added. ``We prefer to eat raw and roasted bananas. Ripe bananas make us sick,'' he said.

Jirkatang police have had a love-hate relationship with the Jarawas. In 1997, a year after the tribe made its first-ever contact with, they stormed the Jirkatang police outpost and killed a guard dead with their arrows. But things have since improved.

A police officer who asked that his name not be used called the Jarawas ``good friends.''

Relations with townspeople seem more prickly with ethnic Indian residents expressing wariness of their neighbours. Both sides remain as far apart as they were nearly a decade ago when contact with the tribe was first made.

During the height of summer, when water holes dry up, Jarawas often come into town, looking for water. Their presence generates total panic, and police are called in, said one resident who refused to give his name. It is then up to the police officers to persuade the tribesmen to return. — AP

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