SENTINELESE

Subject: Environment / Social Issue

Context: Any exploitation of the North Sentinel Island of the Andamans for commercial and strategic gain would spell the death knell for its occupants, the Sentinelese, a most secluded, particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) who reside in complete isolation on the island, the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) has said.

Concept:

• In a policy document, which comes almost two years after American national John Allen Chau was allegedly killed by the Sentinelese on the island, the AnSI says the “right of the people to the island is non-negotiable”.
• The Sentinelese, with a population of about 50 to 100 on the North Sentinel Island, are not only among the most isolated of nearly 70 PVTGs across the country, but also among the five in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which include the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa, and the Shompens.
• This is the first detailed policy draft for the Sentinelese island, prepared at the request of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration.

Sentinelese

• The Sentinelese are a negrito tribe who live on the North Sentinel Island of the Andamans.
• The inhabitants are connected to the Jarawa on the basis of physical, as well as linguistic similarities. Their numbers are believed to be less than 150 and as low as 40.
• Based on carbon dating of kitchen middens by the Anthropological Survey of India, Sentinelese presence was confirmed in the islands to 2,000 years ago.
• Genome studies indicate that the Andaman tribes could have been on the islands even 30,000 years ago.

Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI)

• Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) is the apex Indian government organisation involved in anthropological studies and field data research for human and cultural aspects.
• Operating under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, it is headquartered in Kolkata.
• Anthropological Research in India was founded 1945 in Varanasi and shifted to the Indian Museum at Calcutta in 1948.