In Quest Of The Forgotten

Another reclusive tribe, the Shompens, have become a cause for concern. Enough to make Lieutenant General B.S. Thakur, GOC-in-C, Andaman and Nicobar, order a special mission to the Great Nicobar island to trace the whereabouts of what many in the military establishment fear may be a lost tribe.

The Shompens are still isolated from the relief efforts and their fate depends on whether the landing parties dispatched by the Integrated Relief Command locates them. "All we have right now are two members of the Shompen tribe who managed to reach Campbell Bay and were evacuated along with the others. We have identified a strip on the island where we can land a small party including the two Shompen tribesmen. Through them we hope to establish contact and only then we will be in a position to ascertain their condition," Lt Gen Thakur told Outlook.

The mainland media has been flush with reports that the tribes have all survived. But Outlook has learnt that the search party still has no clue about the Shompens who had all along lived on the southern-most tip of the Great Nicobar island. As it is, even before the tsunami struck, their population had already dwindled to about 200 and their numbers had been going down with each year.

Believed to be residing in the Alexandra and Galathia river areas and also on the east coast of the island, the Shompens have always isolated themselves from the outside world. Unlike the Nicobaris who have become completely integrated with the outside world, the Shompens are of Mongoloid stock. Some among them who are smaller are called Mawa Shompens. Authorities have recorded several attacks on the Mawa Shompens by the other majority Shompens in the past. These attacks, however, had come down in recent years

Unlike the Shompens, the other tribes—the Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Sentinelese and Onges—are all of Negrito racial stock and dominate the Andaman group of islands. Which is why when sections of the media reported that the Jarawas were fine, it did not surprise anyone at Port Blair. The Jarawas live on the middle and north Andaman islands which were not as severely affected by the tsunami waves as the Nicobar group of islands.

Officials here are still hopeful that the various tribes have survived because they, living in the interiors of the islands, are in possession of knowledge of the weather and therefore were better prepared to deal with natural disasters. Officials point out that with tribal reserves being encroached upon at an alarming rate, they have more to fear from contact with the outside world.

In fact, a Supreme Court order of May 7, 2002, had asked the Andaman and Nicobar administration to evict the encroachers within three months. While the implementation of the order has been questioned by various quarters, it took a tsunami to renew interest in a people forgotten by time.

The armed forces have kept the operation to find the Shompens a secret. This is because the focus of the western media has been unremitting on the tribes. And with many of the islands still inaccessible and communication links yet to be restored, the armed forces cannot give any definite information. The search goes on.