Tribe lives isolated for 55,000 years on Indian Ocean archipelago

The Jarawa tribe has just 400 members left living on the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean and activists fear they could disappear within the next 10 years,SunThe biggest threat to their survival is a highway that runs straight through their homeland, according to the charity Survival International.

The road has brought many tourists to the islands. Poachers have also entered the rich forests of the remote islands and hunted the wildlife that the tribe relies on for its survival. This is one of the many reasons why the Jarawa tribe is hostile to outsiders.

The Jarawa tribe has just 400 members left. Photo: Claire Beilvert.

The nomadic tribe is a master hunter. They trap wild boar, lizards and turtles with a specially designed bow. Since they live on an island, marine food is very important to them. The men of the tribe often fish in the shallow waters.

The Jarawa also enjoy fruit and honey. They extract honey from the hives using plant extracts to appease the bees. They have a thorough knowledge of the more than 150 plants and 350 animals on the island. The Jarawa are fierce warriors and will do anything to protect their territory. Experts estimate that they settled in the Indian Ocean archipelago between 55,000 and 60,000 years ago.

The tribe survived the British colonial period in the 19th century and the subsequent Japanese occupation. In 1998, some Jarawa began to emerge from the forest for the first time without crossbows to visit other settlements. However, in 1990, the local government drafted a long-term plan to settle them in two villages whose economy was based mainly on fishing. The plan also proposed a style of clothing for the tribe.

“Forced settlement has plagued other tribes in the Andaman Islands,” says International. After campaigning by Survival and other organizations in India, the resettlement plan was abandoned in the early 2000s.