On holiday in the Andamans, Aabhas Sharma catches a glimpse of the endangered tribe which has now become a tourist attraction
At 5.15 in the morning, our Tata Sumo joins a queue of over 20 other buses and vehicles at the Jirkatang border check post (about 50 km from Port Blair) where a blind goat is the centre of attraction. The goat feasts on the vada that the roadside tea vendors sell. But we aren’t here to see the goat; we are here to enter the forest reserve which is inhabited by the Jarawa tribe of Andamans, on the way to Baratang island. As we wait for the police convoy to escort us to Baratang — a three-hour drive from Port Blair — our driver and guide, Javed, tells us how to “deal” with Jarawas. “No cameras, windows rolled up when you spot them and do not feed them anything.”
While the idea is to see the beautiful limestone caves and a mud volcano in the tropical forests of Baratang, most tourists come here to “spot” the Jarawas. Once the convoy finally starts, we are amidst thick forests on a zigzag road with about 10 vehicles ahead of us and a similar number following us. We see a Jarawa woman with a child clinging on to her about half an hour later. She has just a loin-cloth wrapped around her and looks suspiciously at the passing vehicles. The Jarawas are dark with peppercorn hair, and although we were told that they are short, they look tall and strong enough.
A few kilometres down the stretch we spot three young boys, their faces plastered with clay, wearing a headband made of red thread, armed with bows and arrows, trying to stop the vehicles. Their arrows look sharp, but our nerves are calmed when Javed, who drives on this road every day, tells us they are probably looking for food. “They generally don’t harm anyone but why take a chance by rolling down the windows,” he says.
The Jarawas are one of the few recognised tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar islands; they are nomads, but don’t look too fazed by civilisation and even wave to the passing vehicles. Urban legend has it that one of the Jarawa kids fell into a deep pit and was rescued by the locals who took him to Port Blair and got him treated. Since then they aren’t too hostile but, as Javed tells us, they are still unpredictable.
On our way to Baratang, we see a local PWD truck carrying a few workers and even Jarawas. “They get friendly with people who work in these areas but even then they aren’t allowed to feed them anything,” our informed driver tells us.
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On the way back to Port Blair along the same route, we see two Jarawa girls dressed like commoners trying to sell us what looks like a bunch of grapes made of wood. There’s a moment of panic, however, when the bus right in front of us is stopped by three Jarawa men, armed with knives. One of them tries to climb on top of the bus but when the bus starts to move slowly, they get out of the way. They then try to stop our vehicle as well but they don’t look too threatening. There are only 300 of them left in the area and Javed tells us we are lucky to see as many as a dozen in a day.
When we finally reach Jirkatang again, we see a car whose bumper has been scratched quite badly by two young Jarawas with their knives. Voices have been raised in Andaman against making the Jarawas a tourist attraction. But if the number of daily visitors passing through the forest reserve is an indicator, then the Jarawas will — if they’re not already — be a popular “attraction” in the islands.
