‘Resort group with Hollywood clients endangering Indian tribe’

LONDON - Critics of a hotel project in the Andamans say the plan seems deliberately aimed at putting tourists at close range to the threatened Jarawa tribals, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Jarawas are meant to be protected by the Indian government, but have come under increasing pressure from encroachments into their natural habitat in recent years. Their numbers have dwindled today to a mere 320.

Now, the London-based Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of indigenous people across the world, has hit out at plans to build a luxury resort at the edge of the Jarawas’ protected forest.

The company building the resort, Barefoot - founded by former London investment banker Samit Sawhney - says it is socially responsible.

Resorts built by Barefoot have included such high-profile clients as Hollywood star Kate Winslet.

But a Survival International researcher told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper the location of the resort - Collinpur - was chosen because of its proximity to the Jarawa reserve, so that high-spending visitors can have the thrill of seeing the Jarawa.

“One has to wonder why else Barefoot is building a hotel so close to the Jarawa, if not to allow tourists to intrude into their lives. The mystique of the Jarawa is part of the reason for putting it there, Sophie Grig said.

“Otherwise it’s hard to see why the company picked this location - the beach there is a poor one.”

“The resort will also bring an influx of workers and settlers to the area, increasing the pressure on the Jarawa and their land, exposing them to diseases to which they have no immunity, and to alcohol, which has ravaged other tribes,” she added.

Barefoot said it will discourage guests from entering the reserve.

Akshay Rawat, the company’s head of business development, said the Jarawa lived some distance from the new resort.

“We will make sure that we don’t harm the environment and don’t attract Jarawas. The resort will be kept small and simple,” Rawat told the newspaper.

Andaman and Nicobar Lieutenant-Governor Bhopinder Singh also insisted that the administration was determined to protect the tribe.

“We will not allow any harm to come to them,” he said despite pressure from businessmen to begin flights from nearby Phuket, a popular resort in Thailand.

Survival International has led a long-standing Jarawa campaign and says despite a 2002 Supreme Court order for the closure of a road running through Jarawa land, it remains open, and poaching and exploitation are posing increasingly serious dangers.