If they agree to marry each other, they become a couple. A suitable girl is found, and the young pair is sent to the jungle to live together for a few days. The community then washes the boy with boar blood and he is considered ready for marriage. He has to kill enough wild boars so that the length of their severed heads arranged in a line matches his height. It has to be done without using any force.ĭon’t miss out on ET Prime stories! Get your daily dose of business updates on WhatsApp.In the Onge tribe indigenous to the Andaman and Nicobar islands, when a boy turns 16, he is sent off alone to hunt in the jungle. The authority has to observe the movements of the tribe and reach the island in motorboats, not in helicopters. It’s likely that the body is half buried in the sand. A helicopter can land on the beach, but it’s noisy and hence avoidable. The authorities will need a strategy and to choose a timing when the Sentinelese are not around. But the Sentinelese never permitted it.ĭo you think it would be possible for the authorities to retrieve the mortal remains of Chau? They made us sit and then they sang and danced. The Jarwa tribe, on the other hand, allowed us to go inside their territory first in April 1974. But seeing the Onge, the Sentinelese were even more angry. On one occasion, we took two Onge persons (one of the four major tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands). They constantly talked with us, but we could not understand their language. But they did not allow us to go inside the island. It was the first time the Sentinelese took coconuts from our hands. My experience is that the women don’t use any bows and arrows only menfolk use those. During our later visits, we also saw teenagers. So they allowed us to drop gifts but made objections the moment we tried to enter their island. Both men and women used to come out and collect those gifts. From a distance, we used to give them gifts like coconut, iron rods, utensils, etc, which they liked a lot. Over time, we developed a strategy that they did not object to. Perhaps it was to insult us.Įxcept our first visit, we never walked around on the island. They would make various gestures including showing their back. As our boat reached the island, they would come and confront us. In the 1970s and 80s, we had a series of visits to North Sentinel island. What happened during your subsequent visits? How did you know that the Sentinelese don’t welcome outsiders? We estimated that about 40-50 people must have been living in that colony. For me, seeing the settlement of 18 huts and the goods that they had kept there was itself a big discovery. We kept some gifts there: coconuts, plastic utensils, aluminium, etc. Personally, I was not keen on getting their stuff, but the policemen who went with us picked up bows, arrows, spears, etc. One of us caught a glimpse of one Sentinelese man, but we came back without meeting them or without having any incident.ĭid you bring back any stuff from the island for research purposes? Those were open lean-to huts made of tree branches and leaves with no doors or windows. They don’t collect any stuff and keep it in their homes. There were bows, arrows and spears all around. Those were occupied, not abandoned, ones. After walking in the forests for a kilometre or so, I saw an open area with 18 huts. We first spotted a footmark and followed it to enter deep into the jungles. In my estimate, there are 80-100 Sentinelese now. North Sentinel is a small island of about 20 square miles. About 20 of us, including local administrators, policemen and Naval personnel, took a small ship. The idea was to explore the North Sentinel island and make friends with the tribe there. It was a joint venture of the Anthropological Survey of India and the Andaman administration. I was in-charge of the regional centre of the Anthropological Survey of India in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. You actually moved around in the island, right? Let us now go back to the 1960s when you ventured into the North Sentinel island. He should have returned after they signalled him. But this gentleman took too much of a risk and possibly ignored their warnings and ventured into the island. They give enough warnings the outsiders must respect that and return. So, anyone who intrudes into their land must not go beyond what they agree with.
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