5th May 2013

Tribal civil rights group Survival International is calling on visitors to avoid India's Andaman Islands, as part of a campaign to protect the remote Jarawa tribe

The organisation has written to over 200 travel companies and websites in 11 countries urging them to stop their tours to the Andaman Islands. The move follows years of controversy surrounding the privacy of the indigenous Jarawa tribe.

The dispute centres on a road traversing the Jarawa's inhabited land that has become increasingly popular as a vantage point from which tourists can view and interact with the tribe. Tourists have taken to touring the road, throwing food, and taking photographs of the tribe. In an extreme case last year, video footage emerged showing Jarawa women who had been told to dance in exchange for food.

Survival Internationals Director Stephen Corry said: The Andaman government is arguing that the road is a necessary lifeline for the north of the islands. Its nonsense: in fact theres no reason for the road. The route by boat is faster, more convenient and cheaper for islanders, so providing an alternative sea route is better for locals, tourists, and the Jarawa alike. There will be no end to these degrading human safaris until tourists stop using the road, and well continue the boycott until that happens.

The tribe has inhabited the Andaman Islands officially part of India for several thousand years and, until recently, had little or no contact with the outside world. Today fewer than 400 tribespeople are left. Survival Internationals campaign comes The move comes two months after India reversed a ban on 'human safaris' on the islands. This 'interim order', implemented in January, reduced the number of vehicles entering the Jarawa reserve by around two thirds.

Survival has said it will continue to campaign for a boycott until tourists are banned from the road through the Jarawa forest and an alternative route is put into place. They are also appealing to independent travellers, citing over 200,000 people visit the islands each year, asking them to pledge not to travel to the islands until the demands are met.

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Boycott of the Andaman Islands launched