Jarawa tribe threatened by tourists

When tourism and tribal rights collide

Tourist trips dubbed ‘Human Safaris’ are threatening the last tribes of native Andaman Islanders as operators ferry curious globetrotters to view the people of the remote Indian Ocean island chain. 

The trips are being offered to tourists by companies such as Island Travels, and include a visit through the reserve in the island that is home to the Jarawa tribe. The trip takes in local features such as limestone caves and volcanoes, but also often comes face to face with the isolated tribe that the reserve was designed to protect. 

Last October WideWorld reported on the growing risk to the last uncontacted tribe in the Andamans, who live on North Sentinel Island. The North Sentinel Islanders protect their borders with force and refuse all contact with outsiders, but repeated contact with western travellers and tourists from mainland India could destroy the Jarawa, whose lands are already compromised by roads and industry. 

Survival International, a charity dedicated to protecting tribes like the Jarawa, has blasted the tours as ‘Human Safaris’ that put the lives of tribespeople at risk from diseases like measles. 

"Tourists – some Westerners but mostly from the Indian mainland – travel through the reserve on a daily basis," Miriam Ross, a Survival International campaigner told The Daily Telegraph. "Since 1999, there have been two measles epidemics, with reports of at least one death."

With a headcount of just 300, another epidemic could mean the end of the Jarawa for good. 

Find out more at http://www.survivalinternational.org