Monday, January 9, 2012

Tourists pay for jungle drive which treats primitive tribe like zoo animals


Hundreds of visitors to the remote Andaman Islands, north of the Equator in the Indian Ocean, queue up each day at dawn to drive through a jungle reserve set aside for the Jarawa tribe.
They then toss scraps of food to the half-naked natives, who only started making contact with the outside world in the late 1990s, and command them to dance





The 403 tribe members should, in theory, be protected by strict laws on the Indian-run island. A sign at the gate to the 'enclosure' states: 'Don’t give any eatables to the Jarawas.
'Don’t indulge in photography, videography. Otherwise you will be liable for legal action ­including seizure of camera.'
But tourists can pay touts £350 to take part in the convoy, with local police taking a £200 cut and turning a blind eye to the exploitation.
Visitors are regularly seen throwing bananas and ­biscuits to tribe's people waiting at the side of the track. Similar scenes are seen across Britain as people feed animals in a zoo.
Photojournalist Gethin Chamberlain uncovered the tour, which is not advertised but sold under the pretext of a visit to local caves, in the islands' capital Port Blair.
He joined a tour run by Rajesh Vyas who said the tours were 'very popular' with the British



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