Aboriginal tribes saved by distance (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Aboriginal tribes saved by distance
By Suresh Seshadri

REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
Published December 31, 2004
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20041230-111256-1920r.htm

    PORT BLAIR, India -- India's dwindling aboriginal population in the
remote Andaman and Nicobar islands is safe because most lived in
jungles, far away from the coast hit by a devastating tsunami, a coast
guard official said yesterday.
    Experts had feared that some Stone Age tribal people, who have been
living on the far-flung archipelago for thousands of years, could be on
the verge of extinction after the killer waves that have killed more
than 117,000 people across Asia and Africa.
    "There have been several media reports talking about a threat to the
aborigines, indigenous people and tribals of the islands," said Vice
Adm. Arun Kumar Singh, director general of the coast guard, which is
involved in rescue operations.
    "I have personally verified the extent of this claim, and let me
tell you that it is absolutely rubbish."
    The Andaman and Nicobar group is a cluster of more than 550 islands,
of which about three dozen are inhabited.
    The island chain is home to about six tribes of Mongoloid and
Negrito origin. Many of the indigenous people are seminomadic and
subsist on hunting with spears, bows and arrows as well as fishing and
gathering fruit and roots. They still cover themselves with tree bark
or leaves.
    Adm. Singh said the Nicobarese, the largest tribal group that lives
on Car Nicobar and adjoining islands, bore the brunt of the waves, but
the exact death toll was not known.
    Coast guard surveys showed that the rest of the tribes such as the
Shompen, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese had escaped, either because
they lived in the jungles far from the coast or because their islands
were barely touched by the waves.
    "In the Middle Andaman, the Jarawa tribes are there, and there has
not been a single report of casualty. The Sentinelese of North Sentinel
Island, which some reports say have been completely wiped out, are all
very much there," Adm. Singh said.
    More than 13,000 people are dead or feared dead in India from the
tsunami, but rescuers are still struggling to assess the toll in the
Andaman and Nicobar islands.
    Officials said more than 6,000 people were feared dead in the island
chain, which is closer to Burma and Indonesia than the Indian mainland
and is home to more than 350,000 people.
    About 30,000 of the islands' total population is tribal, the
majority Nicobarese.
    The rest are smaller groups. Some such as the Great Andamanese are
down to about 30 people, while others such as the Shompen number 200 to
250.
    The number of the Onge, one of the most primitive tribes, has fallen
in past decades to about 100. There are about 200 Sentinelese, probably
one of the world's only surviving Paleolithic people, who are generally
hostile to outsiders.
    "Our helicopter pilot who flew over the island told me that he has
seen several groups of Sentinelese on the beach and that when he
dropped food packets they threw stones at the helicopter."