19-Dec-2020: ‘Any exploitation of Sentinel Island will wipe out tribals’

Any exploitation of the North Sentinel Island of the Andamans for commercial and strategic gain would spell the death knell for its occupants, the Sentinelese, a most secluded, particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) who reside in complete isolation on the island, the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) has said.

In a policy document, which comes almost two years after American national John Allen Chau was allegedly killed by the Sentinelese on the Island, the AnSI says the “right of the people to the island is non-negotiable”.

These rights are unassailable, non-negotiable and uninfringeable. The prime duty of the state is to protect these rights as eternal and sacrosanct. Therefore, their island should not be eyed for any commercial or strategic gain, for if it were to happen, it surely would be a death knell for its occupants.

Sentinelese, with a population of about 50 to 100 on the North Sentinel Island, are not only among the most isolated of nearly 70 PVTGs across the country, but also among the five in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which include Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa, and Shompens.

Along with maintaining the territorial integrity of the North Sentinel Island, the document also calls for building a knowledge bank on the Sentinelese. Since ‘on-the-spot study’ is not possible for the tribal community, anthropologists suggest the ‘study of a culture from distance’.

The document, interestingly calls for an insightful study of the ‘journal’ of John Allen Chau who spent a couple of days on the island, encountered the Sentinelese from close proximity and registered his observations. According to Mr. Sasikumar, Chau’s 13-page diary — parts of which are illegible and has sketches of the settlements — is an extremely important anthropological document. Chau had handed it over to the fisherman who transported him to the island in November 2018, a day before he was killed.

During the British period M.V. Portman had visited it, followed by few anthropologists of the AnSI after independence in 1967 and then it is this American (Chau). These are the only occasions when outsiders have landed on the island. The rest have been observing the inhabitants from a distance.

The anthropologist said that till 1990s, there were goodwill missions whose contact was limited to standing in shallow waters around the island at a distance and offering gifts to the members of the tribe. The policy document suggests that members of the goodwill missions should be interviewed for what they remember seeing during their circumnavigations as also fishermen from Wandoor, Manglutun, Chidiatapu, and others, about their visits to this island and any meeting with the tribal community.

The AnSI has published the policy inputs in a paper titled ‘Draft of the Policies for Great Andamanese and Sentinelese’ published in their journal, recently. The policy document also talks about the Great Andamanese, a tribe that has had significant exposure to outside world. Mr. Sasikumar said the Andaman administration had a policy for the Jarawas and Shompens and they had approached AnSI for a policy document on Sentinelese and Great Andamanese tribe.

Though both Sentinelese and Great Andamanese are classified as PVTG, the tribes live in two completely different contact situation. While in the case of the Sentinelese their contact to the outside world is almost nil, the Great Andamanese had decades of exposure to the world outside their Island.

Tracing the history of conflict of the Great Andamanese with the British in the 19th century and the outbreak of disease which brought down the number of members of the tribe from nearly 5,000 in 1858 to 30 in 1951, the document states that in 1969, the members of the tribe were settled at Strait Island having an area of about five sq. km. The document highlights that changes have taken place since then, including the fact that the Great Andamanese are no longer a foraging community.

“They are now a semi-acculturated and biogenetically not as pure as the Sentinelese or the Jarawa,” the paper highlights.

The policy for Great Andamanese calls for bringing out the population from the “State's development dependency” and make them a self-sustaining group.

Along with steps for preservation of Great Andamanese language and teaching it as third language to the members of the tribe, the policy document seeks protection by prohibiting the entry of unauthorized person to Strait Island, protecting natural resources like fishing around the island and also safeguarding women and children from any kind of exploitation “ranging from voyeurism to sexual exploitation from outsiders”.

5-Feb-2019: Sentinelese Tribe

The Government  has promulgated various laws/regulations from time to time to ensure that the rights and wellbeing of the Sentinelese are safeguarded. These are being strictly implemented and enforced by the UT Administration. These Laws/Regulation include i) A &N Islands (PAT) Regulation 1956, ii) Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, iii) Restrictions under Foreigner (Restricted Area) Orders, 1963, iv) Visa Manual Conditions/Passport Act 1920, and v) Indian Forest Act, 1927 and Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Besides, some major steps taken to ensure the protection of Sentinelese are: 

• The entire North Sentinel Island along with 5 km coastal sea from high water mark is notified as tribal reserve.
• The Sentinelese are still in isolation practicing primordial hunting and gathering way of life. The Government respects their way of life style, therefore, has adopted an ‘eyes-on and hands-off’ practice to protect and safeguard the Sentinelese tribe.
• A protocol of circumnavigation of the North Sentinel Island has been notified.  The ships and aircrafts of Coast Guard and boats of Marine Police make sorties around North Sentinel to keep surveillance.

Apart from the land territory the coastal sea up to fixed extent of 1 Km to 5 Km abutting the tribal territory has also been notified as tribal reserve so that marine resources like fish, turtle etc. are available exclusively for the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).  The vehicular traffic on Andaman Trunk Road passing through Jarawa reserve is regulated by convoy system. Buffer Zone notified in 2013, around the Jarawa Tribal Reserve (5km landward side and 1km seaward side), prohibits all commercial / tourism activity in the Buffer Zone.  Joint patrolling by Police, Forest & Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS) is carried out around Jarawa area to prevent contact of poachers and unscrupulous non-tribal elements with Jarawa tribe. A Special Police Team (01 SI and 10 PCs) for patrolling at Tirrur, adjacent to the Jarawa Tribal Reserve, has also been deployed. The ships and aircrafts of Coast Guard and boats of Marine Police make sorties around North Sentinel to keep surveillance.

The details of population of the Sentinelese and Jarawa Tribes are as under:

S.No.	Name of the tribe	Population
1.	Jarawa	514 (till date)
2.	Sentinelese	50 estimated as per 2011 census

The number of confrontational incidents occurred during the last ten years with the Sentinelese and the Jarawas tribe are given as under:

(i)         Sentinelese      --          01(one)

(ii)        Jarawas                        --          19(Nineteen)

Who are they?

The Sentinelese, a negrito tribe who live on the North Sentinel Island of the Andamans, have not faced incursions and remain hostile to outsiders. The inhabitants are connected to the Jarawa on the basis of physical, as well as linguistic similarities, researchers say. Based on carbon dating of kitchen middens by the Anthropological Survey of India, Sentinelese presence was confirmed in the islands to 2,000 years ago. Genome studies indicate that the Andaman tribes could have been on the islands even 30,000 years ago.

How are they protected?

The Govt. of India issued the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 to declare the traditional areas occupied by the tribes as reserves, and prohibited entry of all persons except those with authorisation. Photographing or filming the tribe members is also an offence. The rules were amended later to enhance penalties. But restricted area permits were relaxed for some islands recently.

Have they made contact?

The Sentinelese have been fiercely hostile to outside contact. But in 1991 they accepted some coconuts from a team of Indian anthropologists and administrators. Some researchers argue that the Sentinelese have been mostly left alone even from colonial times, unlike other tribes such as the Onges, Jarawas and Great Andamanese, because the land they occupy has little commercial attraction.

How many are there?

From 1901 to 1921 they were estimated to be 117 people. In 1931, the number dropped to 50, a figure used for the 1961 Census too. In 1991 their head count was put at 23. Census 2001 counted 39 inhabitants.

2-Jul-2017: National ST Commission to take action on video films of Jarawas on YouTube.
Taking Suo-moto cognizance of objectionable video films and pictures of protected Jarawa and other tribal communities of Andaman Islands on YouTube social media platform, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe (NCST) has initiated action on it.

The commission has decided to take up the matter with Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Chief Secretary of A&N Island for removal of these objectionable video films from YouTube and initiate action on those who uploaded these video clips on social media platform.

As per provisions of Andaman and Nicobar Island (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 (PAT) dated 18.6.1956, the Andamanese, Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese, Nicobarese and Shompens have been identified as “aboriginal tribes”. The PAT contains the provisions of protection of these communities from the outside interference. Penalty provisions for promoting tourism through advertisement relating to aboriginal tribes has also been made in the year 2012. Whoever enters these areas in contravention of the notification under section 7 (which prohibits entry into reserve areas) for taking photographs or making videos shall be punishable with imprisonment up to three years. Section 3 (i) (r) of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) also attracted.

The total population of tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is about 28077. Out of these five tribal communities have population of below 500.