At least five members of the Great Andamanese tribal group, an indigenous people of the Andaman archipelago, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), two people who follow the islands’ affairs, claimed.

“Seven people have tested positive. Five of them tribals and two are their non-tribal spouses,

It is safe to say that the original population of the Andaman and Nicobar islands consist of aboriginal indigenous people, i.e. tribal people. They have been dwelling in the forests and jungles of the islands for centuries, lead a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and appear to have lived in substantial isolation for thousands of years. The so called “civilians” or city/town dwellers only came later, earliest a few hundred years ago.

The Andamanese and Nicobarese can be split into two broad tribal groups mainly based on their place of origin. The Andaman Islands are home to four ‘Negrito’ tribes where as – the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese. Where as the Nicobar Islands are home to two ‘Mongoloid’ tribes – the Shompen and Nicobarese.

The ‘Negrito’ tribes are believed to have arrived in the islands from Africa up to 60,000 years ago. All are nomadic hunter-gatherers, hunting wild pig and monitor lizard, and catching fish with bows and arrows. They also collect honey, roots and berries from the forest.The ‘Mongoloid’ tribes probably came to the islands from the Malay-Burma coast several thousand years ago.

75 tribal groups have been categorised by the Ministry of Home Affairs as PVTGs. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs implements the Scheme of ‘Development of PVTGs’ exclusively for them.

Article 366 (25) of the Constitution provides a process to define Scheduled Tribes.