Tourism ,Major threat to Jarawas. Protect there Rights.

Jarawas are adversely affected by the tourist , who arrive here for the sexual exploitation .jarawas are not ready for mingle with local population or outside world. Leave them ,where they are.

We see they are infected with those disease which are unknown to them ,they get after close encounter with the modern man. They know how to cure them , they are exploiated in every sense , jarawas are traded for slaves ,,jarawa women are traded for sex.we have to protect there right ,,there fundamental right ,, after all they are like us..they are hidden treasure of our culture. We must protect them.

Along with other indigenousAndamanese peoples, they have inhabited the islands for at least several thousand years, and most likely a great deal longer. The Andaman Islands have been known to outsiders since anitquity

Before the 19th century, the Jarawa homelands were located in the southeast part of SOUTH ANDAMAN ISLAND and nearby islets. With the establishment of the initial British settlement, these are suspected to have been largely depopulated by disease shortly after 1789 ThegREAT ANDAMANESE tribes were similarly decimated by disease, alcoholism and alleged British government-sponsored destruction,

IF you drive along the road leading to Mayabandar from Port Blair in the Andamans, you might catch a glimpse of the Jarawas, one of the indigenous tribes of the islands; often they come out of their jungle homes to accept fruits and coconuts from visitors. Their white teeth gleaming against their dark skin, the children look like ebony carvings. The story of the Jarawas has been the same as the vanishing people elsewhere in the world, until a group of concerned people came forward to speak for them.

The Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE) a non-government organisation based in Port Blair has taken up the cause of the Jarawas and sought legal remedies. On April 9, 2001 the Circuit bench of the High Court of Calcutta, sitting in Port Blair passed a significant order, directing the Central Government and the Andaman and Nicobar Administration to form a committee of experts, including sociologists, nutritionists and doctors to study the problems of the Jarawas.

Indigenous people such as the Jarawas may hold the key to some mysteries of human history. Recent DNA studies point out that the Jarawas are closely related to the Bushmen of Africa. If proved, this will lend support to the "Out of Africa" theory of human descent. Its proponents say that humans left Africa about 100,000 years ago and moved on land westward, eventually reaching Asia. Peter Bellwood, an anthropologist at the Australian National University, Canberra, suggests that these migrants arrived at the Andamans about 35,000 years ago when the islands were connected by land with the Arakan mountains ranges of Myanmar. Later, when the sea rose, cutting off the land and creating many pockets of elevated land, people survived in these islands and developed a distinct culture and language. In fact their languages may contain keys to the riddle of human migration. Their intimate knowledge of plants, birds and other creatures of the tropical jungle could help advances in medical sciences.

The biggest threat to the Jarawa in recent years came from the building of the Grand andaman trunk road , through their newer western forest homeland in the 1970s.In late 1997, some Jarawa started coming out of their forest to visit nearby settlements for the first time. Within months a serious epidemic broke out.Later, in 2006 the Jarawa suffered another outbreak of measles ,unless contolled the illness could seriously affect the jarawa tribe.

A major problem is the volume of sightseeing tours that are operated by private companies, where tourists view, photograph or otherwise attempt interactions with Jarawas, who are often begging by the highway. These are illegal under Indian law, and in March 2008, the Tourism Department of the Andaman and Nicobar administration issued a fresh warning to tour operators that attempting contact with Jarawas, photographing them, stopping vehicles while transiting through their land or offering them rides were prohibited under the,protection of aboriginal tribes regulation ,1956,and would be prosecuted under a strict interpretation of the statuteIt has been alleged, however, that these rules are openly being flouted with over 500 tourists being taken to view Jarawas daily by private tour operators, while technically being shown as transiting to legitimate destinations and resulting in continuing daily interaction between the Jarawa and day tourists inside the reserve area.

In 2006, the Indian travel company Barefoot had established a resort 3km distant from the Jarawa reserve. The development was the subject of a recent court case brought by a small section of Andaman authorities who wanted to stop the resort, and appealed against a Calcutta High Court ruling allowing it to continue.Barefoot won that case.

Tourism ,Major threat to Jarawas. Protect there Rights.