Vikramaditya
Port Blair, May 20: Obstructing of Traffic by Jarawa youths at Andaman Trunk Road is slowly becoming a major threat for ATR passengers. It has become a daily practice of armed Jarawa youths to obstruct vehicles at ATR and demand Tobacco, Water Bottles and other food items.
In many cases even children of Jarawa Community comes infront of vehicles to stop the vehicles forcefully, which might result in a major accident in coming future.
Today a group of Jarawa reportedly came infront of a SUV and demanded food and Tobacco, when the driver did not stop the SUV the Jarawa youths, vandalized the SUV and broke front and rear bumper guards.
“I was sitting inside the SUV with my two little daughters and was feeling totally helpless. They were literally tossing my SUV in order to break the bumper guards. There were no guards around,” alleged the SUV owner.
Such conflicts are not new in ATR, Andaman Sheekha had reported about such incidents in past too, but now it seems that aggression among Jarawa youths is increasing day by day.
Since a long time people are demanding more AAJVS and police guards with every Convoy of ATR but Administration seems to be totally unaware of these developments.
When contacted the Director of Andaman Tribal Welfare Department, Mr. Govind Ram said that there is a need to review the Jarawa Policy of Andaman.
“There is a need to revisit the policy of keeping Jarawa away. Because of increasing number of tourist vehicles the convoy becomes too long and hence it becomes impossible to guard such long convoys. The tourists should take the pleasant sea route to Baratang, which is a solution to this problem,” Mr. Govind Ram added.
One can argue that ATR is a threat to Jarawa tribes and people who are entering inside the Jarawa reserve area are actually doing the damage but when Government is allowing movement of convoy at present, then it becomes responsibility of Government to ensure safety of ATR passengers and also Jarawa Tribes.
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