In the southeastern corner of the Bay of Bengal lie the Andaman Islands, an archipelago under Indian administration. For thousands of years, various aboriginal groups collectively known as the Andamanese people have inhabited the Islands. Today, a majority of the archipelago’s 343,000 inhabitants are settlers from various South Asian countries and the Andamanese find themselves marginalized and abused.
One group of Andamanese are the Jarawa. The Jarawa are hunter-gatherers, numbering around 400, who inhabit portions of the islands of Middle and South Andaman. In 1956, these islands were designated as the Jarawa Tribal Reserve. For over a century, the Jarawa resisted contact with outsiders, shooting arrows at anyone who entered their forest. Formal contact between the Jarawa and mainstream society occurred for the first time in 1998. Since then, their lives have changed dramatically.
The Jarawa began wearing Indian and Western clothes and receiving Western medicine. They learned to speak Hindi and some Jarawa children even sought out formal education in schools. Despite all of this, the Jarawa still wanted to preserve their traditional ways of life and most of them sought to limit contact with outsiders. Despite their wishes, the Jarawa are forced to interact with mainstream society on a daily basis due to their proximity to National Highway 223, popularly known as the Great Andaman Trunk Road. The Indian government needs to stop it.
The Great Andaman Trunk Road was built in the 1970s as a means to connect the three largest islands in the archipelago by land. However, a small portion of the highway cuts through the middle of the Jarawa Tribal Reserve. This intrusion is highly problematic for Jarawa people and the local environment.
The road was built on Jarawa land without Jarawa consent. In fact, they actively, even violently opposed it. Its existence mirrors that of, in the words of one Indian anthropologist, “a public thoroughfare through one’s private courtyard.” This of course, has led to large scale voyeurism on the part of settlers and tourists, culminating in the so-called “human safari” scandal. In 2010 a video emerged depicting a scene where Jarawa were made to dance in front of tourists. In return, the tourists threw bananas and biscuits at them.
Although this dehumanizing practice is frequently condemned by indigenous rights organizations all over the world, it shows no signs of stopping. Tourists pay good money to travel through the Reserve and catch a glimpse of the “primitive” Jarawa. Not only is this contact against the Jarawa’s wishes, it could potentially spread diseases such as measles. Isolated for so long, the Jarawa have little to no immunity to these illnesses. The road is also heavily expensive to maintain. Its maintenance is dependent on deforestation.
Opposition to closing the road is incredibly strong amongst settlers on the Andaman Islands. They’ve argued that the road needs to remain open because it connects remote villages and supplies quick access to the capital Port Blair in case of a medical emergency. They also say that they need it because it supplies many jobs.
These issues could easily be overcome by the establishment of a sea route between Port Blair and the areas to the north of the Reserve. A boat ride would be far quicker than a bus ride. The sea route option is cheaper and less harmful to the surrounding environment. Job loss would not be significant as tourists could still travel to visit popular destinations on North and Middle Andaman.
In March 2014, the Andaman authorities pledged to close the highway to tourists and open up a sea route within a year. However, India’s Environment Minister stalled the notion by failing to grant the environmental clearance to establish the sea route. This action, in combination with announcement of plans to widen the highway, cause many to fear the highway may not be closed at all.
The existence of this highway is an affront to the right of the Jarawa to determine their own level of contact with the outside world. To maintain sovereignty, the portion running through Jarawa territory must be closed.