Order follows Andaman and Nicobar Administration’s January 17 notification
The Supreme Court on Monday banned tourists from taking the Andaman Nicobar Trunk Road that passes through the area where the Jarawas live. The road is used to reach the Limestone Cave.
The court has already banned all commercial and tourism activities within a five-km radius of the Jarawa Tribal Reserve on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Gokhale passed the order, taking on record the Andaman and Nicobar Administration’s January 17 notification to comply with the court directives issued last year.
Except 30 villages notified in the schedule, the notification declares a buffer zone of an area up to a five-km radius, adjacent and contiguous to the Jarawa Tribal Reserve Area — starting from the Constance Bay in South Andaman to Lewis Inlet Bay in Middle Andaman. No person shall operate any commercial or tourist establishment directly or indirectly in the buffer zone. Furthermore, no one shall carry out any activity, which may be prejudicial to the safety, security and interests of the Jarawas in any of the settlement villages.
The Bench directed that only government officials, persons residing in the reserve and vehicles carrying essential commodities for the Jarawas would be allowed on the Trunk Road.
Justice Singhvi told counsel, “You provide helicopter service to… tourists to reach the cave as there is a total ban in the buffer area.”
“File affidavit”
The Bench directed the Andaman and Nicobar Administration to file an affidavit, along with a detailed map indicating the areas of Jarawas and settlement of others. It posted the matter for further hearing on February 26.
The October 30, 2007 notification, imposing the ban, was quashed by the Calcutta High Court.
On an appeal, the Supreme Court, stayed the order and asked the administration to strictly enforce the notification till it was considered by the court. This was followed by the January 17 notification.
The SC verdict is appreciable as it concurs with the demands of the UN
Committee on Human Rights of Indigenous People. The court had rightly
stated that only vehicles carrying essential commodities for the
Jarawas would be allowed on the road, a part of which runs through the
Jarawa habitat. The bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Gokhale also
wanted to know whether the A & N Administration intends to keep the
primitive tribes in isolation or tobe assimilated to the mainstream,
while banning the plying of tourist vehicles through Jarawa tribe’s
habitat.
It is worth to note that the original SC order in 2002 had auxiliary
clauses asking for putting in place an inner line area system to
prevent the influx of people, stopping commercial timber extraction,
removal of encroachments, phasing out of sand mining from the island's
beaches, use of appropriate construction materials etc. which are not
to be ignored by the A & N Administration but to be strictly abided.
‘Survival International’, the campaigner group had submitted a letter
to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) prior to their summit held in Geneva in 2012 pointing fingers
to the failure of the A & N Administration in implementing the SC
order for closing the ATR. During the same time British MPs signed a
parliamentary motion expressing concern over reports that tourists
were taken in coaches to goggle at members of the Jarawa tribe, who
were treated like attractions in a ‘human safari park’. ‘The Observer’
had released a video showing the involvement of police and army
officials that ostensibly showed ‘human safaris’. It is to be noted
that ‘The Observer’ had shown the clippings of a video shot on a
mobile phone which depicted half nude girls dancing before a Police
Officer! Nobody knows what happened to the Show-Cause Notice served on
A&N Administration by NCSC which took serious note of these videos.
At this juncture let me mention the excerpt of Dr. R.K.
Bhattacharchaya, former Director of the Anthropological Survey of
India, when he compellingly expressed in the report that was submitted
to the Calcutta High Court in 2004- “ ATR is like a public
thoroughfare through a private courtyard… In the whole of human
history, we find that the dominant group for their own advantage has
always won over the minorities, not always paying attention to the
issue of ethics. Closure of the ATR would perhaps be the first gesture
of goodwill on part of the dominant towards an acutely marginalized
group almost on the verge of extinction”. I could quote this from the
OP-ED:'Because Andaman's forests are Jarawa infested …' by Pankaj
Sekhsaria in ‘The Hindu’ dated 19 January, 2012
ATR cuts through South Andaman where the Jarawa reserve are located,
linking Port Blair with Diglipur in North Andaman. The road brings the
tribe into regular contact with settlers and tourists who treat the
Jarawa like animals in a human safari park. Poachers enter the Jarawa’s
forest, hunting the animals the tribe relies on. Poachers entry creats
valance, sexual abuse and other exploitation on the secluded tribe.
Jarawas are highly vulnerable to diseases and virus carried by the urban
population and their survival as a tribe is at risk.
The entire world had shown fingers to India when in January, 2012 a
video showing a Jarawa women dancing to the tunes of the voguish globe
that made news in print and electronic media. The arguments and
counter arguments could reveal the real one of the organized violation
of a Supreme Court Order. When the A& n Island’s Administration had
permitted to vehicular movement through the 'Andaman Trunk Road'(ATR)
conveniently presuming that the SC order of 2002 never the shut of the
road , still opted to formally appeal the same in March 2003 which
lead to the appointment of the Central Empowered Committee which too
manifestly reiterated that the SC order did instruct the closure of
ATR in those terrain where Jarawa tribes are inhibited which is known
as Jarawa Tribal Reserve. Thus it was evidently proved that the A& N
Administration have been violating the SC order all these years.
A very good and essential step ordered by our esteemed court.
This is a classic example of damage done to our forests by the roads inside the
forest.
When the collective wisdom of administration, settlers, tourists failed to protect the
forests and the tribals, judiciary is the only hope in the country.
But how many such cases go to the courts?
The plight of innumerable tribal displaced and abandoned by the guardian and politicians in various sates of India needs prime attention. It is indeed sad that in independent India, the tribal were orphaned because of the nationalization of their habitat - the very forest ! At the same time land-grabbers, under the guise of plantation, managed to get their booty legalized, thanks to the political and bureaucratic crooks ! Now they are up in arms with the Gadgil committee reports, which I am sure will get shelved eternally!
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