Acharya's inquiry into the incident revealed that the settlers had plundered a much valued honey store of the Jarawa. For hunter-gatherers such as the Jarawa, honey is a prized commodity and source of energy in lean months.
"Angered by [theft of the honey] the tribe decided to teach the settlers a lesson or two," Acharya said. He believes efforts to try to bring the Jarawa into the mainstream will only wipe out the unique Negrito tribe.
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While there have been many unconfirmed reports of sexual exploitation of Jarawa women, according to police records the last recorded alleged rape of a Jarawa woman happened on August 16, 2002. The case still languishes in the courts and the alleged rapists have not been punished.
Gifts of Fruit
Starting in 1974, government officials started leaving "gifts" for the tribe, including banana, cocnut, and other fruits.
A report of the islands' Department of Tribal Welfare noted, "With the passage of time, the behavioral pattern of Jarawas has changed. Till the beginning of 1998, they remained hostile, but now they are coming out of the jungle quite often and are becoming friendlier."
Rao, the director of the Anthropological Survey of India, has cautioned against attempts to modernize the Jarawa. But he does say that a "comprehensive health program needs to be undertaken to bring down the high mortality rate among the Jarawas."
Sita Venkateswar, a social anthropologist at Massey University, in Auckland, New Zealand, is one of a handful of scientists to have lived with the Jarawa. "If we fail to protect the forest in which the Jarawa live, the forest they have kept intact for thousands of years, we destroy not only the forest but also destroy a people," she said.
Last December, after prodding by the Indian courts, the local Andaman Islands administration came out with a groundbreaking policy to protect the rights of the Jarawa. A key protection included making the Jarawa Reserve "inviolate." The policy included measures to prevent further encroachment of Jarawa lands and ways to curtail poaching by settlers.
Survival International's director Stephen Corry said, "On paper, India's policy on the Jarawa is one of the most advanced on isolated peoples anywhere in the world. But if the authorities do not act now to change the situation on the ground, the Jarawa will not survive."
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