One year after the death of the last member of the Bo tribe of the Andaman Islands (January 26), Survival has warned that the neighbouring Jarawa tribe is also in danger.
Boa Sr, the last of the Bo, died last January aged around 85. The Jarawa tribe number 365 people, and fiercely resisted contact with outsiders until 1998.
Now an illegal road cuts through the Jarawa’s rainforest, and poachers and tourists invade their land. Poachers steal the animals the Jarawa need to survive and, like the tourists, risk introducing diseases to which the tribe have no immunity. Survival is urging the Indian government to close the road and to keep outsiders out of the tribe’s forest.
There’s the intro piece written yesterday by Survival International on some critical developments on the Andaman Islands, where local tribes are said to have lived for about 55,000 years! Read more here: One year after extinction of Bo, Andaman tribe in danger.
Photo Credits: Jeremy Weate; Jeremy Weate
