Tsunami concerns linger for tribals

More than two months after the tsunami struck, concerns linger about the fate of small groups of primitive hunter-gatherers on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The local government in the Indian Ocean archipelago has consistently denied that any of the endangered aboriginal tribespeople were killed by the December 26 tsunami.

But experts say that while most of the hunter-gatherers survived, some casualties among the world's most ancient peoples simply could not be ruled out.

More than 7,500 people were killed or presumed killed after the waves slammed the island chain but officials are still struggling to get a fix on the impact on the primitive tribes.

The state-run Anthropological Society of India says six of the 400-strong Shompen who live in the forests of Great Nicobar island have been missing since the tsunami.

There has still been limited contact with the tiny Sentinelese and Jarawa tribes.

"We have reports that six Shompen tribals are either dead or missing," said ASI's local representative Anstice Justin, adding those reports came from the Shompen themselves when an official team, including ASI staff, made contact with them last month.

Justin said no firm contact had yet been made with the 175 to 200-strong Sentinelese, who live in almost total isolation on a tiny island in the Andaman group, but an official team was planning to visit them later this month.

Justin said some of the Sentinelese or Jarawa tribes could well have fallen victim to the giant waves.

"The morning hour is suitable for fishing and wild boar hunting," he said. "The chances are that they were along the coast when the tsunami struck. But now it is too early to comment on anything regarding this."

The Sentinelese and Jarawa are among four Negrito tribes on the Andaman islands whose roots stretch back to man's earliest ancestors, but whose contact with the outside world over the past century and a half has brought them close to extinction mainly through disease.

In the days immediately after the tsunami, a coast guard helicopter flew over the reserved North Sentinel island where the Sentinelese live and spotted a group of two dozen tribesmen who promptly fired arrows at the aircraft.

Justin's concerns contrast sharply with repeated assurances from government officials that all the primitive tribal groups are safe.

Last week, Nicobar Deputy Commissioner A. Anbarasu said contact had been made with all groups of Shompens - who are of Mongoloid origin - and said "all are hale and hearty".

"As far as the Shompens are concerned, they are safe," Lieutenant-Governor Ram Kapse told a news conference in Campbell Bay in Great Nicobar island last week. "Every aboriginal is safe."

Experts said such certainty was not possible.

"It is not good for anyone to comment on tribals without having proper information," one ASI officer said. "Nobody has visited the tribal areas of Campbell Bay before us so how could anyone comment on the status of Shompen tribals."

Experts said the government wanted to deflect media attention from its handling of the primitive tribal groups on the islands, and this could be one reason for the administration's comments.

A volunteer digs out mud at a construction site for houses for tsunami-affected fishermen near Kochi in Kerala. Japanese and European students are engaged in relief work as part of activities by International Volunteer University Students Association.