NEW DELHI: The lush green Andaman islands, where at least 3,000 people died and as many were missing after killer tsunamis struck, is a tropical paradise which India has just begun opening up to the outside world.
The remote archipelago lies 1,200 kilometres from mainland India and the chain is spread over 800 kilometres north to south. Blessed with miles of pristine beaches and a rich variety of animal life, New Delhi has carried out little development, intending to leave indigenous tribes people in peace.
The isolation and lack of infrastructure has left whole communities incommunicado after the giant waves struck on Sunday. "There are five or six islands where we have not established any contact at all," police chief Samsher Deol said Monday.
"At a very conservative estimate I would say that 3,000 people are dead and as many missing," he told NDTV news. Six hunter-gatherer tribes including the fearsome Sentinelese aborigines inhabit 38 of the 572 rain forested islands, living in seclusion from outside world for millennia.
India has protected the tribes from modern contact in the fear of bacterial contamination, and little was known of their fate. Shompen aborigines, numbering just 100, have occupied the Great Nicobar island for up to 60,000 years without being touched by modernity.
"Jarawas number around 300 but they are not as reclusive as the Shompens or the Sentinelese who occupy the North and East Sentinel islands," Andamans Deputy Commissioner Vinod Kumar said. -AFP
