Urgent Call for Action - Save the Jarawas

This is an urgent call for anyone and everyone who cares enough to emit a piercing scream, of rage or despair, as you choose, to protest the decimation of the Jarawa.

Some of you may be aware of the rapidly deteriorating situation of the Jarawa of the Andaman Islands. We are told that they number around 300. A new epidemic of measles has struck them, with children who were born after the last epidemic in 1999 being affected. This could not have come about if the Directorate of Medical Services in the islands had done what it had assured the public it was doing: regularly vaccinating the Jarawa against lethal infections to which they have no immunity. During court-ordered forums in 2004 the Medical Services directorate argued vehemently for the right to intervene in this manner, and won it. Their “measured intervention” has resulted in this current epidemic.

In truth, this latest crisis is only one of a series of alarming events that have been exposed over the past months. Other news includes the recent killings of Jarawa children by crocodiles. And a group of Jarawa children, apparently all orphaned by recent and unreported epidemics in the forest, have formed their own band that lives near settled areas. Unable to forage or hunt effectively, their only means of livelihood is through barter of valuable forest products with the settlers. They have no food security; moreover, constant interaction with outsiders makes them vulnerable to new infections. This development shows that the desperate situation that we have been warning the administration about for several years is at hand.

Ever since the Jarawa laid down their arms in 1998, their forest has become overrun with poachers, some of whom provide food or alcohol to the Jarawa in lieu of permission to poach. Instead of protecting the reserve and its resources against such poachers, or the Jarawa against such harmful contact, the administration punishes the Jarawa when they retaliate. For instance, shortly after the tsunami, unknown miscreants stole a Jarawa band’s entire, invaluable, store of honey, in response to which the group attacked an illegal settler village. The authorities forcibly removed the Jarawa from the location.

Significantly, those bands of Jarawa who have been affected by the measles epidemic live close to or alongside the Andaman Trunk Road, which, even as we speak, is being widened—in flagrant violation of the 2002 Supreme Court Order to close the road. For those of us who have been following events in the islands closely, it seems no mere coincidence that the happenings there so closely parallel the vision outlined by longstanding politician Manoranjan Bhakta. He has called for the Andaman Trunk Road to be widened instead of closed, and has also repeatedly stated his wish to see the Jarawa settled and placed on dole.

If the Jarawa no longer live in the forest, its invaluable resources can be used by other agents such as timber contractors, builders in need of sand, tourism operators in need of coral reefs, and so on and on. The Jarawa live in the last pristine stretch of Great Evergreen Rainforest on the Andaman Islands, and they do so precisely because they have defended it with their lives. With the Jarawa gone, the forests and reefs will be immediately up for grabs. (With the forests gone, the Andaman Islands will also become unliveable for lack of water, and tens of thousands of people will need to be repatriated to the mainland. But the administration seems not to worry about such things.)

So far, the Jarawa presence has stalled development plans for the islands in the forests of Middle and South Andaman. The Jarawa are succumbing very fast, however, to the many-sided onslaught. We can only conclude that the multiple failures of the Andaman administration—to close the Andaman Trunk Road, to protect the Jarawa forest from invasion, and to protect the health of the Jarawa—are acts of deliberate and calculated negligence with a view to decimating the remaining Jarawa population.

After having thrived for upward of 60,000 years on these islands, the Jarawa are now on their way out. To kill them off it was not necessary to line them up and shoot them. One only had to establish contact, and then just wait for disease and deprivation to take their toll. This course of action the Andaman administration has consistently followed. In our view, it amounts to genocide.

All these years we have tried to address the problem through the regular channels. We have been exhilarated by court orders, and astounded when they weren’t implemented. We have gate-crashed seminars and written petitions to make ourselves heard. All along we have received seemingly earnest assurances that the needful would be done. We don’t believe them any more. This is, for us, a last scream. We want to register our anguish that this genocide is happening before our very eyes, and in full view of the world.

Please join us. Send protest letters to the addresses below. Pass this note on to friends. If you are a journalist, write about the Jarawa. If you belong to an activist group, please get it involved. Let the Jarawa at least be mourned.


Dr. Madhusree Mukerjee and Dr. Sita Venkateswar

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Please send snail mail letters to:

Ms. Sonia Gandhi Dr. Manmohan Singh
10, Janpath Prime Minister’s Office
New Delhi - 110 011 South Block
India Raisina Hill
New Delhi 110 001
India


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Calendar of Events Pertaining to the Jarawa of the Andaman Islands





60,000 years ago Ancestors of Jarawa arrive on the Andaman Islands

1857 Colonization of Andaman Islands by Britain

1857 to roughly 1900 Decimation of Great Andamanese people by disease,
their numbers being reduced from around 8,000 to 650.
The Jarawa, originally on South Andaman, resist
forestry operations and attempts at pacification. They
move northward into Middle Andaman forests vacated
by the dying Great Andamanese.

1900 to roughly 1950 Punitive expeditions kill many Jarawa.

1947 Indian independence, with Andaman Islands going to
India

1950s Refugees from mainland India settled next to and
within Jarawa forests.

1957 Notification of Jarawa Reserve, whose boundaries may
be transgressed only by declaration of the Andaman’s
chief administrator, the Lieutenant Governor.

1970s onward A Government of India project to pacify the Jarawa
involves monthly trips by sea to Jarawa beaches,
leaving gifts. Over the years this pacification scheme
leads to the Jarawa acquiring a taste for rice, red cloth
and other items introduced by Indian officials. Also in
accordance with British colonial prescriptions for
pacification, many Jarawa are brought to “civilization”
for tours. The Jarawa begin to raid settler villages
at night to acquire tools, cloth, rice and other items they
have been taught to use. They kill intruders into their
areas.

1979 Part of the Jarawa Reserve denotified to allow for
construction of the Andaman Trunk Road, and timber
extraction operations started in denotified forests.





1988 Completion of Andaman Trunk Road, which passes
through the Jarawa reserve, despite Jarawa resistance.

1998 onward The Jarawa lay down their arms and appear in settler
areas, apparently drawn by curiosity. They interact with
outsiders and encounter germs. Violent forms of
respiratory diseases kill unknown numbers of Jarawa,
while others are brought by officials to hospitals and
cured. A series of other epidemics follows, including
measles, mumps and malaria.

1998 A lawyer in Port Blair files a Public Interest Litigation in Calcutta High Court (which has jurisdiction over the Andamans) demanding the Jarawa be civilized and made sedentary. Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE) files a contrary petition, pointing out that sedentarization of other Andaman indigenous peoples has led to physical and emotional decline.

1998 SANE, Kalpavriksh and Bombay Natural History
Society file a Public Interest Litigation, which
ultimately goes to the Indian Supreme Court, on
protecting the Andaman environment.

2002 Supreme Court demands closure of the Andaman Trunk Road, which runs through the Jarawa reserve and is a conduit for germs and harmful influences. Supreme Court also demands that illegal settlements within the Jarawa reserve be demolished, and that immigration to the Andaman Islands be curtailed. High Court constitutes a committee for making recommendations regarding the Jarawa; but the committee fails to reach
agreement.

2002 onward Andaman administration removes some settlements but
refuses to close the road. Poachers begin to use
resources in the Jarawa reserve with impunity.
Outsiders introduce addictives such as alcohol in order
to force the Jarawa to barter forest produce to feed their
addictions. Jarawa women are exploited, and a few
rapes, evidently by welfare staff, are reported.





2003 First actual count of the Jarawa, by Anthropological
Survey of India, yields around 300 individuals.

2004 Seminars ordered by High Court to determine what
needs to be done to protect the Jarawa are conducted.
The High Court approves a set of policy
recommendations. These include “measured
intervention” by the Directorate of Medical
Services for protecting the Jarawa against further
epidemics.

2004 Area of the Jarawa Reserve is officially increased to re-include the area denotified in 1979. The ATR continues to run through the heart of the Jarawa forests, however, and enforcement of protections against poachers is nil. Instead, police outposts within the Jarawa forest facilitate movement of poachers.

2005 Leading activists and environmentalists request the
National Advisory Committee, a body constituted to
oversee the functioning of the government, to ensure
implementation of court orders protecting the Jarawa.

2006 Planning Commission constitutes a committee to look
into these matters. In defiance of Supreme Court Orders,
the ATR is now being expanded, with concurrent
extraction of timber along the roadside. Jarawa society
is in irretrievable decline. Signs of resource depletion in
the Jarawa reserve. A major measles epidemic is
currently underway.



Prepared by Dr. Madhusree Mukerjee, May 11, 2006