The Indigenous Divya Harshitha Sadanala   © Copyright 2022 by Divya Harshitha Sadanala

The mud volcanoes in Baratang island.  Photo courtesy of the author.

The great Andamanese , Shompan , Sentinelese are the other indigenous tribes of these islands. Jarawas are known to be a major tourist attraction infamously called Human Safaris. But this practice was later banned in the 2012 for safeguarding them. The Jarawas live in 1028km forest reserve between south and middle Andaman. Their existence aged somewhere between ice age and stone age . I had little knowledge about all of this at that time as I was only nine -period. All I was told was you are going to see early man and I started asking my mom weird questions do they have weapons ?do they start fire with stones? Do they eat raw meat without cooking it? My mom got very annoyed and she said now if you wouldn't stop talking they will eat you up . I knew she was just kidding. But cannibalism do exist even today not among the Jarawa tribe they don't eat humans but another tribe Sentinelese are one of the dangerous tribes of the world. They avoid human contact and there are rumours that they do practice cannibalism even now . The bus started moving and I was sitting by the window seat and enjoying the view of the woods, then suddenly the bus stopped in the middle of the road due to traffic then I saw red eyes glaring at me , a boy with pitch brown skin half naked with a Javelin in his hand infront of me . I was scared to death and I just involuntarily ducked my head into my knees and then slowly I lifted my head and realised he was just trying to intimidate me but no harm done. Gladly, the bus started moving and I saw some twenty to thirty people standing on either side of the road. Half naked people , especially the men were standing with bows and arrows and Javelins. They were looking at us and we them , it felt like they were standing on guard and thinking to themselves who are these creatures , they have the same features but still look so different. There attires were made of some kind of red fabric woven into braided threads that hanged onto their bodies. Some even had their faces painted with white paint into different patterns that masked them partially

The women were holding their young ones on their hips and looking curiouslytowards the buses . Some mothers were suckling their young babies , Many of them looked skinny and their tummies tucked out as if they were malnurished. We were strictly instructed by the tour guide as well as the forest rangers earlier that we are not allowed to open the window glasses, neither to offer them any food and water, not to communicate with them and especially not to photograph or take videos of them. It would be considered illegal and considered as a crime and is a punishable offence . 

So following the guidelines I don't have any photos or videos of the tribes with me but fortunately I bought a DVD at some local shop that has a documentary of Andaman before and after tsunami which occurred in 2004 which contains some clips about how it destroyed the huts and the habitat of Jarawas and how many were killed in the natural calamity. The Jarawas are considered to be harmless but some bad tourist interactions especially foreigners forcing them to dance for videos, abusing them, poaching and stealing animals from their reserve have made them hostile . 

May be thistriggered them suddenly I heard a loud voice it was like a warcry a young man in teens was shouting . All of a sudden everyone carrying weapons became alert and arrows were flying in the air. Everything happened so fast that we couldn't grasp the situation my mom thought maybe someone threw a food parcel to them out of another bus , or maybe someone dropped their handbag bag from the other bus in front of us or something. But no they were arrows and Javelins and lot of yelling , My mind went blank and I was like, this is the dead end of my life and since I was a little kid with a wild imagination I thought this is it , tonight I'm gonna be meat on their tables (which I realised later is not true Jarawas don't practice cannabalism ).

The fear on my mother's face when she grabbed me and my sister made me even more frightened. My Dad was acting like that cool kid in that class who pretends that he doesn't care about anything but inside he was deeply worried . He told us it's all gonna be okay. The tour guide analysing the situation murmured something to the bus driver and he speeded the bus with god speed . Thanks to his quick thinking, rest of our journey was safe and it's terrifying to think what would have happened otherwise . 

I am grateful to the tour guide and the bus driver we reached Baratang in one piece and later enjoyed the view of the Limestone caves and Mud Volcanoes. Though this deadly experience made me think that this hostile treatment of the Jarawas is a result of past interactions with tourists and their bad behaviour towards them . They are harmless and known to be friendly but people have taken their nature for granted . They too have human rights and Jarawa reserves have to be protected from human interference. Their privacy should be respected ,whether they want to interact with people are not , should be decided by themselves . They shouldn't be forced to do anything against their will . 

Overall I had a great trip we even got a chance to explore the Havelock beach which offers a great view of bluish waters with white sands, we visited the Cellular Jail, zonal anthropological museum, planetarium , Coral Bays etc . We traveled in glass boats , did scuba diving. Even after how tables had turned mid trip but I still say that It was the most memorable and adventurous trip of my life. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I would definitely visit Andaman in future . I would love to take my kids there and narrate them my experience.