Last member of Andamanese tribe dies

Feb 4, 2010, 11:28 GMT

New Delhi - The Bo, a tribe that once lived on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is now extinct since the passing away Thursday of its last surviving member.

Boa Sr, who died last week aged around 85, was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese tribe group, once comprising 10 distinct tribes including the Bo, non-profit organization Survival International said in a press release.

According to anthropologists, the Bo have lived in the Andaman Islands for about 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on earth.

Boa Sr was the last speaker of the Bo language.

The Great Andamanese now number just 52, down from 5,000 when the British colonized the Andaman Islands in 1858. Most were killed or died of diseases contracted from the colonizers.

The British captured many of the tribe members and kept them in a special home in an attempt to civilize them, Survival International's release said. None of the 150 children born in this captivity lived beyond the age of 2.

The surviving Great Andamanese depend largely on the Indian government for food and shelter.

Boa Sr told linguist Anvita Abbi that she felt the neighbouring Jarawa tribe, who have so far escaped the threat of extinction, were lucky to live in the forest away from the settlers who now occupy much of the archipelago.

Abbi, a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, said she knew Boa Sr for many years. 'Since she was the only speaker [of Bo] she was very lonely as she had no one to converse with.'

Abbi said over years she was witness to the loss of a remarkable culture and language.

'With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory. Boa's loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands,' Survival International director Stephen Corry said.