‘Hands-off Sentinelese’

CONSERVATIONISTS: ‘ALLOW THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE TO LIVE THEIR LIVES’

Indian government encourages foreigners to visit its islands.

Bangkok

The suspected killing of an American missionary on a remote Indian island has sparked calls to better protect indigenous people from increasing pressure to free up their land for tourism, mines and highways.

John Allen Chau, 26, is believed to have been killed last week after travelling to North Sentinel – archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar, in the Bay of Bengal – to try to convert the tribe to Christianity.

The Sentinelese are generally considered the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world, and the Indian government has for years protected them by declaring the island off-limits to visitors.

But earlier this year, the government issued a notification exempting foreign nationals from needing special permits to visit more than two dozen islands, including North Sentinel and others inhabited by indigenous people.

Conservationists say the easing of restrictions could signal that these islands may be opened up for tourism, which would be dam- aging for the aboriginal people.

“A wealth of indigenous knowledge has already been lost because of intrusions, and trying to integrate them into our way of life, and the loss of traditional habitats,” said Manish Chandi, a senior researcher at Andaman Nicobar Environment Team.

“We need stricter enforcement of our laws for them to be truly effective,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. – Reuters