BJP gives tonnes of food to tsunami-hit Andamans

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BJP gives tonnes of food to tsunami-hit Andamans :

 

Port Blair, Dec.31 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun

shipping tons of food to the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands,

chief of the party's relief committeem, Jaswant Singh told a news

conference here on Friday.

 

The announcement brings much relief to the devastated region after

the government assured that the dwindling aboriginal population

inhabiting the region is safe as most lived in jungles, far away

from the coast hit by a devastating tsunami.

 

Experts had feared that some Stone Age tribal people, who have been

living on the far-flung archipelago for thousands of years, could be

on the verge of extinction after the killer waves that have killed

more than 120,000 people across Asia. The Andaman and Nicobar group

is a cluster of more than 550 islands, of which only about three

dozen are inhabited.

 

The island chain is home to about six tribes of Mongoloid and

Negrito origin. Many of the indigenous people are semi-nomadic and

subsist on hunting with spears, bows and arrows as well as fishing

and gathering fruit and roots. They still cover themselves with tree

bark or leaves.

 

More than 13,000 people are dead or are feared to have died in India

from the tsunami, but rescuers are still struggling to assess the

toll in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Officials said more than

6,000 people were feared dead in the island chain alone, which is

closer to Myanmar and Indonesia than the Indian mainland and is home

to more than 350,000 people.

 

Around 30,000 of the islands' total population is tribal, the

majority Nicobarese. The rest are smaller groups. Some like the

Great Andamanese are already down to 30 people while others like the

Shompen number between 200-250. (ANI)