Negrito News

2006

The never-ending Jarawa situation remains never-ending

as reported by the independent and delightfully named Andaman weekly

... and another never-ending Andaman story reported by the same weekly:

the THE ANDAMAN TRUNK ROAD (ATR)

Controversy continues about a road that should have been closed years ago - if a Supreme Court Rulings had been obeyed

Sentineli kill Indian fishermen

25 January 2006

Fishing around Sentinel island is strictly illegal. It can also be deadly if the Sentineli warriors catch trespassers. Anybody at Port Blair knows this, fishermen included. The Indian Coast Gard cannot be everywhere all the time and everybody at Port Blair knows this, too. So, even all this is common knowledge, there are always some fools who think they know better and that a spot of illegal fishing in Sentinel island waters is a good idea.

 

Sentineli warriors threaten the helicopter sent to investigate the disappearance of the fishermen

Sunder Raj (aged 48) and Pandit Tiwari (aged 52) were two such even though they were old enough to have known better. On 25 January 2006 the two went to fish illegally off North Sentinel island. They also settled down in their boat for the night, apparently drinking quantities of alcohol.

During the night, their "anchor" (a stone tied to a rope) seems to have broken lose and their boat drifted quietly towards a Sentineli beach. As day broke, other fishermen in the area (all illegal, there must have been quite a crowd there) spotted the drifting boat and shoted warnings. The two men did not respond, probably because they were in a drunken stupor. When their boat drifted into the shallows, they were attacked and killed.

When the fishermen's families raised the alarm, the Indian Coast Guard went to the island with boat and helicopter and tried to recover the bodies. They were met with a hail of arrows. The rotors of the helicopter hovering over the beach blew away sand and exposed the two bodies buried in a shallow grave. Rumours that the Andamanese are cannibals seem ineradicable among the less edicated Indians in the island. This time some people again "knew" that the to men had been roasted and eaten, but the discovery of the graves (if only from the air) once more gave the lie to such ideas - until next time.

Sentineli warriors investigate the beached boat of the dead fishermen

 

Attempts to recover the bodies of the two men have been suspended. The Andaman Islands police chief, Dharmendra Kumar, said that an operation might be mounted later. "Right now, there will be casualties on both sides," he is reported to have said. "The tribesmen are out in large numbers. We shall let things cool down and once the tribals move to the island's other end we will sneak in and bring back the bodies."

Environmental groups urged the authorities to leave the bodies and respect the three-mile exclusion zone thrown around the island.It would also be an additional and obviously needed disincentive to go fishing around the island if the culprits know that thir grave will be on the island if the Sentineli get hold of them.

One must also question the determination of local police and Coast Guard to stamp out illegal fishing around the island.

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 Last change 27 August 2006