» The last of the Jarawas: Living on handouts (Letter from the Andamans)
Port Blair |Sunday, 2009 2:05:36 PM IST
As we drove from this capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands towards the Mayabandar forest reserve, four Jarawa children blocked the road with bamboo poles and demanded "paan" (betel leaf) and "biscut" (biscuits) in broken Hindi. The tribe with its population now down to 260 is getting dangerously dependent on handouts.