Sir

This has reference to the letter by Mr S Balakrishnan from Kodambakkam, Chennai published in Andaman Chronicle dated 11/12/2010 under the caption “Let us leave the Jarawa to the care of Mother Nature”

 

It is shocking to read Mr S Balakrishnan of Chennai is imposing his thoughts on the Islanders. It is not a question of what one person from a metropolitan city thinks. The question is what the Islanders need. Mr Balakrishnan wants the ATR closed because he during 1979 took a journey to Mayabunder by ferry and found it quite pleasant. With due regards I want to inform him that the world had moved much farther after 1979 and that bad weather conditions often force the ferries to be called off every now and then, leaving the Islanders in the lurch.

 

The irony is almost everybody talks about Jarawas dwindling after coming in contact with civilized, ignoring the glaring example of our Nicobari tribe who flourished after adopting mainstream way of life. There are Doctors, Teachers, Officers from the Nicobari tribe. Such a development had been possible only because they adopted mainstream way of life, got educated and eventually flourished.

 

Further, we human beings were also cave dwellers, hunters, gatherers like Jarawas. With time and freedom, we slowly learnt to utilize natural resources, modified them to meet our needs and made our life comfortable. Had we been prohibited to invent the wheel, could we have achieved the prosperity that we boast of today? We enjoy all the luxury and comfort of modern living at the same time advocate Jarawas should remain confined in the forests, isolated from mainstream. Are we not depriving them of the basic amenities that democracy guarantee to its citizens?

 

It is a fact that Jarawas are more than eager to join the mainstream. If we are unable to complement them, let us not create roadblocks in their way to the mainstream.