The road to 'civilisation' is paved with bad intentions.
Infestation, in'fes•ta'tion n. the state of being invaded or
overrun by pests or parasites. Do people inhabit the lands and
forests that they have been living in for thousands of years or
do they infest them? The answer to this no-brainer of a question
might well lie at the root of the problem being faced by the
Jarawas in the Andaman Islands today. The video showing the
Jarawa women dancing on the Andaman Trunk Road, apparently for
food, is just the latest manifestation of a malaise that is so
deep that one might well argue that there is no hope for the
Jarawa. In 1965, the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of
India, published an important document related to the Andaman &
Nicobar Islands: ‘The Report by the Inter Departmental Team on
Accelerated Development Programme for A&N Islands.' The contents
of the report and their purpose were evident in the title itself
— it laid out the roadmap for the development of these islands
and set the stage for w